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Pay For Performance SEO Explained

pay for performance SEO

Pay For Performance SEO is something that in theory sounds very good from a client’s perspective.

There’s no risk as you don’t pay until results start to come, however, you should be aware that this type of contract can mean that the SEO may focus on low value (easy to rank for) keywords which will do nothing to increase your companies income.

What Is Pay For Performance SEO?

Pay for Performance (PFP) SEO also known as ‘pay on results SEO’ is the practice of only paying for SEO services when you start to see positive results.

With a typical SEO contract, you will pay an ongoing monthly fee for SEO services starting from month one.

With PFP there is no initial payment, the SEO will work for free until results start to come.

Depending on the client’s needs the client may either pay an agreed ongoing fee based on traffic growth or as revenue grows a profit share agreement can be used.

The Benefits Of PFP SEO

PFP SEO is ideal for clients who may be scared of investing in SEO when they have little experience with it or have had a bad experience working with SEO agencies in the past.

It provides a financial safety net; if you are concerned about wasting money on a service that you are worried may yield no real results then PFP SEO is a good option.

Another benefit of this type of SEO contract is that you are only going to be dealing with SEOs who are absolutely confident that they can genuinely improve your search visibility, if they can’t then they waste their time and make no money.

The Negatives Of PFP SEO

While Pay For Performance SEO might sound like the ideal way of running an SEO campaign for a client this is not always the case.

One of the big problems with PFP SEO is that the freelancer or agency has to put in a lot of time and money upfront before they see any return from their efforts.

This could potentially mean two things:

  • The SEO Consultant is less motivated to work on your campaign.
  • They may outsource the work to cheap workers to minimize any financial loss in the first few months.
  • If your contract is traffic focused rather than revenue focused the SEO is likely to focus on low competition, low value, keywords which may grow your traffic but will add little (or nothing) to your companies revenue.

None of these outcomes is going to bring the best results to your SEO campaign.

Do I Offer Pay Per Performance SEO Services?

Currently this isn’t something I offer, I prefer to focus primarily on offering SEO consulting services.

However, if you are interested in pay-per-performance SEO services then feel free to send me a message letting me know what your goals are, and what your website is and I will see if it is something I think I can help with.

Where To Get Real Reviews Of SEO Companies That Allow Pay For Performance

The best way to find genuine reviews of SEO companies that do pay-per-performance work is to first of all search for “Pay For Performance SEO Companies Reviews”.

At the time of writing the top-ranking page for that search term is this one.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to feature any genuine reviews.

In order to find reviews of the companies mentioned type their brand name into Google and have a look at the reviews in their Google My Business listing.

FYI if there is no Google Business Listing result then this is a bad sign as it means one of two things:

  • They’ve deleted it due to bad reviews.
  • They’ve never set it up which indicates that they don’t know what they’re doing.
2 thoughts on “Pay For Performance SEO Explained
  1. PFP model is good when it is merged with flat fee. At this moment seo consultant is more motivated to do her/his job.

    1. Very true, a flat fee helps cover upfront fees, combined with that the PFP model is a much better option!

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