The Cost of Ranking on Google

What does it cost to get your website on Google?

Have you ever asked, or been asked that question? Sometimes people ask me that question as if they expect the answer to be something like, “10,999.99 plus tax.” That 8 word question could be answered in 1 word or 10,000 words.

Depending on who asks, my answer varies.  Somehow though, most of the time I feel this moral obligation to give a very long, descriptive answer.  I want those I come in contact with to understand Google and I want to give them an honest answer.  It is tempting to blow them off because it gets old. I think it really changes one’s perspective when they understand how Google works and how difficult and expensive it can be to “get your website on Google.”

Anyway, rather than give the same explanation over and over again, I’m writing this post so that my answer can be a link. I’ll just send them a link to come here to this post where I will continually add my thoughts and insights regarding the true costs of ranking on Google.

I’ll start with the one word answer to the question, “what does it cost to get your website on Google?”

FREE!

It doesn’t cost anything. Google will put you on their website at no charge.  But, I know that for most that answer doesn’t satisfy.  You know their is no such thing as a free lunch, and you also know that getting on page 100 of a Google search for some obscure keyword search isn’t what you mean when you say “get your website on Google.” What you really mean is how much is it going to cost to rank high on Google when someone searches for “xyz” keyword.

Well keep coming back to this post and I promise to add more about the true costs of ranking on Google.

I’ll add info about:

–> How much it costs to get on the first page of Google in 24 hours or less.

A do-it-yourselfer can get on the first page of Google in less than 24 hours and for less than $10. Not bad, right?  Wrong. Having been in the online ad space for more than 5 years, I can tell you that I would rather spend $10,000 the right way than $10 the wrong way.  First off, 24 hours is unrealistic. Maybe if you have been working on your site, landing page, conversion process and ad campaign for weeks, then launching the campaign in 24 hours is reasonable, but it isn’t reasonable to think that you can create an account from scratch and get results. Sure you can be on the first page of Google in 24 hours, but is that enough by itself?  There are too many pieces to the online ads success puzzle for it to be that easy. Oh, and another thing to mention, $10 on Google might not last very long. In fact, depending on what keyword you are trying to rank for, it may only take one click for your ad campaign to reach its daily budget.

–> How much it costs to show up in the number one spot on Google.

The cost to show up on the number one spot varies.  Here are some of the main determining factors that determine how much it will cost you to show up in the number one spot on Google:

  • The price varies on each keyword, and changes on each keyword multiple times per day.
  • Total advertisers bidding to rank on that same keyword.
  • The price of each bid of each advertiser on that keyword.
  • Your click through rate compared to other advertisers.
  • Your ad quality score compared to other advertisers.

–> How much it costs to show up in the number one spot beneath the ads on Google.

–> How much it costs to show up on the right side of Google.

–> How much it costs to use an agency to get you on the first page of Google versus how much it will cost for you to rank your own website on Google.

–> How much it costs to get your website to rank on multiple keywords on Google.

I am sure that as I try my best to answer those virtually impossible questions I will answer lots of other questions you may have about owning a web-based business and how search engines like Google work.

Bookmark this page if you want to learn more as I will be updating it regularly.

This is another post for:

Miscellaneous Monday

Thanks for reading and sharing!