Understanding SEO Pricing Model in Malaysia

How much should I spend on SEO?

This is often the million dollar question we hear everyday from business owners and managers. The answer quite frankly is always different. Every business is different and the need varies.

A good example would be: if you sell a generic products with a worldwide consumer target, you should expect to spend more on SEO services. However,  if you offer online services to a local target audience then you should expect a lower SEO cost.

The marketing goal of the two businesses in the example above defers and it would require a different strategy to tackle each. SEO encapsulates a lot of services which can help you gain more organic traffic, better user experience and increased conversion.

Least we forget, Organic search accounts for a whooping 51% of the traffic to a website and even more for well optimised websites.

Coming back to the elephant in the room, how much you should pay for SEO in Malaysia?

The answer is, it depends on your business goal.

However, we have listed out the factors to help you determine the best price for SEO services  in Malaysia.

How SEO pricing is calculated

There are few factors that help an SEO’s determine the right pricing for their services.

Competitive landscape

A lot of industries are very competitive and thus would mean a lot more competitors in the space. Some might have a deeper budget to hire a few SEO to work on their website, such as Insurance or real estate. On the other side of the spectrum, some  industries are late to adopt SEO and would be easy for you get a good ranking with a relatively cheaper SEO pricing.

Marketing Goal

If you are targeting worldwide consumer base as compared to a consumers in a small town, there will be a difference in the pricing.  If you are sell one product, as compared to 500 products, your SEO pricing should differ. I hope you get the picture now.

Services Offered

What SEO services will you be getting, would it cover the on-site, off-site and technical aspect of SEO. Standard SEO will include all the above mentioned, with more focus to the areas your website is lacking. It should come with an easy to digest monthly reporting.

SEO experience 

An SEO experience also plays a part. some SEO have braved the constant storm of Google updates and come out with a big grin. Those are the type of SEO are on expensive side of the spectrum.

SEO pricing models in Malaysia

There are a lot of various SEO pricing in and around Malaysia . However, there are SEO pricing models that remain constant.

Hourly Consultation

In Malaysia, the average hourly rate for SEO services is between MYR150 to MYR500 per hour. The price difference depends on the services offered and experience of the SEO. It is not recommended to use hourly SEO pricing, unless you want to tackle a specific SEO task. It could easily add up to a lot otherwise.

If you need have your own in house team and just need someone to come up with a good SEO strategy, then this pricing will be very useful.

Project Pricing

This SEO pricing package is ideal for one-off services, where you don’t need ongoing services. This sort of package is  geared toward a desired outcome. Example – page speed improvement, product pages optimisation or site audit.

There is no guide to this pricing, it entirely depends on the work to be done.

Monthly Retainer

Ever heard the line, Search engine optimization is a long-term game? indeed it is, good SEO takes times.

It realistically takes 3 – 6 months for a new website to start seeing ranking improvement.

The monthly retainer is the most commonly used SEO pricing in the industry. It gives the SEO enough time to formulate and implement a long-term strategy for your business.

It also allows the SEO to build upon the initial result and comes in handy when there is a google update.

My Freelance SEO Pricing Sheet

Ideally, pricing for search engine optimization should be custom fitted to each clients need. However, I created a pricing guide to help paint a picture of  my SEO pricing.

In summary, SEO pricing is not fixed. Instead of thinking of the cost, focus on your business marketing goals. Your marketing goals will help you determine if you need a one off SEO package or a monthly retainer  and so on.

The average SEO price in Malaysia  is RM2500 to RM7000+ per month. The hourly rate is RM150 to RM500 per hour.

Check out the Ahref SEO pricing survey for other regions and our Freelance SEO services for Malaysia