(The Hosting News) – SEO and web hosting have much in common. Pricing for SEO services are in constant flux. The cost of hosting is on a downward trend. Differentiation is difficult in a market that is saturated with competition, where most of the business flows to the companies who can afford to drop the most dollars on advertising.
Hosting companies and SEO providers face these problems every day.
A few years ago you could generate strong revenue with a small client base. Now, the model has shifted towards volume—you need more clients because the lifetime value of each customer goes down every year.
Falling prices have lead SEO and hosting to be seen as a commodity and both industries are working hard to maintain workable margins. Ask any seasoned webmaster and they’ll tell you that when it comes to your online business, both hosting and SEO should be viewed from the value they can add.
The web hosting industry is a mostly-commoditized market, so you have to work hard for every bit of margin and profit you get.
Now, more than ever web hosting companies must leverage every “growth” opportunity that comes their way. The new name of the game is keeping the customers you have. “Churn” is a horrible monster that will bite into the bottomline of every company not focused on creating a “sticky” product.
The more your customers rely on you, the more you keep.
Strategic Partnerships Are Key To Growth (And Unlocking Untapped Revenue)
A strategic partnership builds value for everyone.
- Customers benefit by getting a service they need, often times at a lower price or with added incentives.
- Partners work together to create a new revenue stream that compliments their products and creates value for their customers.
The most successful partnerships are borne out of anticipating the needs of your customers. The following examples highlight strategic partnerships that built-in customer value right from the beginning.
Apptive, Volusion, BigCommerce, and Shopify
The web is full of mobile commerce providers, but what made Apptive different was their approach. Rather than scream from the rooftops about their service, they chose to partner with companies that complimented their product and helped enhance the offering of their partners.
Apple Pay and MasterCard
While both products almost seem to be competitors, the reality is both companies piggybacked on the brand recognition of the other. MasterCard benefited from being the first credit card company to offer Apple Pay and Apple was able to tap into Mastercard’s large user base.
RoseHosting.com and cPanel
RoseHosting is one of the many hosting companies that chose to partner with cPanel to give their customers an easy way to manage their website. There’s a good lesson to learn here: make things simple for your customers. The partnership between RoseHosting and cPanel eliminates a lot of support issues, which saves time and money.
Web Hosting Companies See New Opportunity Partnering With SEO Service Providers
The cost of SEO services varies so wildly that it’s hard to nail down exactly what you should be paying. Granted, the SEO industry is an evolving market, where prices shift and quality is hit or miss. But that doesn’t change the fact that investing in SEO is way more complicated than it should be.
And it doesn’t change the fact that you have a database of clients that are actively thinking about how they can promote their website.
A recent study by Moz shed some light on the cost of SEO. After polling 600+ agencies, this is what they came up with:
Hourly SEO pricing
The cost of hiring an agency by the hour varies, but $76-$200/hour is the most common way companies charge for SEO.
Project-based SEO services
Paying by the project is the most popular SEO pricing model. The poll identified four typical price ranges:
- $1,001-$1,500
- $1,501-$2,500
- $2,501-$5,000
- $5,001-$7,500
This type of pricing works well for SEO audits or hiring a company to strategize a campaign for your in-house team, but doesn’t work well for maintaining long-term Google rankings.
Monthly SEO services
Most SEO service providers contract with clients for services. Most contracts are for six months. Because SEO should be looked at as a long-term investment, this makes sense. The issue here is the cost of retainers can be as high as $5,000 per month, with no guarantee that work performed will translate into higher rankings.
Pay for performance SEO
Pay for performance SEO was first introduced in 2007 by RankPay, a San Diego-based SEO services provider. The idea behind “pay for performance” was not to guarantee rankings, but guarantee that customers would only be charged for results. Most would agree that this pricing model better aligns the goals of the customer with the need to produce results. If a customer does not rank for their keywords, the agency has nothing to bill.
Not All SEO Services Are Created Equal
By now, it’s common knowledge that no one can (or should) guarantee rankings in Google.
Here’s the thing…
Traditional SEO pricing leaves a lot to be desired. The cost of SEO can be confusing and expensive—especially for small business owners.
Small business fuels the economy and creates job growth. Still, entrepreneurs are faced with three pressing concerns:
- Lack of time
- Lack of resources
- Lack of knowledge of SEO
Investing in SEO for a lot of small businesses is cumbersome. Most small business owners lack the time to put into their own SEO campaign. It’s hard to balance ROI and advertising spend when results are hit or miss. This puts many businesses at a disadvantage because digital marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing channels out there.
RankPay’s cPanel Plugin Brings SEO Services To Website Owners, Creates Recurring Revenue Stream For Hosting Companies
Companies like RankPay are bridging the gap for website owners to get the results they’re after, while helping to create additional revenue streams for hosting providers in a market where every dollar counts.
Partnering with RankPay instantly creates a new “always on” revenue stream that is completely hands-free, while offering a needed service to customers. Integration is as simple as signing up as a partner and installing the cPanel plugin. When a customer signs up for RankPay services, partners receive a percentage of revenue for the life of the customer.
The beauty of the program is web hosting companies can now offer their customers SEO services and affordable social media management.
“RankPay’s partner program is a no-brainer for web hosting companies looking to optimize customer value,” says Greg Middlesworth, CEO of forum hosting company URLjet. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the integration. Our customers get immediate access to results-based SEO services and another tool within cPanel to grow their business.”
Curious about how RankPay’s Partner Program and cPanel plugin can add additional revenue to your business?
Sign up as a partner or contact RankPay today to discuss your ideas.
