How much does SEO cost for a small business?
Most SEO work is sold at somewhere between $250 and $10,000 a month, and 63% of businesses spend $500 to $5,000, according to an Ahrefs poll of 439 SEO providers. That’s the realistic spread when you ask how much SEO costs for a small business in the UK, with the catch that the poll is in US dollars and worldwide.
Treat those numbers as the shape of the market, not a UK price list. When you collect quotes, ask for them in pounds, ex-VAT or inc-VAT stated, and compare what each one includes.
A small business with a modest site and a local customer base sits towards the lower half of that range. A shop with thousands of products competing nationally sits towards the top.
Monthly retainer, hourly rate or one-off project?
Providers use all three models, often side by side. In the same Ahrefs poll, 78.2% sold monthly retainers, 48.9% charged per project and 34.8% billed hourly, and respondents could pick more than one.
Monthly retainers
A retainer pays for ongoing work: content, technical fixes, tracking and reporting. It’s the usual choice because SEO rarely finishes.
Expect the work to be agreed in writing each month, so you can see what the fee bought.
Hourly rates
Hourly billing suits advice, training or a one-off review where the scope is unclear. The overall average in the poll was $111 an hour, and the most common band was $75 to $100.
One-off projects
Projects fit a defined job such as an audit, a migration or a content plan. The most common band was $2,501 to $5,000, which is a long way above a single month’s retainer and worth it only if the deliverable is specific.
Freelancer, consultant or agency: what is the difference in price?
Freelancers cost the least and consultants the most per hour, with agencies in between. The averages below come from the same Ahrefs poll, in US dollars.
| Provider | Monthly retainer | Hourly rate | Per project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | $1,348 | $71.59 | $2,348.63 |
| Agency | $3,209 | $98.90 | $9,507.84 |
| Consultant | $3,250 | $171.18 | $8,685.53 |
An older survey points the same way. BrightLocal’s 2017 Local Search Industry Survey found freelancers billed a median of $75 an hour against $100 for agencies, and 71% of freelancers received under $1,000 a month per client, against 46% of agencies.
The gap buys something. An agency usually brings technical, content and outreach skills under one roof, while a freelancer is often one person covering everything. Which suits you depends on how many of those jobs your site needs at once.
What makes SEO cost more or less?
Experience, market reach and competition move the price most. Providers with two years or less in business averaged a $1,540 retainer in the Ahrefs poll, against $3,648 for those with five to ten years behind them.
Reach matters too. Providers serving worldwide markets averaged a $3,474 retainer, while local-only providers averaged $1,557.
Then there’s the keyword itself. Competing for a term that big brands have chased for years means more content and more authority-building than competing for a niche phrase.
Scope is the last lever. A technical clean-up, a content programme and link building are separate workstreams, and each one you add raises the fee.
Is local SEO cheaper than national SEO?
Yes, generally. Ahrefs found local SEO averaged $1,557 a month, with agencies at $1,819 and freelancers around $1,150, which sits below the overall retainer averages.
The reason is competition. A plumber trying to appear for searches in one borough is up against far fewer pages than a company chasing a national term.
If your customers all live within travelling distance, local SEO is the cheaper place to start, and you can widen later.
How long does SEO take to pay off?
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels
Three to six months is the typical answer, based on an Ahrefs poll of 3,680 people. Ahrefs’ own guide to how long SEO takes to show results adds that “there’s no definitive time frame. It depends.”
Competition decides most of it. A term with high keyword difficulty, such as the bare word “seo”, has top pages with tens of thousands of links, so a new site shouldn’t expect to reach them quickly.
Small sites can still win. Ahrefs found a site with a Domain Rating of 12 ranking third for a keyword with a difficulty of 85, and it suggests starting with keywords at a difficulty of 20 or lower.
Budget for at least six months before judging the result, and ask any provider what they expect to move and when.
Can a small business do SEO itself?
Often, yes. Google Search Central says small local businesses can usually do much of the work themselves, and it points to its own SEO Starter Guide as the place to begin.
Search Console is free and shows how Google sees your site. The Search Central blog and community forum are free as well.
Paying someone makes more sense when the work is technical, such as redirects, hosting or JavaScript, or when you’re about to redesign the site. Google says hiring before a redesign or new launch is most useful, “the earlier, the better”, though a good SEO can also improve an existing site.
How to spot an SEO offer that is too good to be true
Walk away from anyone who is vague about what they’ll do to your site. Google warns against companies that are secretive or won’t explain their plans, because you remain responsible for their actions.
Claims of a “special relationship” with Google or a “priority submit” are another red flag, as are unsolicited SEO emails, which Google says to treat like obvious scams.
Link schemes deserve their own warning. Deceptive content from an SEO can get your site removed from Google’s index, and Google advises avoiding anyone who promotes link popularity schemes. We don’t buy links or use link schemes, and you should expect the same from whoever you hire.
Before signing, ask for examples of past work, what results to expect over what timeframe, how success is measured, and whether they’ll document every change and the reasoning behind it. Contact a past client if you can.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone guarantee a number one ranking on Google?
No. Google’s guidance says “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google”, and if an audit promises first place, it advises finding someone else.
Does paying Google for ads improve my organic rankings?
No. Google says advertising with it has no effect on your presence in organic search results, and it never accepts money to include or rank sites in them.
When is the best time to hire an SEO?
Before a redesign or a new site launch, when changes are cheapest to make. Google puts it as “the earlier, the better”, though a good SEO can also help an existing site.
What should I ask an SEO before hiring them?
Ask for examples of past work, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, what results to expect and over what timeframe, and how they’ll report. Also ask about experience in your industry and location.
When an SEO runs an audit, give them read-only access to Search Console and nothing more.
Sources
- SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost? 439 People Polled — Ahrefs
- SEO pricing survey: freelancers vs agencies — BrightLocal
- How Long Does SEO Take to Show Results? — Ahrefs
- Do you need an SEO? — Google Search Central
Cover photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels