Current demand for SEO consulting services is high – so you can charge premium rates if you are good. Beyond charging by the hour – you can also consider charging for results. For example, instead of charging $45 p/h – you could charge the customer $20p/h for your time – and $4 per week for each ranking placement above a threshold value you achieve. So if the customer is currently ranking at 200, and you tune them up to 15 , assuming a 40 hours work week (yeah right ) – you would earn 20*40 + 185 * 4 = 800 + 740 = $1540 ; Just an example – but you get the idea. Customer love the “pay for results” mentality. If you set your fee structure right – and you are good at what you do – you could make some good money If you want a good benchmarking tool – have a look at http://www.rankangel.com – allows you to graph results over time etc… and you can use this with your customer’s to show evidence of progress etc…