SEO pricing models are different ways in which to pay for search engine optimization (SEO) services from an agency or freelancer. There are several pricing models to choose from, like monthly retainers, hourly rates, performance-based fees, or project-based fees, with monthly retainers usually being the most popular choice.
If you’re finding yourself confused about the different pricing models for SEO and which one is the right choice for you, this blog post is for you.
Let’s get started!
SEO pricing models overview
First things first, let’s break down all the different pricing models, including how they work, and their pros and cons.
Monthly retainer
A monthly retainer is a recurring monthly fee for ongoing SEO services. In other words, you’ll pay a fixed price every month for your SEO strategy while your provider continuously manages and optimizes your SEO efforts.
This pricing model is the most popular option among businesses due to its ongoing and lengthier nature.
Pros
- Fixed monthly rate
- Ongoing SEO work and improvements
- Long-term strategy to drive revenue for the long-haul
- Leaves room for scalability in your strategy as your business grows
- Can sometimes contain comprehensive reporting
Cons
- Usually has a higher cost compared to other pricing models
- Longer commitment and usually involves a contract
- If your partner doesn’t deliver results, you’ll still pay the monthly retainer
Hourly rate
An hourly rate involves paying a fixed fee for each hour of work your SEO partner does on your strategy. Most businesses pay an hourly rate when hiring an SEO consultant to audit their SEO strategy and highlight areas for improvement and a plan of action.
Some businesses may also pay an hourly rate for shorter-term SEO projects, like optimizations for a few website pages.
Pros
- Ideal for short-term projects or tasks
- Good fit for consulting services
- No long-term commitment
- Allows you to test out an agency or freelancer before committing to long-term services
Cons
- Total costs can be hard to predict since your SEO partner could take longer to complete the task or project
- Difficult to fit into your budget due to unpredictable costs
- No long-term or ongoing SEO strategy
- Requires you to closely monitor your strategy and results
Project-based fee
With project-based fees, you’ll pay one agreed-upon amount for a single SEO project or task. An SEO audit, content creation, or keyword research are a couple of examples of when businesses may opt to pay on a per-project basis.
If you’re looking for help with one area of your SEO strategy while you manage everything else in-house, then a project-based fee might be a good fit for you.
Pros
- You know the exact cost upfront
- Good fit for specific SEO tasks like a website audit or content creation
- Can help address SEO issues without a long-term commitment
Cons
- Requires clear project scopes and deliverables
- Lack of ongoing monitoring
- Requires you to closely monitor your strategy and analytics
Performance-based fee
Performance-based fees refer to paying an amount based on specific metrics or results, like keyword ranking increases or website traffic increases.
Due to the difficulty in defining results or performance-based metrics, performance-based fees are one of the least popular SEO pricing models.
Pros
- Aligns with your business goals
- You’ll pay when you receive the results that were agreed upon
- Can be a lower-risk payment option
Cons
- It’s difficult for businesses and SEO partners to agree on the performance-based metrics or results
- It can be difficult to measure when the desired results are achieved
- There’s a potential for your SEO partner to focus on short-term gains or metrics that don’t benefit your business in the long run
Which SEO pricing model is best for my business?
Now that you know more about the different pricing models for SEO, how do you decide which one is right for your business?
We’re breaking down pricing models by goal, industry, and business type below to help you out!
Pricing model by goal
Have a specific business or SEO goal in mind? Here are some pricing models that can you reach a variety of goals!
Brand awareness
Dreaming of reaching more people or businesses and becoming a recognized brand? Take a look at the pros and cons of each SEO pricing model below for this goal to help you decide which is best for you:
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Includes ongoing content creation and continuous optimizations to improve your rankings and rank in new searches | Usually involves a longer commitment with your SEO partner |
| Hourly Rate | A good fit if you’re looking for a consultant to help highlight opportunities in your SEO strategy to improve brand awareness | No long-term or consistent SEO strategy support |
| Project-based Fee | Helpful if you have a specific SEO project in mind, like content creation or keyword research, to help improve your brand awareness | Requires clear project scopes and objectives from you |
| Performance-based Fee | Allows you to only pay when you receive a certain amount of agreed-upon impressions or traffic | It is difficult for businesses and SEO partners to agree on performance-based metrics or results and decide when those numbers are achieved |
Website traffic
Driving more website traffic is essential to obtain more leads and conversions (and, as a result, revenue) for your business. Take a look at which pricing model may be the best fit for helping you earn more site visitors below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Allows you to implement ongoing SEO optimizations and improvements, as well as content creation, to continuously improve your web traffic | Can involve a higher cost than other pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Ideal for a short-term SEO project or task to help improve your website traffic, like improving one page or a small group of pages | Total costs can be hard to predict since SEO partners could take longer to complete the task or project |
| Project-based Fee | Ideal for a one-time project, like an SEO audit or content creation | Doesn’t include ongoing monitoring or analysis |
| Performance-based Fee | Would allow you to pay when you achieve an agreed upon amount of web traffic | It is difficult for companies to agree on the amount of web traffic that should be achieved |
Lead generation
Want to generate more leads for your business? SEO is an effective strategy for filling your pipeline with more high-value leads because you’ll reach the people who are already actively searching for your products or services.
Get a summary of how each of the SEO pricing models can help you reach your goal in this table!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Helps you maintain your SEO strategy, and keep it in tip-top shape, with ongoing optimizations that factor in algorithm updates, so you can maintain a steady flow of leads for the long-term | Can be costlier than other pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Can help you with a small SEO task or by hiring a consultant to find opportunities in your SEO strategy to generate more leads | Does not include long-term or ongoing SEO updates or optimizations |
| Project-based Fee | Allows you to get additional support on a specific SEO project that aims to increase your leads, like creating new content or optimizing existing content | Requires you to plan and communicate the project details and scopes for your SEO partner |
| Performance-based Fee | Would allow you to pay only when you receive an agreed upon amount of leads from SEO | It is common for businesses and SEO partners to disagree on the amount of leads to generate |
Revenue and bottom-line growth
SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies when it comes to driving revenue and powering growth for your business. Take a look at which pricing model would be best for helping your business reach this goal in the table below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Gives you long-term SEO support to maintain and improve your SEO efforts over time, which will help you continuously drive traffic, leads, and revenue | Requires a longer-term commitment with your SEO partner and usually a contract |
| Hourly Rate | Would allow for a smaller, short-term SEO project or consulting services | Does not include long-term strategy management or support for revenue growth |
| Project-based Fee | Helps you get support in completing a specific SEO project, like improving site speed or implementing responsive design | Wouldn’t account for continuous SEO management support or results analysis |
| Performance-based Fee | Allows you to pay when you receive a certain amount of revenue from your SEO efforts | Requires your SEO partner to be able to attribute your revenue growth to SEO, so it’s difficult for companies to agree on when the revenue growth is achieved |
Pricing model by industry and business type
Curious about which pricing model for SEO would best fit your industry or business type? We’ve got it covered below!
Ecommerce
Looking for the best pricing model for your ecommerce company? Check out the table below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Helps you constantly compete in the search results with other ecommerce companies that sell similar products and also provides ongoing content creation and optimizations for new product pages, product updates, and more. | Usually has a higher cost than other SEO pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Can give you advice from an SEO consultant on improving your product pages or rankings in product search results | Prices can be difficult to predict and budget for because your SEO partner may take longer to complete your task or project |
| Project-based Fee | Helpful for optimizing a group of product pages, creating new product pages, or with some other short-term SEO project | Doesn’t include long-term SEO strategy management or continuous optimizations and content creation |
| Performance-based Fee | You’d only pay for your services once an agreed-upon result is reached, like traffic generated or sales from search | Some SEO partners may want to focus on results or metrics that don’t benefit your ecommerce company in the long run |
Local businesses
Local SEO is a great opportunity to help your business get more foot traffic and local customers. Learn which SEO pricing model may be the right fit for you below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Allows you to continuously optimize your local SEO strategy, implement and manage strategies for new locations, and stay ahead of search engine algorithm updates and changes | Can require higher costs than other pricing models and a longer commitment with your chosen SEO company |
| Hourly Rate | Could help you optimize one Google Business Profile, a group of locations pages on your website, or get some advice on your strategy from a local SEO consultant | Doesn’t include ongoing optimizations for your locations or factor in updates due to algorithm changes, new trends, or search engine updates |
| Project-based Fee | Gives you support on a one-time local SEO project, like creating or optimizing Google Business profiles, creating local content for your website, and more | Requires you to have clearly defined scopes and details for your project to ensure it’s completed in line with your goals |
| Performance-based Fee | You’d only pay once certain results are achieved from your SEO services, like traffic from your Google Business Profiles | It is common for businesses to disagree on which metrics should be used when investing in a performance-based pricing model |
Startups and small businesses
Wondering which pricing model for SEO would work best for your startup or small business? We’ve got you covered.
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Allows you to implement an ongoing SEO strategy with continuous optimizations that can power growth for your small business | Can be difficult to utilize if you have a small budget because monthly retainers can possibly cost more than other pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Helpful for getting advice on areas to concentrate on for your SEO strategy or a small project, like writing content for a few pages or optimizing a page or two of your website | Can be difficult to predict costs and fit them into your budget in the case your SEO partner takes longer to finish the task or project |
| Project-based Fee | Costs for a one-time project, like an SEO audit or optimizations, can be more manageable for businesses with smaller budgets | Doesn’t include ongoing SEO strategy management or optimizations for the long-term |
| Performance-based Fee | Can help you stay in control of your spending and pay when you receive the results you want, like website traffic or lead generation | It is difficult for businesses to agree on the metrics or results and when they are achieved, which can lead to disappointment |
Established, medium-sized businesses
Looking for the right pricing model for your medium-sized business? Check out the table below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Gives you ongoing support for your SEO needs and continuous optimizations for long-term revenue growth, which is especially useful if you don’t have an in-house SEO team | Can require a higher investment than other SEO pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Allows you to pay a fixed hourly rate for small, one-time SEO projects or consulting services | Can end up costing more than you think if your SEO partner takes longer to complete the project than planned |
| Project-based Fee | Gives you support for a larger SEO project, like optimizing several pages or creating content like blog posts or articles | Doesn’t include continuous SEO support that supports long-term revenue growth |
| Performance-based Fee | Allows you to pay when you receive results that align with your business goals | It’s likely that your SEO partner may focus on metrics that won’t benefit your business in the long-term |
Enterprise companies
Enterprise companies like yours usually require a more established, larger-scope SEO strategy due to the size of your company. Find out which SEO pricing model would work best for your business below!
| SEO Pricing Model | Pros | Cons |
| Monthly Retainer | Ongoing SEO services with a monthly retainer will help keep your enterprise competitive with other large businesses and keep the stream of leads and revenue flowing | Can be costlier than other pricing models |
| Hourly Rate | Helpful for paying an hourly rate to an experienced SEO consultant to give advice on your SEO strategy | Due to the size of your business, the scope of your SEO strategy and optimizations may require more or longer support, making your costs higher |
| Project-based Fee | Gives you extra support on a one-time SEO project | Due to the size of your business, you’ll likely need larger SEO projects or optimizations which will make your costs higher |
| Performance-based Fee | Allows you to pay when you receive the results you’d like, helping to manage costs | Some SEO partners may want to focus on results or metrics that don’t benefit your ecommerce company in the long run |
Explore SEO pricing models and packages from WebFX
If you’re looking for a dedicated SEO partner who takes the time to learn your unique company’s needs, goals, and target market, look no further than WebFX.
We offer custom SEO strategies tailored to your business to ensure your strategy is aligned with your goals and is designed to drive revenue for your business.
Want to learn more about our SEO services? Contact us online or request a free proposal today!
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Abby is a data-driven content marketer with certifications in inbound marketing and content marketing. She’s written hundreds of articles covering digital marketing topics — a few of her specialties include first-party data, marketing and data analytics, marketing strategy optimization, and SEO. When she isn’t writing or optimizing content, Abby loves to spend time reading the latest mystery novel, having movie marathons with lots of snacks, and jamming out to Shania Twain. -
WebFX is a full-service marketing agency with 1,100+ client reviews and a 4.9-star rating on Clutch! Find out how our expert team and revenue-accelerating tech can drive results for you! Learn more
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