SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost in 2023?

How much SEO costs depends on your business’s size, your service provider’s pricing model, and a few other factors. In 2023, SEO prices range from $1500-$7500 per month to $100-$150 per hour to $5000-$35,000 per project. Keep reading to learn more about SEO pricing, including estimated costs based on your business’s size, industry, and more!

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Get a preview of how much SEO can cost with WebFX’s SEO plans.

Browse our prices below, or keep reading to learn more about SEO prices.

Silver Plan

$2,500 / month

  • 150 keyphrases optimized
  • 30 pages optimized
  • 6 content, outreach, UX, or CRO assets per quarter
  • 8 custom dashboards
  • Phone call, lead, and revenue tracking dashboard

Gold Plan

$5,000 / month

  • 200 keyphrases optimized
  • 40 pages optimized
  • 12 content, outreach, UX, or CRO assets per quarter
  • 8 custom dashboards
  • Phone call, lead, and revenue tracking dashboard

Diamond Plan

$8,000 / month

  • 300 keyphrases optimized
  • 60 pages optimized
  • 24 content, outreach, UX, or CRO assets per quarter
  • 10 custom dashboards
  • Phone call, lead, and revenue tracking dashboard

See full deliverables

Learn the basics of SEO pricing

Get quick answers to common SEO pricing questions below:

Last Updated May 1, 2023

How much does SEO cost?

How much does SEO cost?

In 2023, SEO costs (on average) $1500-$7500 per month, $100-$150 per hour, or $5000-$35,000 per project. How much you pay for SEO will depend on your SEO service provider, business size, project scope, and other factors related to your business and provider.

 


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How much does SEO cost for specialized SEO services?

How much does SEO cost for specialized SEO services?

SEO costs for specialized SEO services, like ecommerce SEO services or SEO audit services, vary:

SEO serviceSEO cost (Hourly)SEO cost (Monthly)SEO cost (Project)
Ecommerce SEO$200 – $600$750 – $8000$2000 – $35,000
Local SEO$100 – $150$300 – $2000$1500 – $35,000
SEO auditN/AN/A$650 – $14,000

What determines SEO pricing?

What determines SEO pricing?

Several factors determine SEO pricing, including:

  • Agency, contractor, or consultant’s experience
  • Agency, contractor, or consultant’s location
  • SEO pricing model, like monthly or hourly
  • Business size, like startup or enterprise
  • Scale of SEO strategy
  • Status of existing SEO strategy, like your backlink profile’s strength
  • SEO goals
  • And more

You’ll often find that the more experienced SEO providers, from agencies to consultants, have higher search engine optimization prices. Similarly, an SEO strategy with a bigger scale, like an enterprise-level plan, will see higher SEO costs.

What should SEO services include?

What should SEO services include?

SEO services should include the following:

  • SEO audit
  • SEO reporting
  • On-page, off-page, or technical SEO optimizations

They should also include what your business requires. That’s why many SEO service providers (WebFX included) will create custom SEO packages. At WebFX, for example, we structure these plans to meet your unique needs, from your preferred involvement level to your key performance indicators (KPIs).

What are the SEO pricing models?

What are the SEO pricing models?

Whether you’re looking to provide or buy SEO services, there are a few SEO pricing models to know:

Pricing modelAverage costOverviewOffered by
Monthly$1,500 – $7,500Pay a monthly retainer for SEO services performed.Agencies
Consultants
Contractors
Hourly$100 – $150Pay an hourly fee for SEO services performed.Freelancers
Consultants
Contractors
Project-based$5,000 – $35,000Pay a fixed fee for completing a specified project, like an SEO audit.Agencies
Consultants
Contractors
Freelancers
In-house$55,000 – $75,000 per team memberPay all costs for maintaining a full-time, part-time, or contract-based SEO team.N/A

Which SEO pricing model is the best?

Which SEO pricing model is the best?

There is no right answer when it comes to choosing an SEO pricing model. The best payment plan will depend on your business and its SEO needs. That’s why we’ve compiled each plan’s best use cases and some examples of how businesses use those plans:

Pricing model Best for Example
MonthlyOngoing SEO
Small, midsized, and large companies
A business looking to grow its organic search visibility, traffic, and revenue
HourlySmaller SEO projects
Small companies
A small business looking to investigate a drop in traffic following a redesign
Project-basedOne-time SEO projects
Small, midsized, and large companies
A business looking to improve its sitewide page speed
In-houseOngoing SEO
Large companies
A Fortune 500 company looking to grow its online presence for short-tail keywords

Compare SEO prices by size, provider, location, and more

Get more insight into SEO costs by comparing SEO prices by business size, location, provider, and more!

SEO costs by business size

SEO costs by business size

When it comes to SEO costs and business size, larger companies will often pay more for SEO:

Business SizeSEO cost (Hourly)SEO cost (Monthly)SEO cost (Project)
Startup$75 – $100$750 – $1,500$2,500 – $5,000
Small Business$100 – $150$1,500 – $4,500$5,000 – $50,000
Mid-Sized Business$100 – $150$2,500 – $7,500$9,999 – $75,000
Enterprise$100 – $150$5,000 – $10,000+$25,000 – $250,000

Why do larger businesses have higher SEO optimization costs? A few reasons, including:

  1. Reputation: A company’s brand is invaluable — especially when that brand is well-known. That’s why larger businesses will partner with established SEO providers (who have higher SEO rates) vs. younger SEO companies or consultants (who have lower SEO prices).
  2. Complexity: Larger organizations often have more complexity, from approval processes to unique website builds. That’s why they’ll often partner with enterprise-level SEO providers. These providers have enough experience working with larger brands to deliver a custom and effective SEO program.
  3. Scale: Compared to smaller businesses, larger companies operate on a bigger scale. From more products to more markets, they need a partner that can meet their SEO needs, and for that, they often need an SEO company that specializes in enterprise SEO — which costs more.

What this means is experience and capabilities matter in search engine optimization pricing. You will pay more for those benefits if you want to hire an SEO provider with more experience, resources, and capabilities.

SEO costs by provider

SEO costs by provider

Learn how SEO costs change based on who you hire, an agency, consultant, contractor, or freelancer:

Service providerSEO cost (Hourly)SEO cost (Monthly)SEO cost (Project)
Agency$150 – $300$1500 – $7500$7500 – $30,000
Consultant$100 – $150$1500 – $5000$5000 – $30,000
Contractor$100 – $150$2500 – $5000$5000 – $30,000
Freelancer$75 – $100$750 – $1500$5000 – $15,000

Compared to other service providers, SEO agencies cost more. Why? A few reasons, including:

  1. Capabilities: With more team members and tools, search engine optimization companies can do more than other SEO service providers. Using WebFX as an example, your business can access SEOs, web developers, reporting software, and more — everything you need to do SEO.
  2. Experience: SEO agencies will also have more knowledge that you can put to work. If your business needs an SEO expert, plus an ecommerce SEO specialist, for instance, an SEO company can often meet those needs. For a consultant, freelancer, or contractor, that’s more difficult.
  3. Scalability: Most SEO companies can scale with a business’s SEO needs. That’s convenient because your organization doesn’t have to hire a new SEO agency. Instead, you can upgrade your SEO plan to start capturing more traffic. In comparison, other SEO providers can’t do that.

Multiple factors will determine whether your business partners with an agency, consultant, contractor, or freelancer — and pays their SEO prices. Besides cost, you’ll also need to consider what you want to accomplish with SEO, how involved you want to be in SEO, and what else you need from a provider.

SEO costs by location

SEO costs by location

Get a breakdown of average SEO costs by location below:

CountrySEO cost (Hourly)SEO cost (Monthly)SEO cost (Project)
Australia$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Canada$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
IndiaLess than $25$250 – $750$9,999 – $50,000
United Kingdom$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
United States$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$25,000 – $75,000

When it comes to SEO, India is well-known for providing lower SEO prices. Compared to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia, India has a lower cost of living and labor costs, allowing SEO companies in India to offer lower SEO rates.

While pricing is important in choosing an SEO provider, your provider’s location also matters.

For example, suppose you work with an SEO company in a different country. In that case, you might need to consider differences in data privacy laws, time zones, and culture and how those differences will affect your SEO performance.

SEO costs by industry

SEO costs by industry

Learn what SEO costs by industry with this breakdown:

IndustrySEO cost (Hourly)SEO cost (Monthly)SEO cost (Project)
Advertising and marketing$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Arts, entertainment, and music$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $50,000
Automotive$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$25,000 – $75,000
Business services$100 – $200$1500 – $7500$25,000 – $75,000
Consumer products and services$100 – $200$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Ecommerce$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Education$150 – $200$2500 – $7500$75,000 – $250,000
Energy$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$25,000 – $75,000
Finance$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Government$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$25,000 – $75,000
Hospitality$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Information technology$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Legal$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $25,000
Manufacturing$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Medical$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $50,000
Non-profit$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $25,000
Real estate$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $25,000
Retail$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$5,000 – $25,000
Telecommunications$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000
Transportation and logistics$100 – $150$1500 – $7500$9,999 – $50,000

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Learn what you get by paying for SEO

You know how much SEO costs, but what does paying for SEO get you? Find out below!

What do monthly SEO services include?

What do monthly SEO services include?

Monthly SEO services usually include the most deliverables, like:

  • SEO audit
  • Analytics setup and/or verification
  • Reporting
  • Keyword research
  • Content creation
  • On-page optimizations
  • Off-page optimizations
  • Technical optimizations

When you invest in monthly SEO, you can accomplish goals like:

  • Growing search engine optimization’s ROI via continuous SEO
  • Keeping pace with competitors, algorithm changes, and more

In some cases, monthly SEO services will specialize in specific on-page or off-page areas, like:

  • Link building
  • Content creation
  • Page speed improvements

What do hourly SEO services include?

What do hourly SEO services include?

Typically, hourly SEO services will include deliverables like:

  • SEO audit
  • SEO recommendations and/or implementation
  • Reporting

When you invest in hourly SEO, you can accomplish goals like:

  • Completing SEO maintenance tasks
  • Monitoring for SEO issues

What do project-based SEO services include?

What do project-based SEO services include?

Deliverables for project-based SEO services vary widely, but some common SEO projects include:

  • SEO audit
  • Project-specific optimizations, like link building
  • Reporting

When you invest in project-based SEO, you can accomplish goals like:

  • Completing a larger initiative, like migrating a website to a new domain
  • Getting recommendations on how to achieve a goal, like improving sitewide page speed

Ready to see some real SEO pricing? View WebFX’s SEO packages

You’ve explored SEO prices for different pricing plans, industries, and company sizes, but what about prices from an actual SEO service provider? Get a preview of what SEO costs — and what those costs include — by viewing WebFX’s SEO packages below:

FeaturesSilverGoldPlatinumDiamondEnterprise
Number of keyphrases optimized (Keyphrases with less than 1M results)Up to 150Up to 200Up to 250Up to 300Custom
Pages OptimizedUp to 30Up to 40Up to 50Up to 60Custom
Technical Website Analysis & Opportunity ReportCustom
Keyword research & selectionCustom
Keyword mapping to target pagesCustom
Title Tags & Meta descriptionsCustom
Robots.txt optimizationCustom
XML sitemap creation & submissionCustom
Quarterly Earned Media Content Assets – Content, Linkbuilding, Consulting, or CRO Assets6 Content, Outreach, UX, or CRO Assets12 Content, Outreach, UX, or CRO Assets15 Content, Outreach, UX, or CRO Assets24 Content, Outreach, UX, or CRO AssetsCustom
Google Business Profile optimization (if needed)Custom
Information architecture auditCustom
Canonicalization analysisCustom
Initial external link analysis and disavowCustom
Link redirect auditCustom
Internal linking restructuring & optimizationCustom
Duplicate content analysisCustom
Header Tags Optimized (Ex. H1s)Custom
Setup of website sitemapCustom
Image optimizationCustom
Custom 404 error page setup and optimizationCustom
Schema Implementation (JSON-LD)Custom
Google Analytics setup w/ conversion trackingCustom
Google Analytics traffic analysisCustom
Google Data Studio Reporting Dashboard Setup8 dashboards8 dashboards10 dashboards10 dashboardsCustom
Initial visitor profile reportCustom
Ongoing quarterly keyword ranking reportingCustom
Ongoing monthly traffic, goal & CPL reportingCustom
Ongoing user experience reporting (bounce rate, device category, etc.)Custom
Ongoing quarterly competitor conquest reportsCustom
Keyword rank checker access with weekly updates (if requested)Custom
Ability to check location data accuracy across 40+ local directoriesCustom
A/B Testing of SERP title & description to improve clickthroughCustom
Notification of new reviews (major review platforms)Custom
CalltrackerFX access
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Custom
Analyze your leads to project the # of leads competitors receive on a monthly basisCustom
Predict your and your competitors’ market share on a monthly basisCustom
Competitor intelligence login to view competitor dataCustom
LeadManagerFX access
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Leverages
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Custom
CompanyTrackerFX access
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Custom
ContentAnalyticsFX access
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Custom
Dedicated Internet MarketerCustom
Online Project Management PlatformCustom
450+ SMEs behind campaign driving resultsCustom
Website conversion analysis implementationCustomCustomCustomCustomCustom
Initial campaign investment:(Two month duration)$7,750$12,750$15,750$18,750Get Quote
Progressive monthly optimization:(6 month commitment – Subsequent 4 months)$2,500$5,000$6,500$8,000Get Quote
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Get expert advice on how to research SEO costs

Learn how to make SEO pricing work for you with these bite-sized how-to walkthroughs:

How to set an SEO budget

How to set an SEO budget

Create a realistic SEO budget for your business with these steps:

  1. Review your budget allocations: First, learn how your business allocates its marketing budget. How much is available for search engine optimization? Depending on what you find, you may need to get buy-in for a bigger piece of your company’s marketing spend.
  2. Outline your requirements: Think about your goals, preferring outsourcing level, and provider type to get started. You should also consider location since that affects SEO pricing — do you want to outsource your SEO to a different country?
  3. Evaluate your SEO: Next, determine how much work your provider will need to do to start pushing toward your SEO goals. Does your site have a strong backlink profile or weak on-page SEO, for example? Use a free SEO tool like Screaming Frog to get started on this step.
  4. Determine your preferred budget: Use your research to build your desired budget. For example, if you want to partner with a U.S-based agency for hourly SEO, your business will likely need a monthly spend of $6000 (if requesting 40 hours of work per month).
  5. Make your pitch: If needed, prepare a pitch for your budget proposal. Your pitch should demonstrate SEO’s potential bottom-line benefits, like attracting more qualified leads or driving more online sales, plus the advantages of outsourcing your SEO.

How to choose an SEO payment plan

How to choose an SEO payment plan

Choose the best SEO payment plan for your business with these steps:

  1. Determine your SEO needs: What does your company want to accomplish with SEO? For example, do you want to fix a specific issue, like improving your page speed? Or do you want to build and maintain an ongoing SEO strategy?
  2. Outline your timeline: Next, build your preferred timeline. Are you migrating your site to a new domain in the next 30 days and need an SEO’s feedback? Or are you looking to optimize your website over time?
  3. Check your SEO budget: Research how much your organization has budgeted for SEO and when those funds are available. For example, does your business release department funds annually, quarterly, or monthly? Your answer will influence your payment plan options for SEO services.
  4. Choose your plan: Based on your research, determine the best option for your business. For ongoing or long-term SEO projects, consider monthly SEO. In comparison, check out hourly or project-based SEO for short- or one-time SEO projects.

How to evaluate SEO prices

How to evaluate SEO prices

Evaluate a service provider’s SEO prices with these steps:

  1. Review the plan deliverables: First, learn what you’re paying for by reviewing the deliverables. If what you’re getting for the price you’re paying seems too good to be true, it probably is — and you’ll often see this with cheaper SEO prices.
  2. Ask questions: Meet with the agency, consultant, or freelancer to discuss their pricing. Does the provider charge overtime, for example, after a certain number of hours worked on the account? What other additional fees should your team know about?
  3. Read the contract: Next, read the contract. Most providers will share a contract once you enter discussions with them. You’ll want to check for a few things, like whether you’re receiving a short-term promotional price and whether the agency can change rates without notice.

How to spot cheap SEO pricing

How to spot cheap SEO pricing

Spot cheap SEO pricing with these steps:

  1. Look at the price: First, look at the price. When SEO costs less than $500 per month or less than $50 per hour, it’s often cheap SEO. Most providers offering cheap SEO will advertise their prices, like “SEO for $100 / mo.”
  2. Check the deliverables: You can also spot cheap search engine optimization pricing by looking at the deliverables. Compare the deliverables to the price, and if it seems too good to be true, restart your search for SEO services. Alternatively, some low-cost SEO plans won’t share their deliverables at all.
  3. Read the reviews: What do people say about this SEO company, consultant, or freelancer online? Is the trend mostly negative, positive, or somewhere in between? Look at the most common complaints and see if they relate to results, quality of work, or client satisfaction.

How to request custom SEO pricing

How to request custom SEO pricing

Request custom SEO pricing for your business with these steps:

  1. Outline your requirements: Get the most accurate quote by listing your requirements, like whether you’re looking for full-service SEO or something more specific, like off-page SEO. You can even include anything you don’t want in your SEO plan.
  2. Research your options: Optimize your time by limiting your SEO pricing requests to your top picks. Read reviews and case studies to see if an agency, consultant, or freelancer is a good fit for your team. Then, contact them with your request and requirements.
  3. Meet your potential provider: Schedule some time with your potential SEO provider. They’ll use this time to ask you some follow-up questions to understand your business better so they can build an accurate quote for your team.

Looking for SEO pricing? Get a custom quote today!

Congrats! You know how much SEO costs, what determines SEO pricing, and how to evaluate SEO prices. If you’re looking to get pricing custom to your business and its unique SEO needs, request yours today and receive a custom strategy, flight plan, and pricing from the WebFX team!

FAQs about SEO pricing

Get answers to FAQs about SEO pricing now:

How much does SEO cost per month?

On average, SEO costs $1500 to $7500 per month. How much your business pays for monthly SEO will depend on several factors, including your company’s size, your service provider’s location, and your SEO package’s deliverables. For the most accurate monthly SEO pricing, request a custom quote.

How much does SEO cost per hour?

On average, SEO costs $100 to $150 per hour. How much your business pays for hourly SEO will depend on several factors, like your service provider’s experience, SEO plan deliverables, and resources. For the most accurate hourly SEO rates, request custom pricing.

How much does SEO cost per project?

On average, SEO costs $5000 to $35,000 per project. How much your business pays for project-based SEO will depend on several factors, like your project’s requirements, size, and deadlines. Your service provider’s experience, location, and resources can also influence your project-based SEO costs.

How much does SEO cost to do in-house?

On average, in-house SEO costs $55,000 to $75,000 — the annual salary of an SEO specialist with benefits, like taxes and insurance. How much your business invests in doing SEO in-house will depend on your company’s location, candidate requirements, and SEO program size.

Does WebFX offer custom SEO pricing?

Yes! WebFX provides pre-built SEO packages and custom SEO pricing starting at $3,000 per month.

What is SEO?

what-is-seo

SEO, also called search engine optimization, refers to strategies that help improve your website’s visibility in organic search results. These strategies include keyword research, content creation, and more.

What are the most important SEO factors?

Here’s a break down of some of the most important SEO factors to pay attention to if you want to increase your site’s rankings in search results.

  • Add keywords to your URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and site content: When search bots crawl your site, they look for keywords to identify the topic of your content. This helps them display your site in relevant search results. Ultimately, when your site ranks higher in search results, more people can find and contact your business.
  • Optimize alt attributes: You will also want to add alt tags to your multimedia. Since search engines can’t “read” multimedia elements, you need to include alt tags — text descriptions of your multimedia. This gives helps search engines better understand and index your multimedia content.
  • Update your content regularly: Site visitors and search engines alike love freshly updated, quality content. Keeping your site updated on a regular basis will keep visitors and search bots coming back for more. Regular site updates can also help you establish yourself as a leader in your industry.
  • Optimize technical site elements: You can also take some time to optimize technical elements of your site like your coding and page speed. Cleaning up your code and ensuring that your page loads at top speeds can boost your rankings in search results and encourage people to spend more time on your site This year, page speed will also become a major mobile search factor, so you need to ensure your site loads quickly across a number of devices.
  • Implement responsive design: In order to improve user-friendliness, you’ll want to implement responsive design. With responsive design, you can ensure that your site looks great and performs well, no matter the device a visitor uses to access it. In other words, responsive design allows smartphone, desktop, and tablet users to have the same great experience on your site.
  • Streamline navigation: Search engines want to reward sites that provide great experiences for visitors. To make sure people can find the information they need on your site, you’ll want to streamline your navigation. Instead of cluttering your navigation with links, only link to the most important pages. From there, you can link out to other pages deeper in your site.
  • Answer users’ questions: You’ll also want to make sure your site provides valuable answers to visitors’ questions. You can do this by creating custom content. Be sure to conduct keyword research to discover trending topics in your industry, and publish fresh content to answer questions and improve users’ experience on your site.

If you want to improve your rankings in search results for keywords related to your business, paying attention to and optimizing these SEO factors is a great place to start. However, keep in mind that SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. In other words, it takes some time to see results, but they’re well worth the wait!

Why is SEO important?

Why do you want to rank at the top of search results? The answer is simple.

Since 75% of people don’t look past the first page of first results. This means that if you want more customers to find and contact your business, you need to rank in top search results for keywords and phrases related to your business.

search-traffic-statistic

Research shows that the first page of organic search results has a 71% click through rate (CTR), while pages two and three have a combined CTR of only 6% — a drastic decline.

Moral of the story? The higher you rank in search results, the more people will find and visit your site. This means that you can reach more customers and earn more revenue for your business.

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