How much does SEO cost? A straight answer
SEO pricing is all over the place — from £50-a-month packages that do nothing to five-figure retainers. That range isn't a con in itself; SEO genuinely varies from a quick audit to an ongoing programme. The problem is telling worthwhile SEO from expensive noise. Here's an honest breakdown of what it costs and what you're actually paying for.
The common ways SEO is priced
- One-off audit — a health check of your site's SEO with a prioritised to-do list. Often a few hundred pounds.
- Project work — a defined piece, like fixing technical issues or optimising key pages, priced by scope.
- Monthly retainer — ongoing work (content, technical fixes, links, reporting). The most common for continuous SEO.
- Pay-per-result / "guaranteed rankings" — usually a red flag; nobody can guarantee Google's results.
What it typically costs in the UK
A useful one-off SEO audit commonly runs from a few hundred pounds. Monthly retainers for small businesses often sit somewhere between £300 and £1,500 a month, depending on how competitive your market is and how much work is done. Serious, competitive campaigns cost more. The number matters far less than what's actually being done for it.
What drives the price
- Competition — ranking for "London solicitor" is far harder than a niche local trade.
- The state of your site — a technically broken site needs fixing before anything else.
- Content — writing genuinely useful pages is real work, and a big part of SEO.
- Scope — technical, content, local and links are different jobs; more of them costs more.
How to spend wisely
- Start with an audit, so you're fixing the right things rather than paying for guesswork.
- Ask exactly what a retainer includes each month, and how it's reported.
- Expect results in months, not days — real SEO compounds over time.
- Make sure the technical foundations are sound first; content on a broken site won't rank.
Good SEO is an investment that keeps paying back long after the work is done, because a page that ranks brings visitors for free, month after month. Weak SEO, by contrast, quietly gets you nowhere. The difference is almost always whether the work genuinely helps your site — or not.
Common questions
How much should I pay for SEO per month?
For a small UK business, monthly SEO commonly ranges from a few hundred to around £1,500, depending on how competitive your market is and how much is done. Focus less on the number and more on what's actually included and reported — a cheap retainer that does nothing is worse value than a larger one that moves the needle.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
Rarely. Very cheap "SEO packages" tend to do almost nothing useful, and some build spammy links that can get your site penalised by Google. If you have a small budget, a one-off audit plus fixing the fundamentals yourself is usually a far better spend than a cheap monthly package.
Can I guarantee a #1 Google ranking by paying more?
No — nobody can guarantee a specific Google ranking, because Google controls the results and they change constantly. Anyone promising guaranteed top spots is either misleading you or using risky tactics. You pay for the work and expertise, not a guaranteed position.
One-off SEO or a monthly retainer?
A one-off audit or project suits fixing specific problems or getting a healthy site's foundations right. A monthly retainer suits ongoing, competitive work where content and improvements need to keep coming. Many businesses start with an audit, act on it, then decide whether ongoing work is worth it.
Let's talk
Let's talk about your project.
Whether you've got a clear brief or just an idea, tell us what you have in mind and we'll give you an honest recommendation — even if that's a smaller project than you expected.