Recognise your value and start earning what you deserve

Adrijana says: “Stop under-earning.”

Are SEOs bad at charging what they're worth?

“Yes, because people are not respecting them enough. That is why we lack confidence. Money, and money mindset, is a specific topic that not a lot of SEOs are talking about. Whenever we mention money, there is a negative attitude around it. People say that it's not all about the money and they will say they’re getting enough.

That attitude comes from our past, and something is wrong there. SEOs are not talking about SEO charges, hourly rates, or salaries. People don't talk about how much we are earning and, especially, how much we want to earn. We talk about everything else, just not money. We think that, if we’re talking about money, we’re selfish.

Whenever we hear that someone want to become rich, there’s an impression that something’s wrong there. On TV and in movies, rich people are always bad. That is something that we have learned unconsciously. I would be ashamed to tell you that I want to be rich. Nobody's saying that.”

Is this a difficult psychological shift for SEOs to make?

“We are starting to work on the money mindset that we have taken from the past, and where it comes from. Usually, we get it from our parents, from the environment, and from our culture.

In specific cultures, like Europe and the East, we don’t talk about money. In the United States, everyone is talking about money – how much they want to earn, startup money, etc. It's normal to talk about money. In Europe and the East, it’s not normal to talk about money. Of course, that means we have a huge earnings gap because we can't say how much we want and it's so hard to ask for a salary increase.

It's hard to ask clients to increase the price that they pay because we don't want to put out the image that we are hungry for money. However, it's not about the money; it's about respect, it's about knowledge, and it's about the value that we are providing to others. The money is just a consequence.

If I'm providing value, and you are earning thousands of euros from something that I'm working on for you, then I want to earn more.”

What are some of the best ways an SEO can have the conversation with a client about money and how much they charge?

“It's all about value – the value that you’re providing, as an SEO consultant, to your companies. We are gaining knowledge and experience, and we have gained this over the years, but we are not gaining more money. We are not gaining increased prices.

If you’re an SEO consultant with 5+ years of experience, the value that you are providing to your clients is much greater than it was 2 years ago. Can you imagine how much experience and knowledge you have collected over those years, and how much money you can provide now? People are collecting this knowledge and experience, but they’re not appreciating what they have gained.

The biggest problem is a lack of confidence. If you had confidence, how much would you earn? That’s the question.

The experience you have gained means that you are able to fix issues more quickly. When you do an SEO audit and provide all these recommendations, you shouldn’t just be counting the hours that it took to complete the audit. You need to count the years that you were learning how to do this so quickly and efficiently.”

Are potential clients open to this kind of explanation of an SEO’s value?

“It's about your confidence and how you are explaining that value. It's about your energy, how you are showing results, and how you are providing value.

Some of them don't understand, but some of them definitely do. Consider who you want to work with. Do you want to work with people who don't see your value? If people are not willing to pay you, they don't see the value. That's the only reason they aren’t paying you. Cheap clients don't see the value, but it's not just that they don't see the value in us, they also don't see the value in other vendors.

It comes down to the question of who you want to work with. Do you want to work with people who value you, respect you, and see all the work that you’re doing for them, or cheap people where every price increase is too expensive for them?”

How do you go about determining what you're worth?

“Many SEOs would be surprised by the fact that, when you work with more successful people, they are willing to pay you more. They recognise the value of what you’re doing, they recognise your knowledge, and they value things that you know. They are successful for a reason. It's not about the money; it's about their mindset. People with a successful mindset see the value in all of these things.

When you’re determining what you’re worth, you’re starting with a single price, and that needs to come from you. I can’t tell you if your SEO audit is going to be worth €1,000 or €10,000 – that comes from your insight. You know how much knowledge you have, how many years of experience you have, and how many other similar SEO audits you have done.

If you need 10 hours to do the SEO audit, you come up with a price that works for you. Then, moving forward, you will start to feel whether you are working too much on an audit. If it’s taking 15 hours, but you only charged for 10, on the next SEO audit you can increase the price. You will then know the value that you are bringing to the client, in terms of how many hours you will have spent. Then you're incorporating all the knowledge you have to come up with a higher price. Then you know how to sell your value to this client.”

Is it reasonable to charge the client based on the amount of increased revenue that you expect you will be able to provide for them?

“It depends on which stage of SEO knowledge you are at. For beginners, I wouldn't recommend that because SEO is a crazy world. You can't guarantee results. However, you can definitely put a fixed price for something that you are working on. Then, for the results that you can prove SEO brought to that website, you can add some percentages.

Working on provision is not bad. It gives motivation for you to bring more value to the customer, and, when the customer sees that you're bringing in more and more, they will be able to give you an increased percentage.

However, there needs to be a fixed amount because of the algorithms and uncertainties that we have with Google. Then you can add on an additional percentage, so it’s a win-win for both parties.”

If you’ve been an SEO consultant for years, and you’re charging more for new clients, should you go back to your existing clients to negotiate a higher rate?

“My question would be, if you are working with a client for a few years and they are unable to pay you more, what results are you bringing in? If you are really bringing in results, from an SEO perspective, that client shouldn't have any problems with their financials.

Take a moment to decide, is this a client that you enjoy working with? How many hours are they taking from you? What is your goal for the future? Do you want to scale this business? Do you want to hire a team? Do you want to work with some specific clients? Then, it’s your choice.

Are you still going to work for this client for 500 euros a month, if it's draining your energy? If you know that, in the end, it's not worth all the frustrations that are coming into your life, then you are under-earning.”

What can SEOs do to be better at selling themselves?

“Sales skills are something that all SEOs have problems with because it's not their area of expertise. If you really want to sell your service, sales skills are the same as SEO skills: you need to learn them. You can learn through repetition, and by taking some sales courses.

There are also mindset things that you can do, like identifying what sabotaging thoughts you are having that are stopping you from asking for more money or a longer-term service. The way that you think is everything.

Sales skills are something that SEOs are ashamed of. You feel like you can't sell your SEO service for a couple of thousand euros because you’re ashamed to ask for that money. When you work on your mindset, and you discover all these sabotaging thoughts that stop you from negotiating a salary increase, then sales is just a natural conversation. ‘Hey! What can I sell you today?’

Another tip is to not talk yourself out of a higher price after you have presented it. Explain how much it is going to cost and see what the client says.

When you ask, ‘What do you think about this price?’ or ‘Are you happy to go ahead?’, people will come up with so many different reasons why they are not buying your service. They will say that you are expensive but, when we really want something, we will pay anything. The only challenge is that people don't see the value in what you are providing.

When you ask why they think it's expensive, it’s usually because they don’t know what the results will be. If you charge €10,000 for an SEO audit and, from that, they make 10x more, is that expensive? No, it's not. That is how to connect the value and price, and really explain to your clients what they will get.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“You need to find time for yourself. The reason why you are struggling with time is within you. Why didn’t you delegate? Why don’t you put the important things first in your life? Something is wrong. You need to start working on your mindset.

There are so many things that you might be doing wrong on a daily basis. Ultimately, though, you need to find time for yourself. Put aside just one hour to work on your mindset every week.

If you just stop scrolling LinkedIn, you will find a lot of hours there.”

Adrijana Vujadin is a mindset coach at AV Mindset Coaching, and you can find her over at AdrijanaVujadin.com.