Contents
Key Takeaways
- The most common SEO retainer is $501 to $1,000 a month, but agencies average $3,209 a month in Ahrefs' survey of 439 providers.
- Price follows competition, the number of locations, the size and condition of the site, and how much content and link building the plan includes.
- A low retainer usually buys reporting and small fixes; a plan that produces new content and earns links every month costs more.
- Compare plans by what they deliver each month and what they promise to measure, not by the monthly fee alone.
- An audit is the cheapest way to find out what your site needs before committing to a retainer.
SEO retainers run from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a month. The most common bracket in a survey of 439 providers was $501 to $1,000 a month, while agencies averaged $3,209. Agencies charge more than freelancers, and competitive industries, multiple locations and large sites cost more again. Below are the figures from two recent industry surveys, what drives the price up or down, and our own prices in full.
The Short Answer: Typical SEO Prices
Two surveys give a good picture of the market.
Ahrefs surveyed 439 SEO providers and published the results in August 2024:
| Pricing model | Average | Most common |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer, agencies | $3,209 a month | |
| Monthly retainer, freelancers | $1,348.63 a month | |
| Monthly retainer, consultants | $3,250 a month | |
| Monthly retainer, all providers | $501 to $1,000 a month (20.4% of providers) | |
| Hourly rate, all providers | $111 an hour | $75 to $100 an hour (24% of providers) |
| One-off project, agencies | $9,507.84 | $2,501 to $5,000 (21.2% of providers) |
Source: Ahrefs SEO pricing survey.
SE Ranking surveyed 260 agencies in December 2024. It found that 64% of agencies offer monthly retainers under $1,000, that 22% of North American agencies charge more than $2,000 a month against 9% in Europe, and that 40% of agencies in the US and Canada charge over $125 an hour.
The gap between the most common price and the agency average tells you something: there are many small retainers in the market, and a smaller number of larger ones that pull the average up.
How SEO Is Priced
Providers use three models, and many offer more than one. In the Ahrefs survey, 78.2% charged a monthly retainer, 48.9% offered project pricing and 34.8% charged by the hour.
- Monthly retainer: a fixed fee for ongoing work. Suits growth, because rankings depend on steady content, technical upkeep and links.
- Project: a fixed price for a defined job, such as an audit, a site migration or a batch of pages.
- Hourly: advice, training or ad hoc help, usually from consultants.
What Drives the Price
The same word, SEO, covers very different amounts of work. These are the factors that move the price most:
- Competition. Ranking a personal injury lawyer in a large city takes far more content and links than ranking a specialist supplier in a small market.
- Number of locations. Each location needs its own Business Profile work, local pages and citations.
- Size and condition of the site. A 20-page site with clean code costs less to audit and maintain than a 5,000-page store with years of technical debt.
- Content volume. Writing and publishing eight researched pages a month costs more than writing two.
- Links and digital PR. Earning mentions on respected sites is slow, skilled work and often the largest cost in a competitive plan.
- Conversion and tracking work. Some plans stop at rankings; others also improve the pages so more visitors call or book, and track the leads.
- Reporting and access. Fortnightly calls, dashboards and a named strategist cost more than a monthly PDF.
What You Tend to Get at Each Price Level
In our experience of the US market, and the proposals prospects bring us, the budget changes the work in a predictable way:
- A low retainer usually covers monthly reporting, small on-page fixes and Business Profile upkeep, with little or no new content or link building.
- A mid-range retainer adds technical fixes, a few new or improved pages a month and some local citations or outreach.
- A full program adds a steady flow of new content, link building or digital PR, conversion work and lead tracking.
- Multi-location and large-store plans scale all of that across locations or thousands of product pages, with dedicated strategists.
Ask any provider which of these their quote covers. Two quotes can differ by thousands of dollars a month because they describe different jobs.
What We Charge
We publish our prices because the question above deserves a straight answer. Our SEO services cost:
| Plan | Price | For |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest | $3,500 a month | Single-location businesses and smaller sites |
| The 90-Day Lead Engine | $5,500 a month | Our main plan, with every bonus and the guarantee |
| Multi-Location | $9,000 a month | Three or more locations, or national online stores |
There is a $2,500 setup fee, waived if you prepay the first quarter, and prepaying a quarter saves 10%. The minimum term is three months, then monthly with 30 days' notice.
If you are not ready for a retainer, our SEO audit is sold on its own at $999 for the first 20 audits, then $1,500, and the fee is credited if you hire us within 30 days.
Is SEO Worth the Cost?
SEO is worth paying for when the extra customers it brings are worth more than the fee. A simple test: work out what one new customer is worth to you, then how many a month the plan would need to bring in to pay for itself.
For a roofer where one job is worth several thousand dollars, one or two extra jobs a month can cover a mid-range retainer. For a business where a customer is worth $50, SEO needs to bring many more customers, and a smaller plan or a one-off audit may make more sense. The calculator on our SEO services page does this sum with your own numbers.
Here is what steady SEO work did for one client, a home warranty provider, over a year:
Red Flags When Comparing SEO Quotes
Google's own guide to hiring an SEO is blunt: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Be wary of any provider who:
- Guarantees a specific ranking or claims a special relationship with Google.
- Will not explain what they will do each month, or keeps changes to your site secret.
- Talks about link schemes or submitting your site to thousands of directories.
- Reports only rankings, never calls, forms or sales.
- Contacts you out of the blue with an audit full of alarming warnings.
A fair guarantee promises measurable movement against a baseline you agree at the start, with the conditions written down.
How to Budget for SEO
- Start with an audit so you know what the site needs before you commit to a monthly fee. Our SEO audit checklist shows what one should cover.
- Commit for at least six months if you choose a retainer. SEO rarely shows its full effect in the first quarter.
- Agree how you will measure it before work starts: leads, calls and bookings from organic search, not only positions.
- Review every quarter and move budget toward what is working.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does SEO cost per month for a small business?
In SE Ranking's 2024 survey of 260 agencies, 64% offered retainers under $1,000 a month, while in North America 22% charged over $2,000. A single-location business in a competitive trade usually needs a plan at the upper end to see results within a year.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
Sometimes, for a small site in a quiet market where the basics are all that is missing. For competitive services, a very low retainer rarely covers the content and link building that move rankings, so it often buys reports rather than results. Ask exactly what will be delivered each month.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
Fixes to pages that already rank on page two can bring more visits within weeks. New pages and link building usually take three to six months to show clear movement, and longer in competitive markets. A good provider will agree how progress is measured before starting.
Why do SEO prices vary so much?
Because the work varies. A small plan and a large plan may both be called SEO, but one might cover monthly reporting and small fixes while the other includes new content, technical work, digital PR and conversion improvements every month.
Should I pay for SEO by the hour, by project or monthly?
Monthly retainers suit ongoing growth because rankings need steady content and links. Project pricing suits a defined job such as an audit, a migration or a site rebuild. Hourly pricing suits advice and training. Many businesses start with an audit, then move to a retainer.