How much does SEO cost? We read 97 real plans

Most answers to this question give you a range like $500 to $5,000, which is a tenfold spread offered as the price for one business. The more precise-sounding figures usually trace back to a survey of the people selling SEO, or to one from 2019.

So we read the price lists instead. On 3 November 2026 we recorded 97 published plans from 34 US SEO providers, with what each one says it includes and what commitment it asks for. These are list prices, not invoices, and the note under the first table sets out what that leaves out.

How much does SEO cost per month?

Half of all published plans fall between $724 and $2,948 a month. A provider’s cheapest plan is the fairer comparison for a small business, because it is the one you would be offered first.

Our own read of provider pricing pages, 3 November 2026. Published prices only, so agencies that quote privately are not included, and they tend to charge more. 28 of the 97 prices (29%) are “from” prices or the bottom of a range, so a real invoice can sit above them. The sample came from searches rather than a random draw. We name no provider.

Of those 34 cheapest plans, 21 cost under $1,000 a month.

How much does local SEO cost?

A plan sold to a business in one area has a median of $1,200 a month, and the cheapest local plan at each provider has a median of $750. National plans cost much more once you go beyond the first tier. Productized plans, sold as a fixed package, have the lowest entry prices.

Some providers sell both local and national plans, so each plan counts under its own type. The cheapest-plan median groups each provider by the type of its cheapest plan: 23 local, 5 national and 4 productized. Six further plans came from two freelancers, too few to report as a market price.

One plan in four (23 of 97) prices by location or market, so a second branch or a crowded city can cost more than the number on the page. Check that before comparing two quotes.

Freelancers mostly do not publish plans at all, which is why they barely show up here. If you do get a quote from one, compare it by the hour. The 13 plans in our sample that state their hours work out at a median of $125 an hour, with a middle half of $104 to $134. That comes from only 4 providers, so treat it as a rough guide.

What does $750 buy, and what does $1,500 buy?

This is the question that matters when you have a quote in your hand, and the pricing pages are poor at answering it. We sorted all 97 plans by price and checked what each one commits to in numbers: articles or pages, links, or hours.

Counted from what each plan’s page says, so a blank means the page does not say, not that the work is never done. A count of content “assets” on one provider’s plans is treated as a stated content count.

The useful finding is what stays flat. Above $500, between 50% and 61% of plans commit to a number at every price, so paying more does not buy a more specific promise. What rises with price is the label: AI search work shows up in 17% of the cheapest plans and 75% of the dearest. Google Business Profile work, the thing a one-location business needs most, is named less often at the top, partly because many of those plans are sold to national businesses.

Across the whole sample, 58 of 97 plans (60%) state neither a content count nor a link count. Add hours as a third measure and 47 of 97 (48%) still state none of the three. A plan can be perfectly good without publishing a number, but you need the number before you sign, so ask for it.

Time is the clearest unit if you can get it. At the $125 median, $750 buys about 6 hours a month and $1,495 about 12. Six hours can keep a profile, listings and a few pages in order. It is unlikely to produce a steady run of real articles as well, whatever the plan is called.

Why do other guides say $2,917?

Because that is the headline average in a much repeated study, and it measures something narrower than it appears to. Ahrefs polled 439 SEO providers worldwide, not buyers, and last updated the page in August 2024. It sets out part of its method openly: its averages for agencies, consultants and freelancers assume each respondent charges the top of their price band. Those are upper estimates, not billed averages. The page does not show how the overall $2,917 was reached. It also gives $1,557 for providers who serve local markets, which often gets repeated as the price of local SEO, and it is not that. The most common retainer band in the survey is $501 to $1,000, at 20.4%.

None of this is a fault in the survey. The figures just get used for more than they measure, so here is what the main sources are, and who was asked.

Each primary source was opened on 3 November 2026. Every publisher here has an interest: Ahrefs and SE Ranking sell SEO software, Duda sells a website builder, Backlinko is owned by Semrush, and Clutch is an agency directory. We sell websites with this work included.

Two things stand out. The last large survey of what US small businesses actually spend is seven years old, and we found nothing to replace it, so nobody can currently tell you what buyers pay. And the gap between our $1,495 and that $2,917 is at least partly method: a median of US list prices against a worldwide average from a survey that leans on the tops of its price bands.

Do I need a contract for SEO?

Usually not, among providers that publish prices. Many guides imply that 6 to 12 months is standard, but only 4 of the 34 state a minimum term, and the most common length among those is 6 months.

Agencies that only quote privately may well ask for more. Setup fees ran from $500 to $2,899 where they were stated.

So a provider asking for 12 months is asking for more than most of its published competitors do. There may be a reason, and SEO does take time to show, but time to show results is not the same as a lock-in. You can stay for a year without being contractually bound to.

Is SEO worth it for a small business?

It depends on whether the basics are in place, because a plan cannot tell you it worked if nothing is counting enquiries. In our study of 122 local business websites, 29% had no analytics of any kind, and another 10% had only an old tag that stopped collecting data. Paying for rankings on a site like that means paying for a result you cannot see. Start with why your website is not getting leads, because several of those causes cost nothing to fix.

Google’s account of local ranking is short: relevance, distance and popularity, the last of which draws on links from other sites and on your reviews. It also says a better local ranking cannot be requested or paid for. That makes a short test for any local plan: a complete profile, reviews, consistent listings, real pages for your services and places, and a way to measure. Of the 34 cheapest plans in our sample, 22 name the profile. About one in three does not, so check that first.

What does “AI search” on an SEO plan mean?

It can mean almost anything, so ask. 27 of the 34 providers sell it somewhere on the page, but only 18 put AI work inside a plan, and the rest sell it separately or only track it.

There is no settled price. In our sample it runs from included at no extra charge, through add-ons of $500 to $1,000 a month, to standalone services of $1,500 to $5,000. One agency’s own study of quotes puts the median starter retainer for local and small businesses at $2,950 a month, though that agency sells this service and its sample cannot be checked. Plans with AI work also tend to cost more, but it usually sits in upper tiers, so that gap does not tell you what the AI part costs.

Google’s guidance on its own AI features says AI Overviews and AI Mode have no extra requirements and need no special optimization. So a premium for Google’s AI results needs explaining. ChatGPT, Perplexity and others are separate systems, with separate sources to earn a place in, and we have written up what that work involves and how to check it yourself for free. If a plan’s AI line is a tracking report, you can run that check yourself before paying anyone for it.

What should I watch for in an SEO quote?

Google’s advice on hiring an SEO is blunt on the first of these: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” None of the plans we found through ordinary pricing searches promised a ranking. A separate search for the word guarantee quickly turned up three providers selling one, so they exist.

Should I buy a website and SEO together?

The sticker price is often lower, but compare what you are getting. We kept these plans out of the figures above because the price includes a website: 8 US providers and 16 plans, with a median of $864 a month and a cheapest-plan median of $499.

A small sample and not like for like. At the low end, the SEO in a bundle can be on-site setup only.

So the cheap monthly figure often comes with the long commitment that SEO-only plans have mostly dropped. If you are comparing one, ask what ongoing SEO work happens each month, and what you keep if you leave. For the website side alone, we compared prices in what a website should cost and website maintenance cost.

Common questions