When you pay for SEO, you’re really paying for time, experience, and capacity.
The cost depends on who’s doing the work — and how much overhead they carry.
Freelancer vs agency vs in-house
Marketing agencies
With an agency, you’re hiring a full team to handle strategy, content, technical fixes, and link-building.
Great for long-term, multi-channel campaigns.
But expect to pay more. Agencies have to cover staff, software, office space — all of that shows up in your invoice.
Freelancers
Freelancers are a leaner option.
They’re often lower cost and more flexible.
You can get top-tier skill for less, especially if your campaign doesn’t need five different departments.
But they have limits — bandwidth, specialisation, and backup.
In-house teams
These are best for large companies with big budgets.
You hire staff directly to manage SEO full-time.
But the cost is high — salaries, training, and tools can run into the thousands every month.
Most SMEs aren’t there yet.
Common pricing structures
Hourly
Good for small, targeted tasks: an audit, local SEO setup, or occasional consulting. Pay for what you need. Simple. If you’re just getting started, hourly is a low-risk way to try SEO.
Monthly
The most common model. You pay a flat monthly fee, and your provider delivers consistent SEO work — content, backlinks, reporting.
Ideal if you want steady progress.
Just check what’s included.
Some agencies offer flexible contracts; others lock you in.
Per project
Perfect for one-off needs — like a site migration, technical SEO fix, or content strategy. You pay a set fee for a defined outcome. No surprises.
Productised SEO
Some providers package SEO into fixed “products”: a blog post for £80, 10 backlinks for £6,500, etc. It’s clear and predictable, but you’re buying quantity — not necessarily quality. Be cautious here.
Performance-based
Rare and risky.
You pay based on results — like rankings, traffic, or leads.
Sounds good, but messy in practice. Hard to track, easy to argue over.
Usually not worth the hassle unless you’ve got tight margins and clear tracking in place.
Bottom line
SEO pricing varies.
What you pay depends on what you need, who’s doing the work, and how they package it.
Final pointer — know what you’re buying, and make sure it matches your goals.