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Search Engine Marketing Calculator - Estimate

Everyone wants their website found when searched for in Google, Yahoo or MSN search engines. But there is an art to making this happen. Search engine marketing (SEM), the art of getting ranked well by search engines, has many dimensions. Depending on how much traffic you want, what keywords you are trying to get positioned for, and whether your customers are focused in a local area the cost of this effort can change dramatically.

 

This is a popularity game, and these techniques will help with all the major search engines.  Having lots of web links pointing to your website that use your keywords will improve your ranking. You also need to be in several web directories - under categories that relate to you products or services.  Submitting web articles and press releases also help with the variety of links you have pointing to your site.

 

Check out our monthly SEO Special!  This is a great value for anyone who needs a cost-effective way to get started!

 

Template: Local Brochure Style Website Online Sales (light promotion) Online Sales (heavy promotion) Real Estate Website (light promotion) Real Estate Website (heavy promotion)

Annual Budget:  $ 1,384.00

385	Initial Keyword Analysis.  If you don't want this you will have to come up with your own keywords that may or may not be the best ones to drive traffic to your website. Paying the other fees that focus on unused keywords is a waste of money.
325	Free Directory Submission: Get your site hand-submitted to hundreds of free directories in a manner that would be best for your website promotion goals.  These directories do not charge to submit your site; however, we will be saving you a lot of time used to submit to these for you in the proper fashion. (This includes DMOZ)
275	Article Submission Service.  We will carefully submit your web articles (written by you) to a Google blog and well over 100 article directories.  When done right, you will have a lot of links from this pointing to your website. I want articles submitted at $275 each.
169.00	Internet Press Release submission. We would encourage you to write and submit a press release about your business/website and put a link to your website in the press release.  If you have writers block or don't know how to do this, there are services available to help you to do this at additional cost. We don't normally do this ourselves, but direct you to the following recommended services:  http://www.ereleases.com ($399 PR submission and $299 PR writing) http://www.prwebdirect.com ($169 PR submission or $350 Premium Submission with Search Engine Optimization.  (PR editing and writing available from $69 - $299) http://express-press-release.com ($29 for featured press release) I want press releases submitted at the selected rate.by ereleases.comby prwebdirect.comby express-press-release.com
309.00	Paid Directories We do encourage you to be in as many of these as you can afford.  Start with the Yahoo directory.  If you can, add some of the others. We charge an additional $10 per directory to submit these ourselves in the proper fashion. (This enhances your chances of being accepted.) There are several other paid directories you may consider, depending on your nitche.  These are the top ones to consider though. Yahoo Directory website submission ($299 annual fee) (website) Business.com website submission ($199 annual fee)(website) Microsoft Bcentral Directory website submission ($49 annual fee)(website) Best of Web website submission ($40 annual fee)(website)
199.5	Real Estate Specific Directories  If you are a real estate agent, then you should strongly consider using the following service. The following is a service that will submit your website to lots of real-estate specific directories. I do charge an additional $25 to submit your website to this service. http://www.directoryrealestate.com/submitsite.htm    Basic ($99)Pro ($199.50)Platinum ($499)
Annual Budget: $	Text Link Ads This is a great service that allows you to purchase (at a monthly fee) text link advertisements.  It is not cheap, but it gets you listed in higher ranked websites.  Not all links have the same value for the search engines.  If you have a link from a well-known website (preferably links optimized for your keywords), these are weighted more than links from less popular websites.  Buying text link ads is a great way to get such desirable links. The minimum cost is about $10-$15 per month for one link.  Normally a good link is $20-$45 per month.  If it is a real-estate link, the costs normally start around $60 per month.  If you want higher quality links - or several links, you need to adjust your budget accordingly.  Normally the annual budget is $120 - $1500 per year depending on your web traffic goals. The goal is to get websites that are ranked well by search engines - and ones that will directly bring in paying customers.  In general, we encourage you to have a mix of well-known and less well known websites.  This generates the best results.  We can (optionally) give suggestions on selecting websites and optimizing the links for $65.
90	Blogging Setup: We can set up a blog with your keywords in it and give you advice on how to use it to properly build link popularity for your site using it. This comes with up to an hour of telephone support for any optimizing techniques. This is a great low-cost service for those on a shoe-string budget.  But it requires effort on your part: you have to regularly make posts to the blog (write text in it).

Note: The fees mentioned above are only an "Estimate".  Actual costs may vary somewhat depending on what extra services you want and possible changes in the costs of the listed external services.

 

Other Resources

• How To Write A Killer Press Release
• Online Business Press Release Writing Tips And Ideas
• Basic Principles of Press Release Optimization

The above is for analysis and approximation only. All prices are subject to change without notice.