How much does SEO cost per month?
Most monthly SEO retainers cost less than $2,000: 84% of the agencies in SE Ranking's survey charge under that. In the US and Canada prices run higher: Ahrefs found 79.1% of providers there charge at least $1,001 a month. Very cheap retainers often cover reporting and little else; expensive ones should come with a clear list of pages, fixes and people.
What the surveys say
Two public surveys are worth knowing. Ahrefs polled 439 SEO providers (agencies, freelancers and consultants). SE Ranking surveyed agencies only, 260 in total. Neither is perfect, but they agree on the broad picture.
- Monthly retainers dominate. 78.2% of the providers Ahrefs polled charge this way, 48.9% charge per project and 34.8% charge by the hour. Many use more than one model.
- Most retainers are modest. In SE Ranking's survey, 64% of agencies charge under $1,000 a month, 20% charge $1,000 to $2,000 and only 15% charge more than $2,000.
- Agencies charge more than freelancers. Ahrefs found 57.4% of agencies charge $1,001 or more a month, compared with 32.2% of freelancers.
- US and Canadian providers charge more. Looking at that region alone, Ahrefs found 79.1% charge at least $1,001 a month.
- Hourly rates cluster below $150. 90% of the Ahrefs respondents who bill hourly charge $150 or less, and 45% of SE Ranking's agencies charge between $50 and $100 an hour.
- Projects cost more up front. The most common per-project fee in the Ahrefs data is $2,501 to $5,000, charged by 21.2% of respondents.
- Most of these prices are for small and local businesses: 94% of the agencies in SE Ranking's survey serve that segment, and 85% sell SEO as packages.
The three ways SEO is priced
| Model | Best for | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | Ongoing work: technical fixes, new and improved pages, local listings, tracking and reporting. | A written list of what is delivered each month, the first-term length and how you can leave. |
| Project | A defined job: an audit, a site migration, a set of service pages. | The exact deliverables, the delivery date and whether fixes are included or only listed. |
| Hourly | Advice, training or help for an in-house team. | An estimate of hours before work starts, and a cap. |
Why quotes differ so much
Two quotes for “SEO” can describe very different amounts of work. A larger site with years of technical problems needs more fixing. A crowded market needs more and better pages, and more proof. Each extra city or country adds pages, listings and tracking. And a retainer that writes four strong pages a month costs more than one that writes none, because writing is often the biggest part of the work.
How much does local SEO cost?
Neither survey separates local SEO. But 94% of SE Ranking's agencies work mainly with small or local businesses, so its figures largely reflect local work: most of those agencies charge under $1,000 a month. What moves a local SEO price is the number of locations, how competitive your area is, and whether the work includes new location pages, review requests and listing clean-up as well as your Google Business Profile.
Our Essentials plan covers one website and one priority market, including Google Business Profile upkeep, from $1,500 a month. Local SEO explains what that work involves.
How much does SEO cost in the UK?
There is no large UK-only survey of SEO prices; most UK figures online come from agencies' own sales pages. The best independent data point is the UK group in Ahrefs' survey: the most common UK retainer was $1,000 to $1,500 a month, and most UK providers charged between $501 and $5,000. Ahrefs reports in US dollars and warns that it had little data for some regions, so treat the UK figures as a rough guide.
What moves a UK price is the same as anywhere: your site, your competition and how much is done each month. Our UK plans use the same numbers in pounds: Essentials from £1,500 a month, Growth from £2,500 and Scale from £5,500, with the SEO Audit and AI Visibility Audit at £495 each. UK pricing lists what each plan includes.
What's included in an SEO package?
Package names vary, but a useful monthly package states in numbers what you get:
- Technical fixes: which issues, and whether they are fixed or only reported.
- Pages: how many new pages are written, and how many existing pages improved, each month.
- Local work: Google Business Profile, reviews and listings, if you serve an area.
- Links and mentions: how they are earned. Never bought.
- AI search: which buyer questions are tracked, and on which platforms.
- Reporting: what is measured, how often, and a call to go through it.
If a package lists only “keyword optimization” and “a monthly report”, ask what will actually change on your site each month.
What AI search adds to the cost
Being recommended by ChatGPT, Google's AI answers and Perplexity mostly rests on the same work as good SEO: clear pages, accurate facts and crawlers that can reach your site. What it adds is measurement (asking a fixed set of buyer questions on each platform every month) and work on the other websites AI answers trust, such as directories, review sites and industry lists. That is real work, and it is reasonable for it to cost more.
Be wary of “AI SEO” packages built around special files or markup. Google says you don't need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, markup or Markdown to appear in Google Search, and that doing so will neither harm nor help. What is llms.txt? explains the most common example.
What we charge, and what's included
Our prices sit above the most common survey bands. That is deliberate: every plan includes AI answer tracking and new pages each month, which many smaller retainers don't. If you need less than this, a fixed-price audit and a fix list your own team can work through may be enough.
| Option | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Audit | $495, once | A crawl of up to 500 URLs, a Search Console review, your 20 most important pages reviewed, up to three competitors compared, and a prioritized fix list with a 30-minute walkthrough. Delivered in 10 business days. |
| AI Visibility Audit | $495, once | 30 buyer questions tested across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot, up to three competitors compared, a map of the sources AI relies on, and a 90-day action list. Delivered in 10 business days. |
| Essentials: SEO & AI search | From $1,500 a month | Both audits in month one and a 90-day roadmap, then each month: technical fixes, your top 30 buyer questions retested in AI answers, two page upgrades, two new answer pages, Google Business Profile upkeep, and a report with a 30-minute call. |
| Growth | From $2,500 a month | Everything in both Essentials plans: SEO and AI search plus Google Ads or Meta Ads, one campaign landing page, a lead-quality scorecard, weekly written updates and one joint monthly review. |
There is no setup fee. Every plan starts with a written scope and a 90-day first term, and what happens after that is agreed together in writing. If you start a monthly plan within 30 days of an audit, the audit fee is credited against your first month. Our UK site lists the same plans at the same numbers in pounds. Our pricing page also lists the Scale plan, for businesses that want more done each month.
Will SEO pay for itself?
A price only makes sense next to what extra customers are worth to you. Put a quote into our SEO ROI Calculator with your own conversion rate, close rate and margin: it shows the payback month and the extra visitors you need to break even, allowing for the months before results start. If you aren't sure where you stand, a fixed-price SEO Audit gives you the fix list first.
Red flags in an SEO quote
- Guaranteed rankings. Google's own advice is plain: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”
- A cold email offering to put you on page one. Google warns to be wary of SEO firms that email you out of the blue.
- A fee with no list of deliverables, or “X backlinks a month” as the main item.
- A long contract with no exit, before you have seen any work.
- AI packages that center on an llms.txt file or “AI schema”. Neither is needed to appear in Google Search.
Questions to ask before you sign
Google suggests a list of questions to ask any SEO before hiring. These are the ones we would ask first:
- Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
- What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
- How do you measure your success?
- What's your experience in my industry, and in my country or city?
- Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
Compare quotes side by side
Fill one column per quote. If an agency can't fill a row, ask them before you decide.
| What to compare | Quote A | Quote B | Quote C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee and setup fee | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| First-term length, and how to leave | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| New pages written each month | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| Existing pages improved each month | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| Technical fixes done, or only listed? | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| AI answer tracking (how many questions, which platforms) | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| Reporting and calls | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| Who does the work | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
| What is not included | Not supplied | Not supplied | Not supplied |
Questions people ask about SEO prices
How much does SEO cost for a small business?
Usually under $2,000 a month: 84% of the agencies in SE Ranking's survey charge less than that, and 94% of them work mainly with small or local businesses. What you pay depends on your site, your competition and how much is done each month.
How much should SEO cost?
Enough to pay for a written list of work each month: pages written or improved, technical fixes, tracking and reporting. Compare quotes by what they deliver, not by the fee, and check the price against what extra customers are worth to you with our SEO ROI Calculator.
How much does local SEO cost?
Neither large survey separates it, but most of SE Ranking's agencies work mainly with small or local businesses and charge under $1,000 a month. The price moves with the number of locations, how competitive your area is, and whether new location pages and listing clean-up are included.
How much does an SEO audit cost?
Ours is a fixed $495 (£495 in the UK), delivered in 10 business days, and credited against your first month if you start a monthly plan within 30 days. SEO audits lists what's included.
About this article
Survey figures are quoted from Ahrefs and SE Ranking as published, with their dates. The UK figures are read from Ahrefs' chart of monthly retainers by region. Our prices are the ones on our pricing pages in October 2026. The plumbing firm and its quotes are fictional.