how much does SEO cost in India (In-depth)

How much does SEO cost in India? The budget is crucial for your business. At the same time, it is essential to get quality management. The same cases are fit for your internet marketing. This marketing needs SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for visibility on the internet. Here you get the budget requirement for getting SEO quality services. You get different types of logical and practical examples to know it. It will help to know the balance between quality and budget. You need to go carefully throughout the article to get the most out of it. Let’s start.

First, you need to know what is SEO and why it is important for your business.

What is SEO

SEO is a short form of Search Engine Optimization. It means optimizing your business for Search Engines. It helps for better visibility because of optimization. It has two types based on applying techniques

White Hat SEO:

It includes all the best practices for SEO. Here, Keyword optimization, image optimization, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO are done properly.

Black Hat SEO:

.Here invalid practices are done to get many advantages. People use keyword stuffing (excessive use of keywords), spammy backlinks (getting links from unnatural positions), Technical doorway pages, etc. to get a quick advantage. These may help for quick ranking for a short period. These causes ultimately website bans. You can know more about which SEO techniques should be avoided for avoiding any banning.

Why that is discussed? Because you have to always remind to avoid Black Hat SEO. Now quickly know why it is important.

Why SEO is important for your website?

Let’s say you write content for your business without knowing about SEO. Therefore, your default keyword is “reduce picture pixels”. This keyword may not be searched by people.

Another side, you know that your audience searches for a “free image compression tool“. You optimize for it and it has a better chance to get more visibility.

You get a glimpse. There are many factors like local SEO, link building, etc. here. You will know more about it. Why you are knowing about this? The more you are efficient to know about White Hat SEO, the better your selection for SEO service. Now come to the discussion of the actual topic.

How much does SEO cost in India?

For one line answer, Quality SEO can cost anywhere between INR 3000 to 50000 per month depending upon your package selection. The more you go with the quality and larger package, the more you have to increase the budget and vice versa.

Now, the question comes when you need the budget of INR 3000 and when for INR 50000? There are no hard rules for it. If you need just a single service, you may end up investing 400 rupees only. Here investing term suits better rather than spending. If you go for investment in quality, it will return far more than that.

Then how do you know you will get quality services or not? It is by looking at their included package’s reputation, and your requirement. First, come to the included factors. It is essential to know these factors to select quality services. Let’s dive into this.

What do SEO packages include?

It can have multiple factors. Here, all crucial elements will be discussed. It will be Based on 4 major points. These are –

A. On-page SEO

B. Off-page SEO

C. Technical SEO

D. Other factors

A. On-page SEO

On-page SEO factors are based on your website performance which is solely dependent upon you. Therefore, in many cases, it is handled through self-working because of a low budget. For self-working, you have to read more deeply and practice regularly. Look at the major factors.

1) Publishing the quality content:

You are heard that content is king. Whether you are in blogs, news, or selling product, you have to publish quality content. Ultimately user will decide whether you will rank in SERP (Search Engine Result Page) or not.

2) Keyword research:

It is the next crucial element for on-page optimization. As a reminder, keyword means which people search in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc search engines. Here “How does SEO cost in India” is a keyword for writing quality content. It includes searcher intent, Keyword difficulty ( how much difficult or easy to rank), suitable keywords for a particular website, etc. For example, for a new website, it is better to target long-tail keywords (easy difficulty) for fast ranking. If you want, you can know an in-depth guide for keyword research here.

3) Keyword optimization:

It is solely based on keyword placement throughout the content. The most important place are the title, meta description, permalink, introduction, headings, alt tag, etc. For complete knowledge, you can visit these 14 areas for perfect keyword optimization for SEO. These are major topics. Therefore proper links are placed so you can visit them whenever you want more.

3) Infographics and image optimization:

Infographics are rich images that are very attractive and engaging. The big brand has many images which round on social media. There is also a need to optimize the image properly so it can rank. Mainly high-quality infographics with the keyword in the image URL, alt text, and image title help with it.

4) Video creation and optimization:

These days attaching video also plays an important role. Making high-quality video and optimizing it in the content have greater advantages and engagement.

B. Off-page SEO:

It includes reputation and brand awareness of the website. It includes activities outside of your website. Look at the different parts.

5) Link building:

It is considered the utmost important factor by many websites.  When another website link to your website name or content is known as a backlink. In link-building processes getting high-quality backlinks is included. Remember, black hat SEO is permanent here. If you are indifferent about this knowledge you may get up spammy links and ultimately be banned from the website later. Link building works when the link comes from authoritative websites following the best practices. For example providing links with descriptive text, natural positions, relevant content, etc. The descriptive text refers to the hyperlink text where the user can understand the linked page by seeing the text.

6) Brand building:

It refers to how much your brand is known to people. Spreading your information on different platforms, using ads, etc are different techniques for it.

7) Public relations:

How much is your website, company, person, etc connected to other reputed companies, people, etc? It helps to create events of conferences, podcasts, etc.

8) Social media:

It is a very prominent factor nowadays. In content two major traffic is Organic traffic from search engine and social traffic. Marketers give their prominence one over the other in both cases. Look if it is included in the package or not.

9) Forum:

Here queries are answered in some engaging platforms. You may know about Quora. It is a highly engaging platform for discussion. Many packages will include answering some questions in quora. It helps to get regular traffic, brand reputation, etc.

10) Guest posting:

Here marketers post the articles on Guest posting sites. It helps to get traffic as well as a relevant backlink. You can do a guest post yourself for branding. Another side, you can choose it within a package.

On-page and Off-page SEO are broadly covered by services. Whether technical SEO also plays a major role in the ranking. Look at some elements.

C. Technical SEO:

11) Site speed:

Site speed is a very important factor. If your page load speed is less, people will leave your site quickly. Reducing elements, optimizing images and videos, deferring JavaScript, etc are applied to achieve it. It costs relatively more as many things come under developer work.

12) Schema Markup:

It uses to signal search engines that particular information is important. It helps to produce rich results. If any service provides the schema markup, it can generate more value.

Now come many other factors.

D. Other factors

The more familiar you are with these areas, the more you can choose a well-fit service. Look at diversified but crucial things for your business.

13) Spam Link Removal:

Sometimes spam link generates without our intention. Regular link checking is an important part of this concern. If any spam link is discovered, that is removed through two processes –

a) Informing the website about removing the particular link. If it is not worked then do the next final step.

b) Disavow the link from Google Search Console.

14) Google Manual Penalty Removal:

It is the signal of the worst condition. Any primary offense like getting a copyrighted strike, applying black hat SEO, etc causes “Manual Action” from Google. It affects ranking drastically. It is a wise step to remove it as much as possible. These case charges may be high for dealing with a sensitive topic.

15) Website audit:

Here an overview of the website is taken. It helps to understand the problem, loopholes, and performance of the website. You can enter your website in the “Seobility” tool to get it for free from one website.

16) Lead analysis:

Here continuous auditing of sales performance is analyzed. It may be through A/B testing, asking for feedback from customers, etc. It helps to understand properly whether the SEO strategy is working or not in this process.

17) Advertising:

Here ad more experts set the criteria so the information reaches the relevant audience. It helps to get leads. It depends upon the package. Some popular ads are Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, etc.

18) Traffic analysis:

Analyzing the traffic helps you work only right direction. Here which, where, when, and how traffic comes are analyzed. It can be done through Google analytics, search console, Site kit plug-in, etc. Producing content like that works best for business as it has already been tested.

19) competitor audit:

Here a list of the competitor is listed. Their content, SEO, Backlink, etc strategy are analyzed. It makes it easy to enter the market with the right context rather than a random strategy.

20) Press release submission:

Here content is published for brand awareness, links, traffic, etc reason. Service with more budget may include this package.

21) Blogger outreach for a guest post, backlink, etc:

Here SEO person contacts another website through relation building, cold mail, social messages, etc. They pitch for guest posting on high-quality websites. Another popular reason is to pitch better content to be linked on the other website through a particular strategy. For example, A website links an article on B’s website. You create far more qualitative content than the article on B’s website. After that, you are pitched to A website for linking the content. Its success rate is relatively high as both are benefited

22) Optimizing for local SEO:

It is a growing factor in SEO. In the digital era, businesses coming online rapidly. It will even more easy by optimizing SEO for local businesses. Here business is listed in many local business directories. Google My Business is the most popular one. Here business titles, keywords in the description, reviews, questions and answers, etc way businesses for local SEO will be improved.

You knew the main things about the SEO service. Now it is easy for you to understand what they offer.

Now an important thing is from whom you accept the service. In this competitive market, there are a huge number of freelancers, employees, SEO services, etc. to offer you their service.

You can understand it only when you know how much SEO takes time to produce an effect. Without complicating by sharing huge information let’s conclude it roughly.

For a new website, it may take 2 to 12 months to notice the effect. wait! I know what is rounding in your mind. It is good to know a little detail so you are also not part of the wrong service. Wrong service? yes, SEO matter is tricky. One can promise you and prove you to rank on a little time even with white hat SEO. But this rank will not help your website to grow. Let’s clear it up in a few sentences.

SEO effects depend upon keyword difficulty. If a topic is very less competitive ( known as the long tail keyword), the ranking can be possible within less time. On a new website, it may work in 3 months.

If it is a medium-difficult keyword, it can take 4 to 8 months to produce an effect. If the keyword is highly difficult it may produce results after 8 months. It needs a high strategy and is difficult to be guaranteed to place on the first page.

So, look at their eyes and services for ranking on which types of keywords and within which time. Now, it’s time to choose among freelancers, employees, etc. It is even more beautifully presented in terms of service duration.

Service Selection based on duration

Mainly three types of services are shown. These are –

1) Short and single-time contract:

This service is accepted for a single time. After finishing the contract no further connection is offered. It is mainly related to freelancing services. Let’s say you hired a freelancer from the “Fiver”, “Freelancer” etc platforms. He/She writes content with proper SEO optimization. Another side, a freelancer offered you the required backlink services for this particular content. A freelancer can also offer both. Once the work is done, the service is disconnected. Here you have to carefully select the freelancer so your budget should invest in the right hand.

2) Hourly-based contact:

Here people charges according to the investing hour. Is this worth it? Surely, if the person is an expert in a particular field. It is better to finish any particular exact work within 10-20 hour rather than extending it for one month for no reason.

3) Result-oriented long-term contact:

Here a month, three months, Six months, etc agreements are placed. It includes generally large things as you knew in the above parts. Here service providers have enough time to prove their strategy works or not. You are also more confident to take service from their site for further or not. Now the last types.

4) Hire SEO professional full-time employee:

It is one of the safest parts for SEO implications. When you keep a fixed employee of SEO professionals, they have responsibility. They cannot provide excuses for their surroundings or enough time. If you hire a good professional, their liability will scale your business up.

How to hire an SEO professional

In today’s complex market, you have to carefully choose an SEO professional. Here are some tips to a

1) You are being explained the schedule of the work and why it will work.

2) They did for their website for which you are promised. For example, If they promise to rank 1 in SERP, look for their website is ranked for it or not.

3) They have real reviews and the number of negative reviews is very less.

4) They can explain their practical experience through case studies, work samples, etc.

5) They use only white hat SEO and keep their distance for purchasing random backlinks, low-quality guest posting, etc. You can get a clue it from their samples,

6) Their talking will be professional, welcome, and interested to provide you with the progress report on a timely basis.

Apart from that, they will surely ask some questions to provide the best result. These are –

1) What is the current ranking of your website?

2) How many competitive keywords you are wanted to target?

3) The total number of keywords you want to rank from their service.

4) They will explain how much effort it takes to pull your website from the current position to the expected position.

Where to find SEO services

There are many places you can find it. Four major places are discussed.

1) Job websites for employees:

If you are looking for an employee, list the job on the job website. Provide clear descriptions, requirements, skills, etc. Share an estimated salary that fits your budget. Check their experience and result-oriented action. Hire the employee and check the progress report from time to time.

2) From Social Media:

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc are hubs for SEO services. You can take service from freelancers or service companies. Check their portfolio and success stories. Choose one among them that best fits your criteria.

3) From FIver, Upwork, Freelancer, etc:

Here are many experienced people you can find. It is relatively safer if you can check the profile properly. Look at their reviews, Clients’ feedback, etc. You can hire them directly through FIver. In another case, you can pitch your project in “Freelancer”, “Upwork” etc. People and companies will pitch you. Choose the one which is the best fit for you.

4) SEO services expert websites:

It is mostly recommended. Here you can get several services. You can choose according to your need. You can negotiate them. By checking their review, case studies, and proven ranking strategy you can select them for your service.

Now come to the rough overview of SEO costs in India.

Overview of costs of different SEO services

SEO costs depend upon types and numbers of keywords, amount of effort, etc. Anyway, you will get an overview like that you can make a proper estimation of the budget. Take a tour of SEO services offered by different websites.

1) Unosearch:

Unosearch SEO post is currently (during writing) ranking as the first SERP result. In the below image, you can see basic services cost Rs. 3500 per month.

Credit – Screenshot from Unosearch website

2) Areinfotech:

Areinfotech SEO post also ranks first SERP page. Their view about SEO cost is as follows:

1) Approximate $100 for 5-20 keyword difficulty.

2) Approximate $100-250 for 20-40 keyword difficulty.

3) More than $250 for >40 keyword difficulty.

Look at their package.

Credit – Screenshot from Areinfotech website

3) Rankon technologies:

Rankon technologies SEO post also ranks in 1st SERP page. You can check the package in detail on their website. It has broad service. Look at the below.

Credit – Screenshot from Rankon technologies

Here 5 keywords can be targeted with 15,000 rupees. 25 keywords with many more services can get in 40,000 rupees.

4) Expert web world:

Expert web world SEO posts also rank in the first SERP page. Here you can show 5 keywords for Rs. 5000 per month and 60 keywords for Rs. 45000 per month.

An SEO post of Xtremeads also ranks on the 1st SERP page. Here you can see the minimum duration is 6 months. That is the case where companies are unable to excuse the time limitation. You can also see 16000 Rs. for 20 keywords in the SEO package.

7) Fiver projects:

Here you can go at different prices. Many freelancers also provide enough quality services at a cheap rate. You have to invest time to understand these platforms. According to the amount of service they can agree with 1000 Rs to 30000 Rs for a month.

8) Employee:

The average monthly salary for SEO in India is 20.000 per month or 2.5 lahks per year. It was also found to be employees with 10,000 per month. Although those who have 5-8 years of experience in the SEO field possess an average salary of 30,000 to 50000 per month. What can be the complete range for it? SEO  employee salary in India possesses between 1 lakh to 11 lakh rupees per year.

9) Paid internships:

It is another viable option. If you want to teach people SEO, the money can cost relatively less. They will learn SEO from your company and grow their career. You can also get optimization with your criteria. It can be possible with 2000-10000 per month. In internships giving education need to be more prioritized. You can list your internship in Internshala, Linkedin, Apna, Noukri.com, etc platform.

10) Social Media:

Here diverse people existed with different opinions. The best way to check their skill is by engaging with them on particular social media. It provides a hint of their knowledge, capacity, and experience. Here you can start by offering a short project first. For example, Optimizing for one keyword with a work report. It can cost an hourly basis like 200 to 1000 rupees per hour for a professional. It may cost monthly like 1000 to 50000 based on workload.

 Wrap up for how much does SEO cost in India

You knew the different SEO factors to get a clear understating of services on SEO. you knew what is the time range for different types of services. It is discussed how to choose a good SEO service. Lastly, we discuss how SEO cost in India through the different platforms with a practical example. Here is one more summary for you.

It is understood that SEO in India ranges between 1 lakh to 11 lacks per year. Less amount for fewer packages. The 11 lakh per annum is definitely for very big giants. You get an idea of the website which already rank provides service between 3000 to 45000 per month. In another case, some cheap prices can be found on social media and freelancing sites like 2000 per month. One thing to remember SEO can give you multiple times return if it is done correctly. So giving priority to value over prices will be a wise step. Therefore, take your decision and grow with strategy.

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