Tips to help you develop a viable program.

By Alan Rimm-kaufman

Tip: Establish a plan, revenue goals and budget for natural search.

Natural search is expensive. Search marketing is a young field. Prices have yet to stabilize. You can pay consultants or agencies small fortunes for their services. Sometimes it’s money well-spent; other times, it’s not.

How do you know if you’re paying a fair price? Know exactly what services you’re buying. Compute a rough hourly cost for the work. Compare the rate to what it would cost to do the work in-house. Compare it to what you pay other professional service providers, such as outsourced designers, programmers or accountants.