Question about SEO Pricing

[pcpro]

I have a quick question...

If an SEO firm says that they will charge you X amount of $$ to optimize each page, what is your understanding of that statement?

Does it mean that they will charge you per URL or per the number of pages that each URL contains?

I am very curious to know the answer to this question.

Example: going to a url yields 10 page when using the "page down" feature. Are they going to charge per URL or per page?

[Marcia]

Each page, as I see it, is:

kitchen-widgets.htm
dining-room-widgets.htm
bedroom-widgets.htm

However, there's more than just on-page optimization for individual pages. The internal linking structure and site architecture and navigation also have to be optimized, as well as a number of other onsite factors that have to be looked at. Plus, developing inbound links.

[Tue Skaarup]

Does it mean that they will charge you per URL or per the number of pages that each URL contains?
I'm puzzled... How can a URL contain more than one page? You mean because a page can be very long and you would have to scroll or use PageDown to see the hole page? If so, even if the page is 30.000 words and 5 meters long, it is still one webpage technically.

So unless you have agreed to a different interpretation with the SEO company, a page is... a page.

[David Wallace]

I think it means each page of a web site. If a site has twenty static pages and you want all of them optimized and a SEO company charges a specific price per page, then they are going to charge you for twenty pages.

In most cases I have seen, SEOs either charge by page, by number of keywords, by the hour or per project.

[Marcia]

pcpro, if you're thinking that one URL = one entire website, that isn't how it is. A website can contain many pages. Each page has its own URL.

www.example.com is the domain name - the main page of the site. index.htm would be what shows at that URL, but that is only one page out of the site.

Re-read what David Wallace posted:

I think it means each page of a web site. If a site has twenty static pages and you want all of them optimized and a SEO company charges a specific price per page, then they are going to charge you for twenty pages.So if a site has 20 static pages, there are 20 URLs and you'll be charged $100 (or whatever the price) for each of those 20 pages/URLs - not $100 for the entire site.

[Robert_Charlton]

However, there's more than just on-page optimization for individual pages. The internal linking structure and site architecture and navigation also have to be optimized, as well as a number of other onsite factors that have to be looked at. Plus, developing inbound links.

To this I'd add another important aspect of SEO... targeting. This involves search term research, competitive research, and, as Marcia points out, internal linking structure and site architecture and navigation. I don't know how you could possibly do this on a page by page basis.