Short answer: most businesses pay between $500 and $5,000 a month for SEO. In Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, the average monthly retainer was $2,917, but the most common price band was much lower, at $501 to $1,000 a month. Hourly work averages around $111 an hour, and one-off projects most often cost $2,501 to $5,000.
Those numbers hide a wide spread. A local plumber and a national ecommerce brand are not buying the same thing, even when both call it "SEO". The rest of this guide covers what each pricing model costs, what drives the price up or down, and what you should expect to get at each budget.
SEO pricing at a glance
SEO providers charge in three ways. Most use more than one: a project to fix the foundations, then a monthly retainer to keep growing.
| Pricing model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | $500 to $5,000 a month | Ongoing content, links and technical upkeep |
| Hourly | $75 to $200 an hour | Consulting, training, second opinions |
| Per project | $1,000 to $10,000 per project | Audits, migrations, one-off fixes |
Monthly retainers are the most common model: 78% of the providers Ahrefs surveyed offer one. Retainers suit SEO because results compound. Content published in month two is still bringing in traffic in month twelve, and links keep paying off long after they are earned.
What agencies, consultants and freelancers charge
Who you hire changes the price more than almost anything else. These are the average monthly retainers from the same Ahrefs survey:
| Provider | Average monthly retainer | What you typically get |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | $1,349 | One person, usually strongest in one area such as content or technical SEO |
| Agency | $3,209 | A team covering technical, content and links, with reporting and account management |
| Consultant | $3,250 | Senior strategy and direction, with your team or other vendors doing the work |
A freelancer can be excellent value if your needs are narrow. An agency costs more because several specialists are working on your site, and someone is accountable for bringing it together. A consultant is worth paying for when you already have people to do the work and need someone to point them in the right direction.
What makes SEO cost more or less
How competitive your market is
Ranking a dentist in one town is a different job from ranking a software company for "project management tool" across the US. The more established sites you are up against, the more content and links you need, and the longer it takes.
How big and how broken your site is
A 15-page brochure site has a short technical checklist. A 20,000-product store with faceted navigation, duplicate pages and slow templates needs real engineering time before content work can pay off.
How much content you need
Content is usually the biggest line item in a retainer. Two well-researched articles a month and twelve are very different budgets, and pages that need subject-matter input, original data or design cost more than straightforward guides.
Whether links are included
Earning links through digital PR, partnerships and genuinely useful resources is slow, skilled work. Some retainers include it; many cheap ones skip it or buy low-quality links that can do more harm than good.
Where your provider is based and how experienced they are
Ahrefs found that providers serving clients worldwide charge more than twice as much as those serving only their local area: $3,474 a month on average, against $1,557. Experience counts too. Providers in business for 5 to 10 years averaged $3,648 a month, against $1,541 for those in their first two years. In the US and Canada, 79% of providers charge at least $1,001 a month.
What you get at each budget
These bands are a guide based on what the work takes, not survey figures. Use them to sense-check a proposal.
- Under $500 a month: enough for basic local SEO, such as keeping a Google Business Profile up to date and fixing on-page basics. Rarely enough for content or links. Be wary of anyone promising national rankings at this price.
- $500 to $1,500 a month: a focused program. Expect a technical audit and fixes, a few pages or articles a month, and monthly reporting. A good fit for small businesses in moderately competitive markets.
- $1,500 to $5,000 a month: a full program with technical work, a steady content plan, link building and proper reporting. This is where most growing businesses competing nationally land.
- $5,000+ a month: large sites, very competitive markets, or several markets at once. Usually includes dedicated strategists, writers, developers and digital PR.
What SEO costs with Orbital
Our prices are published on our pricing page, so you can compare us with anyone else before we talk.
- Starter, $1,200 a month: SEO as your one service, with a dedicated project manager, weekly updates and two-week sprints.
- Growth, $3,400 a month: up to three services bundled, for example SEO, web development and content, with a senior strategist and weekly strategy and reporting calls.
- Scale, $7,900 a month: unlimited services with an embedded fractional CMO or CTO, for businesses running several channels at once.
Every monthly plan has a 90-day minimum, then runs month to month. You can see what's included in the program on our technical SEO services page.
Is SEO worth the cost?
The simplest way to judge it is to compare SEO with buying the same traffic. Work out what a visitor is worth to you, then compare the monthly fee with the organic traffic and leads it brings in once it is working.
Here is a worked example with made-up numbers. Say 2% of visitors become leads and you close one lead in five, at $3,000 a customer. Each visitor is worth $12. A $1,500 monthly program pays for itself at 125 extra visitors a month, and the traffic it builds keeps arriving after the work is done, which paid ads do not.
The catch is time. SEO usually takes six to nine months to compound, longer in very competitive markets, so it suits businesses that can invest ahead of the return. If you need leads next week, paid search or paid social ads are the better tool, and they work well alongside SEO.
Red flags in cheap SEO
- Guaranteed #1 rankings. Google's own guide to hiring an SEO is blunt: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."
- Hundreds of links for a small fixed fee. Links bought in bulk are usually from low-quality sites and can trigger a penalty.
- No access to your own data. You should own your Google Search Console, analytics and content, and see every change made to your site.
- Reports full of vanity metrics. Rankings for terms nobody searches for are not progress. Ask to see traffic, leads and revenue from organic search.
Google also publishes a list of questions to ask before you hire an SEO. It is worth working through with any provider, including us.
Can you do SEO yourself?
Yes, especially the basics. If you have a small site, a few hours a month and someone willing to learn, you can handle the essentials yourself: set up Search Console, fix the issues it flags, write clear pages for the services you offer, and keep your Google Business Profile current.
Paying for SEO makes sense when the work outgrows your time: a large or technically complex site, a competitive market, or a content plan that needs a steady output every month. Many businesses start on their own and bring in help once organic search is clearly worth investing in.