Short answer
Most small businesses pay about $500 to $2,000 a month for ongoing SEO. Freelancers typically charge less than agencies, local SEO for a single location often runs $500 to $1,500 a month, and one-off audits range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Anything under about $300 a month for full SEO usually means template work, and anyone guaranteeing rankings should be avoided.
SEO pricing is hard to compare because providers bundle different things under the same word. This guide pulls together the published surveys and price pages I could verify, explains what usually sits behind each price level, and finishes with exactly what I charge. Most figures come from SEO companies and software vendors, who have a commercial interest, so treat them as ranges rather than rules.
How SEO is priced
Four models cover almost everything you will be quoted:
- Monthly retainer. A fixed fee for an agreed list of deliverables. This is the most common model: in a BrightLocal survey, 63% of agencies and 51% of freelancers charged a monthly fee based on deliverables.
- Project fee. A one-off price for a defined piece of work, such as an audit, a migration or a set of pages.
- Hourly. Used for consulting and small fixes. In the Ahrefs pricing survey, SEO providers averaged about $111 an hour, with freelancers near $72 and agencies near $99.
- Performance based. Paying per lead or per ranking. It is rare (BrightLocal found only 2 to 3% of providers using per-lead pricing) and carries real risks, covered below.
What SEO retainers cost
The two largest published surveys describe the market from different angles:
| Source | What it found |
|---|---|
| Ahrefs (439 SEO providers) | SEO usually costs $250 to $10,000 a month, and 63% of businesses spend $500 to $5,000. The most common retainer band is $501 to $1,000. Average retainers were about $1,349 for freelancers and about $3,200 for agencies and consultancies, calculated as upper-bound estimates. |
| SE Ranking (260 agencies) | 64% of agencies charged under $1,000 a month and 30% charged under $500. In North America, 22% charged more than $2,000 a month. |
| BrightLocal (local SEO providers, 2023) | Average monthly revenue per US client was $799 in the first year, rising to about $1,349 to $1,569 in years two and three. |
The Ahrefs survey is likely from around 2023 and mixes providers worldwide, though it reports that 79% of providers in the US and Canada charge $1,001 or more a month. Treat all of these as a map of the market, not a quote.
What local SEO costs
If you serve customers in specific towns, local SEO is the most relevant price. Published figures include:
- Ahrefs reports local SEO averaging about $1,557 a month, with agencies near $1,819 and freelancers near $1,150.
- Google Business Profile management on its own often sells for roughly $100 to $500 a month. Whitespark, a well-known Canadian local SEO company, lists its profile plan at $499 a month.
- Contractor-focused guides quote starter local SEO at $750 to $1,500 a month and growth plans at $1,500 to $3,500, for example from Nopio and The Search Sherpa. These are vendor estimates.
- Building directory listings (citations) costs roughly $2 to $3.20 each through tools such as BrightLocal, so it is usually a one-time setup cost rather than a monthly one.
What you get at each price level
| Monthly price | What is realistic |
|---|---|
| Under about $300 | Template work, directory submissions or low-value tasks. A sign to ask hard questions, not a sign of a bargain. |
| About $300 to $500 | A narrow product, such as Google Business Profile management only. Fine if that is what you need. |
| About $500 to $1,000 | The most common band: profile work, citations, on-page changes to a few pages each month and reporting. |
| About $1,000 to $2,500 | Everything above plus new pages or content, internal linking and some local link outreach. |
| $2,500 and up | Larger sites, several locations or competitive markets, with heavier content and link work. |
One-time costs
- SEO audits. Local audits covering site, profile and citations commonly list at $500 to $3,000. Technical audits from agencies range from about $2,500 to $15,000 for large sites. Freelancers and small consultants are usually at the lower end.
- Setup. Citation clean-up, profile set-up and first technical fixes are often priced as one-time items, typically a few hundred dollars.
- Website changes or new pages. Billed separately unless the plan says otherwise.
What changes the price
- Competition. Ranking for a plumber in a small town is a different job from ranking for "SEO services" nationally.
- Number of locations and pages. Each extra town or branch adds profile and page work.
- Website condition. Technical problems, slow pages or a site that is hard to edit raise the starting cost.
- Content and links. New pages, guides and outreach take real time.
- The provider. Experience, location and team size all move prices, and surveys show large agencies charge noticeably more.
Red flags
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google. This is a standard warning sign.
- "Top of Google for $199 a month." Several contractor-marketing sources warn about offers like this.
- No written deliverables. "SEO work" is not a deliverable. Ask what is done each month.
- The provider owns your accounts or site. You should own your Google Business Profile, analytics and domain.
- Long contracts with penalties. A three-month start is reasonable. Twelve-month lock-ins on an unproven provider are risky.
- Buying links or reviews. Both can get a site or profile penalised or suspended.
What I charge
My local SEO plans are priced at the low end of the market on purpose, because I am a remote, founder-led practice with no office and no account-manager layer, and I am building my first case studies. The scope in each plan is written out so you can compare it with any other quote.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| GBP Essentials | $399/month | Google Business Profile management only |
| Local SEO Foundations | $799/month | Profile, citations, core service pages and one new page a month |
| Local SEO Growth | $1,499/month | More pages, local link outreach and a quarterly strategy call |
| SEO audit | $125 | Site, profile and citations, credited if you hire me within 30 days |
Plans start with a 3-month period, then run month to month with 30 days' notice, and you own every account from day one. Full details are on the pricing page. For the work itself, see on-page SEO services and link building services. For trade-specific plans, see HVAC SEO, plumbing SEO, roofing SEO and dental SEO, or read how managed SEO works.
How to choose
Ask for the monthly deliverables in writing
Pages, profile tasks and reports, not vague promises.
Check who does the work
Is the person you speak to the person in your account?
Ask how results are measured
Calls and enquiries by page matter more than rankings alone.
Start with an audit if you are unsure
A small, fixed-price audit lets you judge the work before committing to a retainer. See the technical SEO audit checklist.
