£299 to £1,200 or more a month for a small business on a monthly SEO plan with us: SEO Foundation is £299, SEO Growth £599 and SEO Authority from £1,200, each billed monthly with no minimum term. Across the wider market, the most common monthly SEO retainer is $501 to $1,000, and agencies average $3,209 a month, according to Ahrefs’ survey of 439 SEO providers. Those survey figures are in US dollars and worldwide, so treat them as a guide to the shape of the market rather than a UK price list.
How much does SEO cost per month in the UK?
£299 a month for the fundamentals, £599 a month for active growth, and from £1,200 a month for a full programme, on our published plans. What changes between the three is how much new content gets written and how much outreach and answer engine work sits around it. Every plan is monthly, so you can stop when it stops paying for itself.
| Plan | Per month (UK) | Per month (US) | What the money buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO Foundation | £299 | $379 | Technical SEO and Core Web Vitals, Google Business Profile and local SEO, schema and AI readability setup, 1 article a month, a monthly report |
| SEO Growth | £599 | $749 | Everything in Foundation, 4 articles a month, AI visibility work for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, on page and conversion fixes, link building and digital PR, reporting every 2 weeks |
| SEO Authority | From £1,200 | From $1,499 | Everything in Growth, 8 articles a month with a content strategy, competitor tracking across the answer engines, advanced technical SEO, digital PR and a dedicated strategist with a monthly call |
What is the average cost of SEO per month?
About $3,209 a month for an agency, $3,250 for a consultancy and $1,349 for a freelancer, on average, in the Ahrefs survey. The most popular single band was $501 to $1,000 a month, chosen by 20.4% of the providers who answered. Averages run well above that popular band because a minority of providers charge five figures a month and drag the mean up. Ahrefs also found that SEOs with more than 2 years’ experience charged around a third more than newer ones.
That survey covers providers in many countries and quotes dollars only. We have not found a primary source that publishes UK-only SEO retainer prices, so we do not invent one. Our own figures above are the only pound prices on this page.
How much does SEO cost per hour?
$75 to $100 an hour is the most common hourly rate, charged by 24% of the providers Ahrefs surveyed. By type of provider, the average was $71.59 an hour for freelancers, $98.90 for agencies and $171.18 for consultancies. Hourly billing suits a one-off audit or a specific fix. For steady work, a fixed monthly plan is easier to budget because you know the bill before the month starts.
How much does a one-off SEO project cost?
$2,501 to $5,000 is the most common fee for a one-off SEO project, chosen by 21.2% of providers in the Ahrefs survey. The average project fee was $2,348.63 for freelancers, $8,685.53 for consultancies and $9,507.84 for agencies. A project usually means an audit with a fix list, or a site migration. If you are rebuilding your site anyway, the SEO migration (mapping old URLs and setting redirects) is part of our fixed-price redesign, not an extra project.
How much does SEO cost in the USA?
Most US and Canadian SEO providers charge at least $1,001 a month: 79.1% of them, in the Ahrefs survey. Two thirds charge $75 to $200 an hour. Our US prices are $379 a month for SEO Foundation, $749 for SEO Growth and from $1,499 for SEO Authority. For build costs on the same comparison, see how much a website costs in the USA.
Why does SEO cost so much more at some agencies?
Mostly because of how much new content and outreach is included each month, and who does it. The technical setup is a one-time job that rarely changes much from month to month. What scales the bill is the number of articles written, the link building and PR, the reporting cadence, and whether a senior strategist is on the account. When you compare quotes, ask each provider how many pages they will publish a month and what they will do off your site, because that is where the hours go.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
Only if the provider tells you exactly what they will do each month and does not promise a position. Google’s own guidance is blunt: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” It also warns against anyone claiming a special relationship with Google or a priority submission route (Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?). A low price with a guarantee attached is the warning sign, not the low price on its own.
How long does SEO take to work?
Google does not give a fixed timeframe, and neither should anyone selling SEO. Google suggests you ask any SEO what results to expect and in what timeframe before you hire them. Technical fixes can show in search within weeks of the pages being recrawled; new content usually takes longer to earn its place. That uncertainty is why our plans run month to month and why each one includes a report showing what moved and what did not.
Does SEO include getting cited by ChatGPT and AI search?
Yes on SEO Growth and SEO Authority, and the groundwork is in SEO Foundation. Foundation sets up the schema and readable structure that AI engines rely on. Growth and Authority add answer engine work: pages built around the exact questions buyers ask, with the answer in the first line, which is what tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot quote. Our guide to answer engine optimisation explains how it works and why nobody can guarantee a citation either.
Do I need monthly SEO or just a well-built website?
A well-built site first; monthly SEO only once there is something worth promoting. Every website we build includes basic SEO and analytics, and our Business build adds advanced SEO and speed work. For a local trade with a handful of competitors, a properly built site and a complete Google Business Profile can be enough. Monthly SEO pays off when you are competing for searches other businesses are actively fighting over. If your site is not showing up at all, start with why your website is not showing up on Google, and for local searches, our local SEO guide.
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