How Much Does SEO Cost?

Spend more than a few minutes researching SEO costs and you will quickly discover that prices can vary wildly, if you're new to Search Engine Optimisation then you may be left wondering why. In this article, we'll aim to provide you with a clear, easy to understand explanation of what the typical costs might be, and why costs can vary so wildly.

Factors Which Influence The Costs of SEO

SEO costs are primarily influenced by:

• Who is doing the work
• Where they are based
• Experience and knowledge levels (or more specifically, success rates!)
• Whether they are working on an ad-hoc project, or on a monthly retainer basis

Who is Doing The Work?

The first factor to influence the costs is who is performing the work. SEO specialists or consultants will generally fall into one of four categories:

• Friends
• Freelancers
• SEO Agencies
• In-House Teams

Friends

If you're lucky enough to have a friend who is knowledgable (and we mean knowledgeable - remember the adage "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!") then this will be one of the cheapeast options open to you. Rates will vary from free, to benefits in kind (buy them a beer, etc) to perhaps a token rate or "mates rates". This route can be useful for people who are working to a negligable budget, but does come with some downsides. For example, what happens if you see no results? Many people don't feel comfortable confronting a friend for lack of performance, so this can lead to strains in a personal relationships.

Freelancers

Freelancers are the next step up. We've seen people in this category range from little (or even bad) to excellent knowledge, with many offering SEO services as a sideline to top-up a salary, especially due to the rising "gig-economy" and the growth in gig-based websites such as Fiverr. With freelancers, you are typically reliant on a single individual to perform the work, and whilst there are some excellent SEO freelancers in the UK, you will often find you lack some of the security which you have by working with a dedicated SEO company. That said, costs will often be lower as they typically won't have to pay for offices, rent, staff wages (other than their own), insurance and so on. We've seen freelancers advertising for anything from £10 per hour to over £150 per hour!

SEO Agencies / Companies

Next up are SEO Agencies such as ourselves. To keep this article as unbiased as possible, let's start with some of the negatives first. As touched on above, SEO companies have more overheads to factor in, and that in turn naturally leads to higher costs than a freelancer. However, with that comes a number of advantages. For example, SEO agenies will often have multiple team members which means there should always be someone on hand who can help (no more panicing because you haven't been able to get hold of your freelancer in weeks). In addition digital marketing agencies have experience across a wide range of related disciplines ranging from web design and development, through to PPC advertising and social media activities. As a result, they have a much wider and in-depth level of knowledge, after often more aware of changing industry trends and algorithm updates, and can often user economies of scale to provide with a much greater level of service than a freelancer, but for often comparable costs.

In terms of pricing, we typically charge £60 per hour and our monthly SEO packages start from as little as £480 per month.

In-House Teams

Finally there are in-house teams. This won't be a viable option for many small businesses, but as your company grows (which will happen if you're working with a good agency such as ourselves ;-) ) you could reach a stage where you will might want to consider if hiring an internal SEO specialist or strategiest to focus on your site full time will be more cost effective than outsourcing.

When you get to that stage, the costs will vary on the level of expertise and experience you require from the new team member. However, we would recommend budgeting somewhere in the region of £30k to £40k to hire someone with at least 5+ years experience and a proven track record of driving results.

Where Are They Located?

Within this section, costs are typically dependent on:

• Whether they are based in the UK, or overseas
• If they're based in the UK, are they based in a major location such as London

You will often find that SEO specialists overseas can be cheaper than the UK, and that is largely down to cheaper labour costs in certain countries. For example, a lot of SEO work is performed in countries such as India or China and can cost between £45 to £200 per month. Some UK companies will seek to take advantage of this by outsourcing the work of UK clients to firms in India, and then tag on their own profit when invoicing in customers in UK GBP.

We don't feel this is right, and so we're proud that all of our SEO is performed right here in the UK in our office in Witney, Oxfordshire. This means we're also on hand to answer any questions you may have, and you can even pop into the office to meet the team.

Another consideration is whether firms are inside or outside of London as often higher costs of operating within the capital need to be passed onto clients. 

We are just 1hr from London which means we are ideally located. Lower costs mean we can help save you money, and yet we are still easily accessible for meetings (As with many firms, we hold most of our meetings via video these days, but sometimes you still can't beat an in-person meeting)

Monthly SEO vs Hourly SEO vs Ad-Hoc Campaign based SEO

Friends and "occasional" freelancers will typically quote for work on an hourly rate basis.  Howeverm, when it comes to SEO companies (we will ignore in-house teams from this point onwards), most will operate either on a monthly retainer or campaign basis; both have their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, your decision will often depend on whether the company offers a choice and what your budget is.

Monthly SEO is by far the most popular. In a 2024 survey by Ahrefs, 78.2% of SEO's utilised a monthly retainer model for some or all of their services.

 We offer a range of monthly retainer packages to suit a variety of budgets:

• Our "Local SEO Package" costs just £480 and is perfect for local businesses looking to build local growth such a hairdresses, plumbers, electricians etc
• Our "Foundation SEO Package" costs £560 and is ideal for companies who are still working on a tight budget, but need to target a wider audience
• Our "Advanced SEO Package" costs £1,395 and is our most popular package. It includes almost everything a business needs, including content creation, leaving you free to focus on running your business, and finally
• Our "Professional SEO Package" costs £2,495 and includes everything in our advance package, but double the amount of SEO time each month, making it ideal for larger sites, or businesses who need to improve their SEO fast

You can view what's included with each of our SEO packages.

Other Factors Which Influence the Cost of SEO

Due to there being a number of elements that make up SEO, it is no surprise that some mandatory costs correlate to the degree of success that a website has. Investing in good quality SEO is a wise step for many websites and business owners alike. Why might someone spend more on SEO than others, and what successes does this bring? Let’s have a look at the key expense elements;

Business Goals

Understanding your business goals, and how SEO is involved with these, is a large contributing factor when understanding the costs of the SEO you need. Companies with more ambitious goals or those targeting competitive keywords may require more extensive SEO efforts, leading to higher costs. If it’s helping you reach your goals, you’ll be glad you invested in it.

Competitiveness Within the Industry

Every business wants to be better than their competition but to actually be better may involve investing more in optimisation. The level of competition in your industry can impact the resources needed to outrank competitors; highly competitive markets often require more comprehensive and, consequently, more costly SEO strategies. In the long run, this may be a small price to pay if you outrank your competitors - a price worth paying indeed.

Scope of Work

It’s important to plan the scope of the services you may require. The extent of these services, such as on-page optimisation, content creation, link building, technical SEO, and ongoing maintenance influences the overall cost. Understanding the scope early on can help plan for any ongoing costs that could arise.

Current State of the Website

Consider the current state of the website you’ve got, if you already have one (if not, maybe we could change that?). Websites that are outdated or poorly maintained/optimised may require significantly more effort to optimise, leading to greater costs. Read about the importance of having a good website in our dedicated article “What Makes a Bad Website”.

Quality and Quantity of Content

Creating high-quality, engaging, and relevant content is a crucial aspect of SEO. Search engines such as Google love useful, informative content, so it is important to create quality content regularly. Costs may increase based on the volume and quality of content needed for your website, but these costs are wise investments in the long-term when gaining more of an online audience. Knowing what content to create is also crucial, so research into relevant content that appeals to the search intent of your target audience is key.

Keyword Strategy

The selection of keywords for optimisation plays a role in determining costs; targeting highly competitive keywords often requires more resources compared to long-tail (specific/longer) or niche keywords. Specialists such as ourselves offer insightful keyword strategies which we recommend carrying out before signing up for any SEO (with us or any agency) as it analyses existing performance and provides a starting point and strategy for when you do start your SEO efforts. This SEO/Keyword Strategy is certainly a cost that is worth considering. It is also important to note that keywords should not be “stuffed” - as explained in our article entitled “How to Check for Keyword Stuffing”.

Geographical Targets

Understanding the scale that your business works on is important when considering SEO costs. Local, national, and international scales affect the complexity of optimisation needed; as expected, local is the cheapest scale, and international is more expensive. As your business grows, this may be something you reassess over time.

Why Is SEO So Important for Your Business Website?

We can’t stress enough how important SEO is for success on business websites; it is one of the biggest contributing factors to being seen on search engines. Discover more about why we consider SEO a no-brainer.

We’ll keep the benefits of carrying out SEO brief as they’ve been touched upon throughout the article;

• Increased visibility and traffic from the right audiences
• Credibility and trust in your business field
• Higher conversion rates
• Competitive advantages over those around you
• Optimises your content for web and mobile users
• Maximises PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns

Are You Looking for Someone to Manage Your SEO for You?

Here at Beyond Your Brand, we are experts in the SEO industry. We take great pride in delivering successful SEO strategies for our clients, helping their websites get the online recognition they deserve. If you’re looking for someone to manage your SEO, look no further; get in contact with us today.