Monthly retainer
- Most common
- $501–$1,000 a month
- Average
- $2,917 a month
- How common
- 78.2% of providers offer it
- Best for
- Ongoing SEO, where content, links and fixes build on each other month after month.
SEO PRICING GUIDE · UPDATED 2026-10-28
How much does SEO cost?
For most small and mid-sized businesses, SEO costs between $500 and $5,000 a month, and more for large or multi-country sites. In Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, the most common monthly retainer was $501–$1,000 and the average was $2,917. Our own published plans run from $500 to $6,500+ a month.
This guide covers what providers actually charge, the three ways SEO is priced, what pushes the price up, what each budget realistically buys, and how to check a quote. Our prices are in here too, but the guide is useful whoever you hire.
- Survey figures cited with their source
- Our own prices published in full
- Last reviewed 2026-10-28
At a glance
SEO pricing by model: monthly, hourly and per project
Most SEO is sold in one of three ways. These are the most common and average prices from Ahrefs' survey of SEO providers.
Hourly
- Most common
- $75–$100 an hour
- Average
- $111 an hour
- How common
- 34.8% of providers offer it
- Best for
- Consulting, training your team, or a short list of fixes your developers will ship.
Per project
- Most common
- $2,501–$5,000 a project
- Average
- Varies widely by scope
- How common
- 48.9% of providers offer it
- Best for
- Audits, site migrations and one-off builds with a clear end point.
Source: Ahrefs, “SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost? 439 People Polled”, updated August 2024. Averages assume the top of each price band the providers chose.
Budgets
What each SEO budget realistically buys
The same monthly figure can buy very different work. This is what we'd expect at each level, and which of our plans sits there.
Under $500 a month
Usually a freelancer's part-time attention or an automated package. Fine for advice or one-off fixes. Be wary if it promises rankings: there's no room at this price for real content or links.
We don't offer a plan below $500.$500–$1,000 a month
A focused plan for one small site or one location: the technical fixes that matter, Google Business Profile work, a couple of new pages a month and clear tracking.
Our plan hereStarter, $500/mo$1,000–$3,000 a month
Enough to compete in one city or a mid-sized niche: a full technical clean-up, steady content each month and the first link outreach.
Our plan hereProfessional, $1,000/mo$3,000–$6,500 a month
Content at pace, digital PR that earns coverage, several locations or markets, and tracking of how often AI answers cite you.
Our plan hereGrowth, $3,200/mo$6,500+ a month
Large or complex sites: migrations, several countries and languages, custom reporting and a senior strategist who isn't spread across many clients.
Our plan hereEnterprise, $6,500+/mo
Cost drivers
What makes SEO cost more, and how to keep it down
Six things decide most of the price. For each one, there's usually a way to spend less without cutting what matters.
How competitive your searches are
Ranking for “accountant” in a big city takes far more content and links than ranking for a narrow service in a small town.
To spend less: Start with narrower, high-intent searches you can win, then widen.
How many markets, locations or languages
Each country or location needs its own pages, listings and tracking, and multi-country sites need hreflang done properly.
To spend less: Start in the one market that already buys the most from you.
Site size and platform
A 10,000-product store has problems a 10-page brochure site never will, such as filtered URLs and duplicate product pages.
To spend less: Fix page templates, not pages one at a time.
How much new content you need
Research, writing and expert review are most of the hours in an SEO plan.
To spend less: Give us notes, recordings or rough drafts from your experts; editing is cheaper than writing from nothing.
Links and digital PR
Earning coverage on trusted sites takes original research and outreach time. Buying links is cheaper and risks a penalty.
To spend less: Use relationships you already have: suppliers, partners, associations and local press.
Who makes the changes
If we implement fixes on your site, those hours are in the price.
To spend less: If your developers can ship tickets, you pay for direction rather than implementation.
India vs US
Why SEO from India costs less, and what to check first
Where your provider is based changes the price more than almost anything else. In the Ahrefs survey, 76% of India-based providers charged $1,000 a month or less, while 79.1% of providers in the US and Canada charged $1,001 or more.
That gap is mostly salaries and office costs, not skill. But cheap offshore SEO earned its bad reputation too, so before hiring any agency in India (us included), check four things: the named people who will do the work, a written method you can read before you sign, prices or a written scope up front, and that every account and piece of content stays in your name.
Our guides on offshore vs local SEO and choosing an SEO agency go through those checks in detail.
Our prices
Our published SEO prices
Four plans, the same in every market and converted to your currency. No setup fee, no annual contract, 30 days' notice to cancel.
Starter
$500/month
£400 · CA$700 · A$750
- Initial technical audit with prioritised fix list
- Up to 10 priority keywords tracked
- 2 pieces of content per month
- Monthly reporting dashboard
Professional
$1,000/month
£800 · CA$1,400 · A$1,500
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- Full technical audit and remediation roadmap
- Up to 15 priority keywords tracked
- 3 pieces of content per month
- Basic link-building outreach
Growth
$3,200/month
£2,500 · CA$4,400 · A$4,900
- Everything in Professional, plus:
- Up to 90 keywords, across multiple markets if relevant
- 10 pieces of content per month
- Digital PR and link-earning campaigns
- AI citation tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
Enterprise
$6,500+/month
£5,200+ · CA$9,000+ · A$10,000+
- Everything in Growth, plus:
- Multi-country hreflang program design and implementation
- A dedicated senior strategist (not shared across a large roster)
- Migration and replatform support
- Custom dashboards and data feeds
Compare every deliverable side by side on the pricing page, or see the local SEO packages if you serve customers in a particular area.
Is it worth it?
Is SEO worth the cost? A quick break-even check
Before comparing quotes, work out how many extra customers a month SEO needs to bring in to pay for itself:
Customers needed per month = monthly SEO cost ÷ (average sale value × profit margin)
Example: a $1,000-a-month plan, for a business whose average customer spends $2,000 at a 50% margin, needs one extra customer a month to break even ($1,000 ÷ ($2,000 × 0.5) = 1). If customers come back or refer others, use their lifetime value instead of a single sale.
Allow for the lag: most SEO takes three to six months before it brings enquiries in competitive searches. If one extra customer a month would cover the fee, SEO is usually worth testing. If you'd need dozens, start with a smaller scope or with paid search. Our SEO cost calculator suggests a plan level from your site and goals.
Red flags
Five warning signs in a cheap SEO quote
- Guaranteed first-page or #1 rankings. Nobody controls Google's results.
- A fixed number of backlinks a month. That usually means bought or low-quality links.
- No access to your own analytics, Search Console or Google Business Profile.
- Long lock-in contracts with vague deliverables such as “on-page optimization”.
- Reports that show rankings only, never traffic, enquiries or sales.
SEO cost FAQ
For most small and mid-sized businesses, SEO costs between $500 and $5,000 a month. In Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, the most common monthly retainer was $501–$1,000 and the average was $2,917. Our published plans run from $500 to $6,500+ a month.
Most small businesses can do meaningful SEO for $500 to $1,500 a month. In the same Ahrefs survey, local SEO retainers averaged $1,557 a month. Our small business plans are $500 (Starter) and $1,000 (Professional) a month.
Monthly for ongoing work, because SEO results build on each other. Hourly for advice and training. Per project for work with a clear end, such as an audit or a site migration.
Scope, seniority and location. In Ahrefs' survey, providers with five to ten years' experience averaged $3,648 a month against $1,541 for those with two years or less, and providers in the US and Canada charged far more than those in India. Compare quotes by deliverables, not just the monthly number.
Sometimes: audits, site migrations and rebuilds. Our written SEO audit is free. Migrations and replatforms are scoped in writing and are included in our Enterprise plan.
Usually. In Ahrefs' survey, 76% of India-based providers charged $1,000 a month or less, while 79.1% of US and Canadian providers charged $1,001 or more. The difference is mostly labour cost, so check who does the work, how, and who owns the results.
Find out what your site actually needs
The free audit tells you which work is worth paying for, before you sign anything.