How Much Does SEO Cost?

SEO pricing can be hourly, project-based, or monthly retainers. Monthly SEO management can cost anywhere from $250/month to over $10,000/month depending on the scope of the services and the goals for the campaign. Webtyde serves clients at both ends of the spectrum and we’re happy to discuss your needs and create a free proposal.

 

SEO Package Pricing

Our SEO services start at $950/month. We have 5 pre-set packages that are $950, $1950, $3,500, $6,500, and $12,500 per month, respectively. We also build custom SEO packages with custom SEO pricing depending on the specific needs of our clients.

On the spectrum of SEO agency pricing, we’re in the mid-range because we’re a boutique agency that delivers significant value, across the board.

 

SEO Billing Models

Project-Based SEO

SEO projects are short-term, finite, and billed in lump sums. The most common SEO projects are on-site and technical SEO audits. Audits are typically used by large companies with technical staff on hand ready to implement the changes suggested in the audit. 

Hourly SEO

Hourly SEO consulting is great for companies with a limited budget but plenty of manpower. We can create a custom, ongoing marketing plan and train your team to carry it out. Our consulting fees are $100/hour.

 

Retainer-Based SEO

Monthly retainer SEO is the most common billing model because any ongoing SEO project is going to take time. The client agrees to pay the agency a monthly fee for a set list of SEO deliverables and the agency has ample opportunity to prove their worth. Monthly SEO management is especially helpful if SEO is critical to your business because search engines change their algorithms frequently and having an SEO specialist already on retainer will help you adapt to changing standards quickly.

 

Categories of SEO Packages

We’ll take a look at what you can expect for your money at several different price points.

Low-Cost SEO Packages ($150-$500/mo.)

If you search for “SEO Pricing” or “SEO Packages” on Google, you’re more than likely to come across monthly SEO pricing in the $150-$500/month range. If you’re a small business on a budget, these may be the best option for you. We don’t typically offer services in this price range because a higher monthly investment in digital marketing often more than pays for itself and results in a better value for our clients. Most businesses benefit from more services than $150-$500/month can provide. We recommend services in this price range for clients with modest goals who generate new content for their website consistently and need an SEO specialist to go in and optimize it to make sure the content can reach their audience. If you’re trying to rank for fairly competitive keywords in a city, this level of service would be a waste of your time but if you are one of two pizza restaurants in a small town, this would be fine.

Most often, these packages include Local SEO management (citation building), reporting, and possibly a limited amount of content generation. Don’t expect to get 4 high-end researched blocks of onsite content or blog content from these entry-level plans. As a point of reference, our 1000-word blog posts cost $450 each. It’s because we stuff them full of quality and each one is optimized by our in-house SEO experts.

 

Mid-Range SEO Packages ($950-$2,000/mo.)

This is where the magic starts to happen and you’re purchasing enough services to start to see real results. This range of services usually consists of on-site SEO and content generation. Most of our clients in this range are also utilizing PPC campaigns. Packages at this level include monthly reports, better quality content generation, and a wider variety of available services to fit your needs. We love mid-range SEO packages because they give early-stage small businesses the opportunity to experience the positive outcomes delivered by effective content marketing.

 

Upper-Range SEO Packages ($2,500-$5,000/mo.)

Now we’re cooking with gas. According to this industry study by Ahrefs, the most frequently reported monthly SEO package with services performed by an SEO agency in the United States costs between $2,500 and $5,000/month. Keep in mind, that’s only the most popular segment of pricing from the list of pricing options provided.

SEO plans that exceed $2,500/month in investment include a good mix of on-site SEO, content development, and link building: the three essential building blocks of a successfully executed SEO strategy. You’re generally not going to find effective link building below this price point because link building is labor-intensive and requires skill and professional contacts. Link building is an essential component of SEO and we highly our clients to utilize it whenever possible. This is also the price point where we can create a large volume of high-quality, sometimes industry-leading, content and build our client’s audience and reputation in their industry.

 

High-Investment SEO Packages ($5,000-$25,000+/mo.)

Above $5,000/month, we enter a few new hidden segments of SEO packages. Let’s take a closer look:

Small Business SEO: Typically, small businesses with less than 50 employees engage in SEO plans that cost as much as $10,000/month (occasionally, much more). – While on the more expensive end, many small businesses make considerable investments in SEO which, if done right, will do great things for those small businesses ’ bottom lines.

Enterprise SEO Services: Lots of enterprise companies spend between $10,000/month and $75,000/month on high-end SEO packages. These SEO plans typically require that agencies have specific teams dedicated to enterprise accounts, depending on the monthly SEO pricing.

eCommerce SEO: eCommerce stores are another big spender when it comes to SEO. The primary reason for this is that revenue can be directly attributed to SEO investment. In other words, it’s very easy to retain and convince eCommerce SEO clients to increase monthly investment in SEO services when you can prove that every $1 they spend on their SEO package brings back $6.50 in revenue.

Aside from these three categories, some companies exist in highly-competitive industries and/or markets. For example, a personal injury attorney in New York City could pay $20,000/month to generate as much search engine visibility as a plumber in a suburban town with 25,000 residents paying $2,000/month. 

When we talk about SEO retainers that exceed $10,000/month, a few more elements come into play (in addition to the three core pillars of SEO discussed above). Beyond standard onsite SEO, content development, and link building, high-investment SEO packages may involve the following services:

Public Relations (PR): PR-style link building entails acquiring links from household-name websites including Forbes, USA Today, Manta, Github, and many more. These types of links not only contribute to a site’s overall authority as it relates to PageRank (one of the ways Google tracks a web entity’s authority) but also increase a brand’s credibility and social proof when linking site’s logos are used. These types of links can contribute over $2,000-$5,000 each to an SEO package’s cost.

Infographic and Digital Asset Development: Another reason high-investment SEO plans are so effective (warranting the higher-than-normal cost) is the development of linkable content. SEO agencies and infographic agencies may include services like independent research for developing infographics in-house to add to link building efforts and results.

This is, in no way shape, or form, an exhaustive list – rather, a sampling of what could contribute to a higher-investment SEO campaign in the $10,000+ range.

 

A Real SEO Plan Breakdown

Let’s look at what one of our most popular packages will get you.

 

SMB SEO Package – $3,500/mo.

This is our basic SEO package for small-medium businesses with relatively low-competition keywords. This SEO package includes deliverables curated by our senior in-house SEO expert. This campaign includes the following deliverables every month:

 

• 2 onsite SEO content deliverables (about $900) – These content deliverables can be used for your blog, service page, product pages, or other content areas on your website. The content is heavily researched by premium content writers and optimized thoroughly by your campaign’s dedicated in-house SEO specialist. This content is the cornerstone of your SEO package and contributes roughly $900 to the total price of the SEO pricing for this SEO Package.
• 5 hours of SEO consulting & implementation (about $500) – We designate 5 hours per month to SEO strategy on your campaign from your SEO campaign’s dedicated SEO strategist. Your strategist will typically use this time to optimize your onsite SEO unless there are other requests that align with your overall SEO goals.
• 3 hours of senior SEO strategy (about $300) – We designate three hours of senior SEO consulting to this SEO package every single month. During this time, one of our senior SEO specialists will consider search engine algorithm updates, your campaign’s performance trends, and front-line SEO industry strategies to tailor your campaign’s direction.
• Agency SEO reporting & research software (about $300) – This SEO package includes an arsenal of the best SEO software available to businesses, at a fraction of the cost thanks to our ability to spread the costs across our entire client base. The SEO software suite we use to deliver on SEO packages includes Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, AnswerThePublic, ScreamingFrog, SpyFu, and many more.
• Authority development & link building (about $1,500) – All of our managed SEO plans (including this SEO package) include a specific budget designated towards curating and attracting high-authority backlinks. While we would love to disclose the mix of backlinks we acquire as part of each of our plans, we take the liberty to keep this one a secret so that we maintain our national competitive edge when compared to competing SEO agencies.
• Project management (client advocacy) & agency overhead – We do not create a separate line item for our world-class dedicated project managers. This is embedded in the line items listed above.

We’re happy to answer questions you have about SEO or SEO pricing. Consultations and proposals are always free.