Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something businesses can’t do without in 2024. As more businesses recognize this and enter the digital marketing race to rank in search engine results, the competition will increase.
This is why many businesses, even large enterprises with extensive in-house marketing teams (like Microsoft, Amazon, etc) have been known to outsource their SEO needs occasionally. Why?
One of the main reasons is cost savings, in the short term, but there are others too. However, in this blog, we’ll explore how much it costs to outsource SEO services from India and how pricing plans are determined.
An Overview of SEO Outsourcing Costs in India
SEO outsourcing from India can be done either by hiring freelancers or agencies. In both cases, the costs for outsourcing a business’s SEO needs vary depending on many factors. That is why most SEO outsourcing providers offer custom pricing plans, depending on their client’s needs.
There are multiple pricing methods, and that adds to the confusion too. Added to that is the fact that SEO projects often take longer than the estimated time to complete, and that raises the bill too. Still, you can get a rough estimate of SEO outsourcing costs in India by referring to the table below.
Factors Influencing SEO Pricing in India
We have talked about this before – a lot of factors go into the cost of outsourcing an SEO project from India. Let us go into these one by one:
Scope of Services Offered
The cost of SEO outsourcing, first of all, depends on the services you need. SEO work involves a lot of specialized tasks, some of which you may not even need (depending on your business/ campaign). These tasks or services can be grouped under the following main categories:
- Audits and Analytics
Audits form the heart of any SEO strategy, which is why SEO outsourcing companies in India often provide a free website analysis to prospective clients. Using various analytics and professional SEO tools, they also provide a host of other services in this category, which factor into the price you pay. Some of these include:
- Website structure analysis
- Past SEO checkup
- Competitor analysis
- Keyword analysis
- Website content audit
- Google penalty check
- Mobile website check
- Baseline ranking check
- SEO Compatibility Setup
In case you haven’t ever done SEO for your business website, then, SEO outsourcing companies also set up Google Analytics and Google Webmaster to make your website track SEO metrics.
- On-Site SEO
The bulk of ‘SEO work’ can be grouped under on-site optimization, which includes the work that is done on your website itself:
- Keyword research
- Keyword mapping
- Title and meta-description creation
- Single page optimization
- Header tag optimization
- Header meta creation and optimization
- Geotag creation
- Image alt tag optimization
- Canonicalization
- Structured data implementation
- XML sitemap creation and optimization
- Robots.txt creation and optimization
- SEO-friendly URL optimization
- Breadcrumb optimization
- Internal and external linking
- Anchor text optimization
- Broken links check
- Crawl error resolution
- Website redirection check.
- Offsite SEO
Offsite SEO refers to the SEO efforts that are implemented outside of your business’s website to improve your search rankings:
- Business listing
- Company profile creation
- Social sharing
- Social bookmarking
- Media submission (text files, PPTs, videos, images, infographics, QnAs, etc.).
- Content Marketing
Another key SEO component for businesses, content marketing is responsible for most of your organic traffic. It includes services such as:
- Blog writing and posting
- Guest blog submissions
- Classified writing
- PPT/PDF creation
- Infographic creation
- Quora answer writing
- Micro-blog posting
- Local SEO Optimization
Often offered as a separate package, local SEO optimization is crucial for brick-and-mortar businesses that serve a demographic in a specified geographical area. SEO services in this category include:
- Google My Business (GMB) setup
- GMB optimization
- GMB website optimization
- GMB posting
- Local directory submission.
- Monthly Reports
Reports are a part of every SEO service, as SEO needs to be constantly tracked to see improvements. Google Analytics reports and keywords ranking reports are the main services most SEO outsourcing companies offer.
- Customer Support
Finally, we come to support, which is another must for SEO outsourcing since you are getting your work done by another business. SEO outsourcing partners may provide calling, WhatsApp, and email options for contacting them for support.
Competition
The second-most important factor that impacts the cost of SEO outsourcing for businesses is their direct competition. This is mainly because your competition will also use keywords that you need to target, which adds up in costs quickly as you bid for high-volume keywords.
Competition influences the pricing right down from competitor research, to strategizing and implementation.
Geo-Targeting
SEO outsourcing costs are also impacted by the geographical scale of your campaign, i.e., which area/s you target to rank your business on the search engine results page. For small businesses that cater to a local audience in a town or city, Local SEO packs are also offered by many SEO outsourcing partners.
Of course, for businesses that target multiple cities on a nationwide or international scale, the costs will increase too.
Service Provider
Costs also depend on the service provider you choose to outsource your SEO needs. Agencies charge more as they accumulate more:
- Team Members
- Experience
- Expertise
- Clients
- Case-studies.
Quality of Services
This is a no-brainer – the higher quality work you want your SEO outsourcing partner to provide the more you’ll have to shell out. For example, enterprise-grade businesses will need a paid SSL certificate and VPS, cloud hosting, or a dedicated server – all of which add to costs significantly for added services and security.
This applies to SEO tools too: While successful SEO strategies can be implemented using free tools, if your SEO outsourcing partner uses paid tools like Semrush or Moz, they’ll factor in the cost of these subscription-based professional tools into their pricing.
Other than these technical SEO requirements, services like content and link-building (white hat vs black hat) also impact the final cost of SEO outsourcing depending upon their quality.
Contract Terms and Client Involvement
Finally, the terms of your contract and how much time you (or your in-house employee/s) spend on your SEO needs also impact the pricing. You could have a monthly retainer-based agreement to save costs or even a white-label SEO outsourcing agreement.
Pricing Models for SEO Outsourcing in India
Outsourcing SEO from an agency in India is a good idea to get quick results at economic packages as the country is a hub of tech expertise and has a vast untapped talent pool. You can choose from various types of pricing models for outsourcing SEO talent.
- Hourly Packages: Extremely economical, and ideal for specific tasks or short-term services.
- Monthly Packages: The most common pricing model as SEO is an ongoing effort. This table provides an estimate of monthly SEO outsourcing costs in India depending on the type of business.
| Type of Website | Approximate SEO Outsourcing Cost in India |
| Small Business Website | $50 – $200 per month |
| E-Commerce Website | $100 – $350 per month |
| Corporate Website | $100 – $150 per month |
| Blogging Website | $50 – $200 per month |
| Local Business Website | $50 – $200 per month |
- Local SEO Packages: Ideal for local businesses targeting a specific local area, such as a city or suburb. The prices vary depending on the complexity of the project.
- Project-Based Billing: This type of pricing model also charges monthly but varies widely depending on the scope and duration of the SEO project.
- Performance-Based Billing: In this model, there is a fixed upfront price that you have to pay your service provider for a fixed result. This model is rare because SEO is an unpredictable game and guaranteed results translate to exorbitant costs.
Conclusion
Compared to Western countries with a minimum wage policy, India is very economical when it comes to talent hunting – and that applies to SEO outsourcing too. Companies that provide SEO outsourcing services in India often provide free audits and custom pricing models to suit their clients better.
The cost of SEO outsourcing depends on various factors like scope, quality, competition, etc. Even if you go with a freelancer or standard models like hourly or monthly billing, SEO outsourcing from India will run you cheaper than outsourcing from other countries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main reasons businesses outsource their SEO needs to India?
The main reasons businesses, including large enterprises, outsource their SEO needs to India include cost savings in the short term and access to expertise and talent.
What are the main factors influencing SEO pricing in India?
The main factors influencing SEO pricing in India include the scope of services offered, competition, geo-targeting, service provider, quality of services, and contract terms.
What are the different pricing models for outsourcing SEO in India?
The different pricing models for outsourcing SEO in India include hourly packages, monthly packages, local SEO packages, project-based billing, and performance-based billing.
What are the approximate SEO outsourcing costs in India for different types of websites?
The approximate SEO outsourcing costs in India vary depending on the type of website, ranging from $50 to $350 per month on average.