I must apologise for not posting as regularly as I normally do but I have had (and still do) a lot of work to do… Most of it is faculty related, and you’ll find them on slideshare soon enough, and the rest, well, is my life and you wouldn’t care about that. So, let’s get to it…

This is an article mostly based on surveys from various companies, as well as my personal experience so far. However, since I’m a student and can only work part time for now, my personal data is a bit skewed towards a lower value.

First, for those with more time, I give you these Audio Survey Results, in the flash file below (just press play):

All right, now that you have skipped that, let’s start discussing the whole reason behind the salary of an SEO specialist. First and foremost, it’s a booming market, there is demand and there should be, the web is evolving and growing, both as a business medium, but also as a way to reach your customers, and develop your marketing strategy. Secondly, SEO is a gray area to most people, and even if you read all the blogs on the whole Internet you may find yourself unaware of which strategies can impact you in which way, and what is white hat (and what is not). Some people try to game search engines and it’s not always a good idea. If you really want to go the bad way, you need a specialist, and those are extremely expensive (black hat seo is not only risky, but requires a lot of knowledge and keeping up to date with the most recent hacks so he would have to be a permanent employee, whereas white hatters usually can do a lot of good in one stop).

But probably the most important reason for the amount of money SEO service providers charge is the fact that they know how to whack just the right spot with a hammer. This is a reference to a very interesting article called Why do the good SEOs cost so damn much and it’s a nice read, and a nice story to tell clients who are… reluctant to approach your fees…

So a client not only pays for my knowledge of the SEO tools to use, the tips and tricks and the whole marketing background I spent years creating for myself (learning my ass off), but also for my experience, for my ability to judge a website clearly and completely from the start, knowing what is good and what must go, and knowing what worked there and there and what didn’t. It’s the amount of time and the amount of effort put into learning, testing, and getting results combined that gives my, our skill value. Of course not all SEOs are the same, and not all provide the same services, but generally this is the case.

One major factor in this however (as is generally with marketing) is reputation. Someone who has achieved stardom, like Aaron Wall, will of course earn a lot more than an entry level SEO who does keyword research and content outsourcing. It’s a rockstar world and it stays that way. Of course this is true more so in the US rather than in Europe, but still, proof of exceptional work is an important factor.

And perhaps the last big factor in this is uncertainty, with SEO being a trend that may be offset perhaps in some moment of time when Google falls and the web turns to new ways to catalog and sort through data. But until then, we can help make the web a friendlier and more searchable place

Also, maybe the biggest factor in this (where applicable) is the fact that many freelance. That means the advantages of working by yourself (more work, longer hours, etc), and with the added value of not having medical insurance, dental, pension, or any other form of state aid which you would normally get from a company.

This data is historic, sampling from 2006, 2007 and 2008, and observing some changes along the way…

In 2006, salaries started at about 30000$ and went up to astronomical figures of 350000$+. However, since there are so many functions an employee could take, these are varied, but a general salary for an SEO Specialist is around $40000 to $80000. However, if you turn to guru status, this starts at $75000 and goes to upwards of $100000. For the whole list of things, look at this article which is my source for this.

For 2007 we have a nice graph courtesy of indeed.com, which shows us the salaries for SEO managers, a bit up the ladder from our normal SEO freelancers.

Again, we can see the salaries are quite representative, even for a small enough sample as Salem, NC, USA. We have a minimum of $38000 (that amounts to around $3200 per month), topping off at $76000 (a whopping $6500) for some. Again, we need to think that some get more business, some have more fame and some are just lucky to get the right customers.

A newer survey (2008) shows the average SEO salary to be $53000 on the US market with related salaries listed below:

So, as you can see, the average SEO salary is upward of $3000 (actually around $4500), but remember that this is for an educated market such as the US, where clients are aware of what they pay. In other countries, such as Eastern Europe, such a salary may have to be halved in order to get you clients to sign up for your services. However, don’t drop your rates too much, you want to give your clients the best service but for that you need to be satisfied too… And this is a professional service, done by smart people, requiring innovative solutions and making sure you don’t screw everything up with a crappy web script some moronic designer put in place and that is a delicate process worth a lot of money.

And don’t forget, Internet is slowly but steadily taking the place of the TV and magazines, and all that other media, and gaining momentum as it goes. It’s worth a lot of money to take the right step in this field, and the companies which benefit from your services, have nothing to lose.

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