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Written by Michael Ofei
This is a complete guide to SEO pricing in 2026.
We surveyed over 300 SEO professionals with experience ranging from 1 to 10+ years.
Here are the highlights:
These numbers vary based on your business size, competition, and the provider’s experience.
I’ll explain this in detail, including how to think about your return on SEO costs.
Free resource: Download our SEO Vendor Evaluation Cheat Sheet. It has key questions to ask providers, red flags to note, a metrics tracker, and a proposal comparison worksheet.
The average monthly cost for SEO services is $1,000-$2,500.
Rates are influenced by several factors (more on that later).
We collected detailed data on the three main pricing models in the industry:
Let’s break down what you can expect to pay with each approach.
Monthly retainers remain the most popular pricing option. This reflects the ongoing nature of SEO work.
Here’s what businesses are paying:
The pricing breakdown above shows that location greatly affects rates.
Your investment level also decides the services you can expect at each price point.
Hourly rates for SEO consultants usually range from $50 to $100. This depends on the consultant’s experience and where they’re located.
Our data shows a near-linear relationship between years of experience and hourly rates.
For each year of experience, rates increase by about $15-25 per hour, up to 10 years.
When to use hourly rates: Think about hourly pricing for technical projects, strategy consultations, or when you need expert help for a short time.
For one-time initiatives or specific campaigns, project-based pricing generally falls between $1,000 and $5,000.
Technical SEO overhauls and link building campaigns have the highest rates in every region.
When project-based pricing works: Use this model for clear initiatives with set deliverables and timelines.
A handful of factors influence how much you’ll pay for SEO. It’s crucial to understand them to get bang for your buck.
We asked our respondents to rate the impact of these factors. Let’s take a look at the findings.
Impact: Extremely High (Rated 5/5 by SEO professionals)
If your website has thousands of pages, it’ll need much more work than a small site with just a few pages.
For instance, a small local plumber’s website with 10 pages requires far less optimization than an online clothing store with many product pages.
Impact: Very High (Rated 4.5/5)
If your business operates in a highly competitive market like finance, legal services, or health insurance, you’ll face steeper SEO costs.
Why?
Because ranking in competitive industries is just harder.
Your SEO provider will need to contend with:
All of this translates to more work and resources required to get you results.
Impact: High (Rated 4.2/5)
Our survey shows a direct link between an SEO provider’s experience and their pricing.
Like any industry, skilled pros deliver better results in less time.
They’ve created effective systems, spot problems quickly, and have practical strategies that work.
Plus, they’ve likely built a network of relationships for link building and have case studies to prove their approach works.
Impact: Significant (Rated 3.8/5)
The breadth of SEO services you choose directly impacts what you’ll pay:
Impact: Moderate to Significant (Rated 3.3/5)
While less important than other factors, location still creates substantial pricing differences:
Understanding these factors can help you contextualize quotes and see if they suit your situation.
Technical issues? Take a look at our comprehensive guide to technical SEO to see what might be hindering your organic traffic.
Effective SEO is responsive and strategic.
Your investment level typically determines three key factors: depth, breadth, and expertise.
Let’s see how SEO services realistically scale with investment.
At this price point, you’re normally working with:
Strategic focus: Most providers at this level focus on one main area instead of trying to cover all of SEO.
Realistic expectations: Think of this as strategic guidance with limited execution. Progress will be gradual, often requiring your team’s involvement to implement recommendations.
Best value when: You have a small site, face limited competition, or have staff to carry out recommendations.
This price range usually offers:
Strategic approach: Providers often start with high-impact fundamentals, then expand focus as those are addressed.
Examples:
Best value when: You want progress in several areas but can’t spend much. Or when you need expert help in a specific area of SEO.
This popular investment level provides:
Strategic depth: At this tier, providers can address multiple SEO components simultaneously:
Flexibility: Instead of rigid deliverables, mid-tier pricing allows providers to allocate resources where they’ll create the most impact:
At this level, expect:
Strategic integration: Premium providers develop strategies that:
Expertise allocation: Your investment typically secures access to specialized talent:
Best value when: You operate in competitive industries, need to overcome significant SEO challenges, or when organic traffic is a primary revenue channel for your business.
Further reading: How to Become an SEO Expert
The highest investment tier provides:
Strategic distinction: Enterprise-level SEO is characterized by:
Resource allocation: Your investment secures both breadth and depth:
Best value when: You operate large websites, compete in highly competitive markets, or need enterprise-grade technical implementations and strategies.
Further reading: Enterprise SEO: Strategies for Large-Scale Success
When budgeting for SEO, look beyond the provider’s fee.
Successful SEO often involves extra costs that will not show up on your invoice.
Most SEO projects need your collaboration.
This might include:
Even with full-service providers, set aside a few hours each week for these collaboration tasks (at least at the beginning).
The “hidden costs” can change a lot depending on your provider’s focus and your SEO plan.
Technical SEOs are great at site audits and fixing performance issues, but content creation is often outside their scope.
Content-focused providers produce engaging content, but usually rely on your development team to handle technical implementations.
Link-building specialists are skilled at securing valuable backlinks, but may not focus on optimizing your on-site elements.
Full-service agencies take care of everything, but usually come with a higher price tag due to the need to maintain a diverse team of experts.
What do you do?
Find out what your provider doesn’t cover. Then, choose if you’ll manage it yourself or raise your budget.
Further reading: How to Create an Effective SEO Strategy in 2026
When your consultant makes recommendations, someone needs to do them.
If your SEO package doesn’t include implementation, you’ll need:
The speedier your implementation, the faster you’ll see results.
Delayed execution means delayed ROI.
The bottom line?
Account for both financial costs and resource commitments when planning your SEO budget.
With these factors in mind, let’s see how to determine if that investment will actually pay off.
Will you see a return on your SEO investment? And when?
Knowing the usual cost pattern, what affects results, and how to calculate potential returns can help you set realistic expectations.
SEO is a mid to long-term marketing channel that typically follows this trajectory:
Caveat:
This is a general guide. 10 different websites will likely have very different timelines. Let’s look at the factors.
A skilled SEO consultant should work with you to develop a realistic forecast based on your context.
While precise ROI prediction is challenging, this simple formula provides a starting point:
Monthly SEO Value = Monthly Organic Traffic × Conversion Rate × Average Order Value
For example:
5,000 visitors × 2% conversion rate × $100 average order = $10,000 monthly value
If your SEO investment is $2,000 monthly, that’s a 5x monthly return once you reach those traffic levels.
Important consideration: SEO’s true ROI extends beyond direct conversions. Consider the lifetime value of customers, reduced dependency on paid advertising, brand authority, and the compounding nature of organic traffic growth.
I reached out to the SEO agency StudioHawk to request a client case study. I wanted to highlight what consistent SEO investment can achieve, including all related costs.
They agreed.
To ensure accuracy, I personally contacted the client featured to verify all results and ROI calculations shared.
Note: All figures are in AUD.
Hunter Talent is an Australian talent agency representing over 300 actors, models, and influencers.
When they started SEO, they had:
The SEO contract is a $1,500 month-to-month retainer, which includes:
Additional investment: The client also spent $6,000 on a three-month digital PR campaign to complement their SEO efforts.
Total investment is 60 months x $1,500 monthly retainer + $6,000 digital PR campaign = $96,000.
The traffic impact
The revenue impact
“We started SEO before we even launched the brand — investing from day one. We’ve never run paid ads, and today, the brand brings in seven figures annually.
Around 85% of our revenue is driven purely by organic traffic — through briefed clients, talent applications, and inbound inquiries.”
– Adam Jacobs, Managing Director
While this is an inspiring outcome, it isn’t a usual case for SEO ROI. You should expect more modest but still significant returns.
What made this engagement particularly successful?
Beyond these factors, the client believes in SEO as a primary marketing channel.
This shared belief often leads to a more effective campaign. Everyone gets the idea of delayed gratification and how SEO builds over time.
Different SEO providers structure their offerings differently. This makes it tough to know how much to pay.
We’ve created a free cheat sheet to use when talking with SEOs. Let’s break down some of the essential components.
Before reviewing any proposals, ask potential providers these key questions:
Don’t settle for vague answers.
For example, if they say they’ll “improve your rankings,” ask: “Which specific keywords, and what’s the traffic potential?”
Keep an eye out for warning signs.
The biggest red flags include:
Use our comparison worksheet to standardize proposals.
This makes it much easier to see which provider offers the best value, not just the lowest price.
When you use this worksheet:
Now you know what SEO costs in 2026 and what affects pricing.
Use our cheat sheet to compare at least 3-5 SEO providers before deciding. Focus on the value they’ll deliver rather than just the price tag.
The more you understand SEO, the better your chances of boosting your ROI.
Check out our guide on how to learn SEO. Taking 15-30 minutes to read it could save you $1,000s.
Backlinko is owned by Semrush. We’re still obsessed with bringing you world-class SEO insights, backed by hands-on experience. Unless otherwise noted, this content was written by either an employee or paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
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