Bogdan you better go to affiliate marketing, no serious professional will do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your website on commission basis
Joshua » Bogdan I tend to both agree and disagree. So, here's a question: Do you think a commission-based SEO contract is both possible and fair to customer and contractor? If so, then would this be a good thing for the SEO industry? Bogdan » Joshua A very well constructed campaign starts with a long period of time when the results are not actual sales. Only after you do this job right, the business will start selling, and you might get some commissions. Is there a way to make sure your deal will stay in place for a long enough period of time, so you will get your return? Then – working SEO only, with no control (or sometimes even a saying) on the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), might make your effort not getting the return it deserves. So, I am against this business model – but all for Affiliate Marketing. Joshua » Bogdan Those are all great points. I guess I see a problem with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) where everyone can claim to be an expert, perform random/mysterious work every month, and then leave clients with a large bill without any results to demonstrate. So, I wonder about a commission structure based on traffic to specific pages, lead form submissions, and other specifically trackable data points. I would construct a specific contract based on agreed baselines of current traffic and data. The contract would specify the length of time payments would carry on for after the work is done. As an example, let's say I work on a client's website. We agree to track five specific product pages. As an ecommerce site, we can track sales. An increase in sales becomes the basis for the commission payment to the SEO company. The same could be true for a page with a lead submission form. The specific tracking data can be found via Google Analytics. So, after the baseline is agreed, we can agree on payments for future form submissions. Traffic is the same. So, a page currently receiving 500 views per month could be billed on a commission basis for any increase in traffic. A simple formula to determine the money due for traffic increase could be worked out with the client. In my mind, trying to develop this business model could help SEO companies establish a more effective way of billing and demonstrating value to their clients. It might also help clients differentiate between the cowboys and the ones who actually know what they are doing. Bogdan Great points too. Sadly, my market is not ready for such approach, so… Marco » Bogdan My clients are pay by performance, if they don't rank they don't pay me Bogdan » Marco I see. Then, if you take a customer with a new website, needing technical, optimization on existing content, consistent new content ant lots of backlinks and so on. Assuming you do a great job, it'll still take many monts until some traffic, right? So, you're paid only after getting the full agreed list of keywords on 1-10 positions in Search Engine Result Page (SERP)? I don't judge, I simply say this is not our way of doing business. We sign for a period of time we know we can break enough results (results, not rankings), and do all needed to have the customer happy enough to sign for a new period of time at the end. I work, I get paid. I perform, I keep on getting paid. Nevertheless, commission based SEO is different from both these approaches Marco » Bogdan Yeah, I get paid when they hit the top spots based on the sales said new traffic brings them. Doesn't take many months though, 2-3 max for the ones that work (like 40% success rate). My overhead is super low so it's doable Bogdan » Marco That's a bit more easy to diggest than "they pay when they rank", and a lot closer to my model (although, a different one). Anyway, good for you, a nice way to do business
Ales Commission-based SEO highly depends on the phase in which your website is at. If you're still in embryo phases with not a lot of content/links/authority it's a no-go, UNLESS you're willing to pay for content production and backlinks. If your business is at least moderately established and the thing holding you back is SEO expertise it can be a very productive and profitable tactic for both sides.
Bogdan » Ales Spot on. a much better answer than mine Mark ✍️ » Ales Yes we have our own content department and even SEO department / necessary tools. everybody laughing i've been chilling in bali and the philippines for 6 years lol. wonder where y'all are
Jason The only fair way to do that is with a rank and rent site Even then you gotta pay per lead or per month
Brad » Jason Same concept but you are using an already built site by the client. You would need a contract that supports some longevity bc tasks like organic SEO which take months of hard work to get results you might not get paid for. I would only do paid ads under a deal like this. Marketer setups tech, the poster would pay for the ads, commission could be a % of the net before/after ad spend.
Brad FOR THE MARKETERS…commission model can work great. Just make sure you have call tracking w voice recording and transcriptions, form & email tracking, tag your leads into the Client Relationship Management (CRM), but also setup an export of a Google sheets w name/company/phone/email/address etc for yourself. Then weekly or monthly audits. Make sure to have signed contracts with details about audit. In this type of structure you should keep the analytics, tracking, and ads in YOUR own account bc otherwise if you don't get paid, they can steal your campaigns, and you end up in court. With the right setup and a trustworthy partner this could be great for the marketer.
James » Bob I'd agree. This could work well for ecomm where you can track and attribute sales in a more absolute sense. But for lead gen, I wouldn't.
