How Much Does SEO Cost? Simple SEO Cost Breakdown, by Service

You’re looking to invest in your website’s search engine optimization—but how much will it set you back? The cost of SEO can significantly depend on the scope of your project and the size of your website. Whether you need a one-time technical audit or ongoing content strategy, understanding pricing models helps you choose the right investment for your business goals. Here’s what you need to know about SEO costs, from hourly consulting to full-scale ecommerce optimization.

How much does SEO cost? 

SEO pricing can range from around $1,500 a month to more than $20,000 a month. The cost varies widely based on various factors, including: 

• Pricing model (monthly, hourly, project-based)

• Scope of the project (single audit to a full-scale strategy)

• Focus (local SEO, ecommerce, or news)

• Expertise of the agency or individual

• Size of your website or business

• Length of the project and whether there’s a retainer (an ongoing fee for continued services) 

Pricing also varies based on the type of SEO services you need. For example, technical SEO audits involve inspecting a website’s back end structure to identify issues impacting crawling, indexing, and ranking, like site speed, mobile friendliness, broken links, and more. Meanwhile, a content SEO audit involves analyzing the written content on your site, with the aim of improving title tags, headers, body copy, and internal linking.

Given the wide range of options, it’s important to break down the common types of SEO services you can get to make the best choice for your business. Here are common services and their typical cost ranges: 

The role of AI and machine learning in SEO 

There’s a significant shift in the SEO industry right now. Companies are increasingly thinking holistically about their brand strategy, including how they are cited in large language models (LLMs) and chatbots. 

Now, topic-based SEO (covering a topic to provide useful information) is more important than keyword-based SEO (using keyword research to create content that targets a single search term). There’s an increasing focus on subject-matter expertise—what your company is known for—versus what the top traffic-driving keywords are. 

This means companies need to build strong topic authority instead of looking for easy search opportunities. Previously, any site could write “what time is the Super Bowl?” and rank on search. Now, if a non-sports site publishes this content to try to rank on Google—with low-quality content that doesn’t provide value beyond the simple answer—it’s less likely the site will even show up. 

AI tools have also transformed content creation itself. Using an AI tool to outline content or recommend titles can be helpful—but they may not always provide quality output. Due to this unpredictability, choosing an SEO expert who delivers expertise beyond AI-generated content becomes critical.

What determines SEO services pricing?

• SEO focus or niche
• SEO pricing model
• Project scope and scale
• Agency expertise and reputation
• Website size
• Length of audit

The price of SEO services depends on myriad factors, so it’s important to be clear on what you want and what you’re looking for. Below are a few considerations for finding the right SEO services:

SEO focus or niche

There are many different SEO focus areas, including:

• Ecommerce SEO. Optimizing online stores, product pages, and checkout journeys to increase sales and conversions on-site.

• Local SEO. Using local SEO to appear in local-based searches with attention to map results and Google Business Profiles.

• On-page SEO. Optimizing elements directly on a webpage, such as the title tag, body copy, headings, and internal links.

• Off-page SEO. Focusing on building a site’s authority and reputation through backlinks, brand mentions, off-search platforms, etc.

• Content SEO. Creating articles, blog posts, product page copy, and any other website content that helps pages rank.

• Technical SEO. Optimizing the website’s infrastructure for things like speed, mobile friendliness, broken links, site navigation, etc.

• News SEO. Tactics specific for publishers to maximize visibility in Top Stories and Google News, with a focus on Google Discover. 

• Voice search SEO. Optimizing pages for responses from voice assistants like Alexa and Siri.

Niche and high-touch services like news SEO are more expensive. Services like ecommerce SEO are more in demand, so prices are more competitive.

Fair warning: It’s too early for anyone to be an “expert” in this new Google AI world. Be careful when choosing an agency or consultant that markets heavily around knowing how to increase visibility in ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews.

SEO pricing model 

When investing in an SEO consultant or agency, there’s typically the option for hourly, monthly, or a one-time payment per project. Consider the following when deciding the appropriate pricing model:

• Do you want your SEO provider to answer questions at any time? Choose hourly pricing.

• Do you want an external agency to audit your site, while in-house employees will implement and maintain it? Choose a one-time payment.

• Do you want someone consistent who can help with long-term strategy? Consider monthly or hourly with someone who works on contract.

Project scope and scale

There are many components to improving your overall rankings on search engines. A full-site audit can include content optimization, content strategy, technical improvements, product SEO recommendations, linking opportunities, and much more. Ongoing maintenance of these areas adds to the scope of the project. 

Consider which areas of focus are most urgent. If your site is big, a technical audit should be the priority because Googlebot uses a site’s infrastructure to understand its contents. If your site is smaller or you’re just starting out, content SEO is more critical to build up your authority.

Agency expertise and reputation 

The agency’s expertise, experience, and reputation can affect the cost of services. SEO agencies with many award-winning marketing strategies or consultants—and those that have worked with high-profile clients—are naturally more expensive. An individual SEO expert who’s just starting out or a small local agency may be more affordable. Consider reviews of the agency, looking for positive feedback over time from long-term clients.

Many agencies follow a request-for-proposal process, and consultants typically offer free introductory meetings. 

Website size 

The price of SEO is usually correlated to the size of the site. A smaller site is cheaper. Sites with fewer than 100 pages and no additional features or specialties (like checkout or a login portal) are simpler and don’t take as much time, which lowers the cost. Startups and small businesses can likely find an affordable consultant or a freelancer who can help guide SEO strategy, versus a full-blown agency that adds extra fees.

As your site grows in pages and complexity, the cost of SEO will rise. Consider using a cost-benefit analysis to determine what type of pricing works for your business needs and goals. If organic traffic is a strong cornerstone of your marketing strategy, it’s crucial to invest.

Length of audit

The cost of SEO depends on the audit’s depth and the need for ongoing support. Monthly recommendations are more expensive than a one-time audit of current opportunities. A consultant on retainer proves invaluable in areas like news SEO, where hiring an in-house expert may not be feasible.

Why is SEO so expensive?

• Long-term commitment and maintenance
• Specialized expertise
• Highly competitive market
• Tools and resources
• Ongoing costs

SEO is a long-term strategy. It takes time, resources, and trust. Its cost reflects the slow, sustainable growth it delivers in traffic, revenue, and brand reputation. A seasoned SEO expert brings a holistic approach, often going beyond rankings and regular search engine results pages to shape how your brand is perceived online. That expertise, and the time it takes to see results, is what drives up the price.

Several factors contribute to the price of SEO, including:

Long-term commitment and maintenance 

SEO is a long-term commitment. Strategies take time to conceive, implement, and monitor. A strategy implemented today won’t yield results for six to 12 months, minimum. This is in contrast to pay-per-click strategies, where you buy ads at the top of search results that get traffic immediately.

SEO is also always changing, with best practices shifting as search platforms evolve. Staying ahead requires someone dedicated to tracking these updates—especially as Google introduces features like AI Overviews that reduce clicks to external sites—which can add up.

Specialized expertise 

Just as social media requires experts, SEO needs a specialized type of knowledge. Staying current with constant changes takes skill and focus. Therefore, truly effective, comprehensive SEO advice often comes at a higher cost.

For a technical audit, the SEO professionals you hire need to understand web page components like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, content delivery networks (CDN), and other computer languages. Smart people who are good and seasoned at these skills drive up the price tag.

Highly competitive market

Depending on your industry, market saturation can also be high, making it more difficult to break through for top search rankings. Ranking on SERPs might require additional effort or tactics. As a result, agencies and consultants charge a premium, especially if your services require more components.

In the new world of search, brands need to think beyond the usual article-driven search results. This means considering how short videos like TikToks and YouTube Shorts are ranking, as well as other social media content, like Reddit reviews. Depending on the market, you may consider partnering with influencers to make videos about your products that help them surface on search. This always leads to higher SEO costs than traditional SEO, especially if you hire an agency.

Tools and resources

The tools and resources required for a thorough SEO audit can be extremely costly. Agencies usually have the tools on hand for their clients but will add a premium fee if you want to use them as well. If you’re running SEO in-house, tools can cost thousands a month.

Comprehensive audits often rely on powerhouse tools like Semrush or Ahrefs—which can exceed $1,500 per month, depending on your needs—or a combination of specialized tools, some for technical SEO, others for content, and more. Site crawlers like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb are excellent for scanning large sites quickly, but they come with steep monthly fees. These overhead costs directly impact what agencies charge—and explain why DIY SEO isn’t as simple as downloading free software.

On the flip side, free tools like Google Trends, Google’s own documentation, newsletters, and other resources like the Shopify Partners program and the SEO Booster app are great for getting started if you can’t afford a pricey audit.

Ongoing costs

SEO as a concept is always changing. Google runs on many complicated algorithms that determine how content is ranked, and these systems are updated around every three months. With the integration of artificial intelligence in many parts of Google’s SERPs, and chatbots and LLMs becoming cornerstones of the marketing experience, it’s a very different landscape than it was just two years ago. And it will change again next year and the year after.

This is why the ongoing cost of SEO can be high. SEO is a long-term, never-ending investment, just like customer service or social media marketing. And due to this volatile environment, the SEO strategy may need to change over time. Having a retainer with an agency or someone in-house to identify these opportunities is critical to the success of your business.

In-house vs. outsourced SEO

As a small business, the price tag of SEO can be overwhelming. It can be very tempting to assume you can “do SEO” by yourself and don’t need to pay an agency. While it is possible for one person to learn the basics of SEO from the internet, getting results in a reasonable timeframe typically requires hiring someone to focus solely on SEO.

That said, in-house SEO costs significantly more than outsourced SEO, regardless of whether you hire an agency, freelancer, or consultant. In-house SEO teams can cost more than $40,000 per person annually, including wages and other supplementary costs like taxes and benefits. Meanwhile, outsourced SEO, like agencies or consultants, typically sets the cost based on the overall project goal and duration, which ends up being less than employing a person. 

Is it worth paying for SEO?

Paying for SEO can be invaluable. There are more than 10 billion searches on Google per day—literally billions of people looking to find what they need through a search engine. Outside of Google, there are hundreds of websites that use various search engines of their own that could provide your product or service. Investing in an SEO campaign ensures that your internet footprint is the best it can be.

Additionally, search is an active practice by users. They are actively seeking to fill a gap in knowledge or complete an action. This means search tends to have a higher conversion rate than many other digital marketing channels, ranging from around 3% to nearly 4.5%. Compare this to the overall 1.4% average conversion rate for Shopify ecommerce stores, and the benefits of SEO are clear.