Penguin 2.0 Rolled Out May 22 2013

May 23, 2013/in Google Algorithm Update, Matt Cutts, SEO /by chameleon

Matt Cutts has confirmed that Google rolled out their latest algorithm change dubbed Penguin 2.0 on May 22nd 2013. This change capitalises and goes further than the Penguin 1.0 change rolled out in 2012. The aim of this update is to prevent spam sites ranking, whilst putting emphasis on quality content and excellent user experience of real sites.

Google expects Penguin 2.0 to affect 2.3% of English language search query results which whilst this does not sound like many, 2.3% of billions of searches is in reality a lot of sites.

Many SEO companies and webmasters will be worried and affected by this latest update as it targets black-hat SEO practices and poor link building. However, at Chameleon we have a commitment to quality content and practices; it is this which has meant that our clients have not been affected. If anything, the Google shift to emphasise quality has resulted in our clients improved rankings. All Chameleon’s “real” hard work and efforts are showing positive results.

Matt Cutts Link

SEO Package Prices

May 17, 2013/in SEO /by chameleon

The price of SEO services varies greatly between different companies and depends heavily on the sector in which your website is a part of in terms of competition and the amount of keywords you wish to rank for. Ultimately, it all comes down to time; the more time that an SEO company needs to spend on optimising your site, the more expensive your SEO package will be.

Many SEO companies provide packages with different levels of service being described as Gold, Silver or Bronze or similar denominations. Obviously, the higher the quality of the SEO package, the more features you will receive such as more keywords optimised for, social networking pages optimised and more articles created and submitted. The overall SEO package prices are set at the discretion of the SEO company.

If you are trying to research the cost of SEO then looking at SEO package prices is a good place to begin. It will give you an upfront idea of the general prices and the sorts of services that you can expect to receive for these prices. However, it is not always the best strategy to sign up to a package deal as the services on offer may not exactly suit your individual requirements.

This is because your SEO campaign should be bespoke and therefore the pricing structure based upon your exact requirements, rather than a generic overview. No two SEO campaigns are the same so it is impossible to set a price for a successful campaign which is chosen by the client. For example, an insurance company would face lots of competition for its keywords whilst a local mobile hairdresser chasing local location terms would not; in theory they could both choose the same package but experience very different results.

In order to get the best experience, choose an SEO company who offer a bespoke service.

How Much Does SEO Cost?

May 17, 2013/in SEO /by chameleon

SEO professionals are asked ‘How much does SEO cost?’ everyday and everyday have to give the same answer of ‘it depends’. The process of SEO is not an exact science so setting prices is an impossibility without first completing research into the website and sector that the customer is enquiring about.

When a customer goes into a shop and buys a new DVD there is a set price tag on it as every copy of that DVD will be exactly the same. However, SEO cannot work like this as every website is different and has many outside factors and influences which will have an impact on the level of SEO needed to make it a success.

The internal factors of the optimisation of a website include adding quality content, ensuring that the meta data is updated and relevant to each page and headers are appropriate. Whilst the basic principles are the same, the execution can be very different. For example, updating and making relevant the meta data for a website with 15 pages will take a lot less time than a site with 50 pages; the service is the same, but the time taken to complete the task is different therefore the SEO cost for the 50 page site will be bigger than for the 15 page one.

External factors pay a large role in the cost of SEO as they determine the amount of research needed into the sector and how difficult it will be to gain a place on Google page one. For example, a client has a website selling car insurance who wants to be on page one for the term ‘car insurance’. This is a very competitive term as there are many websites in the industry all optimising for the same key words; therefore, this will take a lot of optimising, link building and time to see an improvement in ranking. In contrast to this, a company in a niche or specialised market will have a lot less competition for keywords and so it will be easier to rank for preferred keywords. This is also the same for companies who wish to focus on localised searches e.g. Chelsea hairdresser rather than London hairdresser as less people will be fighting for that keyword.

Ultimately then, asking ‘How much does SEO cost?’ is like asking ‘How long is a piece of string?’, it depends. A price should be individual to the client and campaign, taking into account all outside factors and a realistic time frame in which results are expected.