Pricing guide
How much does SEO cost?
It depends, and the useful part is knowing on what. This guide lists what moves the price of SEO, so you can read any quote and see what it actually buys.
What changes the price of SEO
Most SEO quotes are built from the same handful of factors. Ask any agency which of these it has priced in.
| Factor | Why it changes the cost |
|---|---|
| Size of the site | More pages and templates mean more to audit, fix and keep indexed. An online shop with a large catalogue is a different job from a small clinic site. |
| Technical condition | Slow pages, broken redirects, duplicate pages or a botched past migration must be fixed first, or new content will not pay off. See technical SEO. |
| Competition | Ranking for “implant dentist near me” in a large city against clinics that have published for years takes more content and more outside mentions than a niche search does. |
| Locations | Each city or branch needs its own page, listing and reviews. Our local SEO pricing guide covers that part. |
| Languages | French, Arabic and English versions each need real writing and hreflang tags. Arabic adds right-to-left layout checks. |
| Content volume | How many pages are written each month, who writes them, and whether a doctor, lawyer or engineer must review them before they go live. |
| Link earning | Earning mentions on real, relevant sites takes research and outreach. It is the slowest part of SEO and the first one cut from cheap plans. |
How agencies charge for SEO
Monthly retainer
The most common model, because SEO builds on itself month after month. Check that each month has named deliverables. “Ongoing optimisation” is not one.
Audit as a fixed project
A one-off audit with a ranked list of fixes. It fits when you have a developer or writer in-house who can carry out the work.
Setup, then monthly
Technical fixes, tracking and key pages come first, priced as a project. Content and link earning follow on a monthly fee. It suits sites with known problems.
Pay per ranking
You pay when a keyword reaches a position. It sounds fair and rarely is: the easiest keywords to rank for are the ones nobody searches, and a ranking is still not a lead.
What a small, growing and multi-location business usually needs
| Business | Typical scope |
|---|---|
| One location, one language | A technical clean-up, a page for each service that answers buyers’ real questions, a complete Google Business Profile, a few new pages each quarter, and call and form tracking. |
| Growing, several services or two languages | All of the above, plus a content plan per service, a second language with hreflang, steady link earning and conversion work on the pages that bring leads. |
| Multi-location or franchise | Location page templates, one Google Business Profile per site, a review programme, reporting by location, and clear rules on who may edit what. See multi-location marketing. |
What every SEO quote and monthly report should show
The first four lines belong in the quote. The rest belong in every monthly report.
- The monthly deliverables as quantities: pages written, fixes shipped, outreach carried out
- Any audit or setup work priced on its own line
- Who writes the content and who approves it
- Your site, Search Console and analytics staying in your name
- Organic visits and leads, by landing page
- Calls, forms and booked appointments that came from organic search, read from your CRM
- Positions and Search Console clicks for the searches that sell
- What was done this month, and what comes next
Red flags in cheap SEO offers
A low monthly price is fine when the scope is small and written down. The trouble starts when a small fee comes with large promises. Walk away from any of these:
- Guaranteed first-page or “number one on Google” rankings. Nobody controls Google’s results.
- Links sold in bulk. Buying links breaks Google’s spam policies and can get a site demoted.
- No admin access to your own site, Search Console or analytics.
- Reports full of rankings and traffic, with no leads, calls or bookings in them.
- Dozens of AI-written pages a month, unedited, on topics your buyers never search.
- A long contract with no written deliverables and no way out.
What we need to send you a fixed quote
Your site and goals
The website address, the services you want more of, and the cities and languages you sell in.
Read access, if you have it
Search Console and analytics show us where you stand today. If they are not set up, we work from what can be seen from outside and add the setup to the quote.
How leads reach you
Forms, phone, WhatsApp or walk-ins, and what happens to an enquiry once it arrives. SEO that brings leads nobody answers is money spent twice.
A fixed quote
You receive a price for a written scope. It stays fixed for that scope. A new location or language becomes a separate line, agreed before the work starts.
Frequently asked questions
Why is SEO usually billed monthly?
Because the work does not end. Results move, competitors publish, Google updates its systems and your own services change. A monthly fee pays for steady work: new pages, fixes, links and reporting. A one-off project can repair a site. It cannot keep it ahead.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
Technical fixes and better pages can show within weeks, once Google recrawls them. Rankings for competitive searches take months. We report leads and booked appointments from organic search every month, so you can watch the return build, or not.
Is SEO cheaper than Google Ads?
The costs have a different shape. Ads can bring leads within days and stop when you stop paying. SEO starts slower, and what it builds keeps bringing visits. Most businesses use both. See PPC management pricing.
Does SEO now include GEO?
They overlap. Good SEO already helps AI assistants find and quote you, but tracking AI answers, rewriting pages for them and earning the right mentions is extra work. Our GEO pricing guide explains that scope.
Last updated · By the Napexy team
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