Rate cardUpdated August 2026
SEO agency pricing: what it costs, and what your money actually buys
Most SEO agency pricing hides behind a monthly retainer and a promise to build authority. We publish what a placement costs before you spend a dollar: the outlet, the position, the turnaround, the price. Targets and timelines go in writing, backed by a 100% guarantee. You get the agreed results or your money back.
A quiet month costs nothing. Prices before you pay
The market
How much does an SEO agency cost?
Short answer: most US agencies charge $75 to $200 an hour, $1,500 to $5,000 a month on retainer for small business work, and $1,000 to $30,000 for a defined project. Enterprise programs run $10,000 to $100,000 a month. Measure any proposal against these bands.
| Pricing model | What the market charges | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $75 to $200 | $100 to $149 is most common. Senior consultants reach $400 |
| Monthly retainer | $1,500 to $5,000 for small business work | Agency average $3,209 a month. 78.2% of providers bill this way |
| Defined project | $1,000 to $30,000 | Clutch reports an average project value of $37,158 |
| Local SEO | $500 to $2,500 a month | The local average lands near $1,557 a month |
| Enterprise SEO | $10,000 to $100,000+ a month | International programs run $3,000 to $20,000 a month |
| Freelancer | Around $1,349 a month | Marketplace rates under $50 an hour are a red flag |
| In house hire | $60,000 to $180,000 a year | Before Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, and a link budget |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
Those figures come from the Ahrefs survey of 439 providers and Clutch data covering 65,000+ listed companies. The spread is why SEO agency cost is so hard to pin down. You are buying hours and hoping they turn into rankings, coverage, and revenue.
What we charge
Per placement, not per month
Retainers pay for activity. Placements pay for outcomes. We price more than 900 media opportunities across five categories individually, so you approve the outlet and the position before any money moves.
Publication placements
Digital articles in the publications your buyers already read.
Ranked listicle spots
The roundups buyers land on when they are comparing options.
Broadcast TV segments
Local and national television, priced by the market you reach.
Digital TV interviews
Streamed and on demand programs with a named host.
Print magazine placements
Full page and up, in titles that still land on desks.
Four things, and only four. Outlet authority, measured by DA and DR. Prominence, because an exclusive number one spot costs more than sharing a Top 5. Market size, which is why a segment in a small DMA and one in a top ten market are different products. Extras such as social posts, guaranteed impressions, or a staff byline.
Before you approve
The spec sheet you see first
Competitors quantify effort. We quantify what you receive. Every listing in the client portal carries its own spec. Sort by any of it. Say no to any of it.
Generative engine optimization
What AI visibility costs
Buyers ask Google, then they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and whatever answers first. Generative engine optimization runs on the same fuel as search: entity clarity, structured data, and coverage in publications the models already trust.
Nobody in this market prices that work, so we do. Placements flagged for LLM visibility sit in the same rate card, priced per outlet, alongside the technical and entity work on our SEO and GEO page. See AI SEO agency.
The comparison
PR agency pricing, next to paying per placement
PR agency pricing follows the same retainer habit. A $2,500 to $7,500 small business retainer buys an account manager, a media list, a press release or two, and monitoring. None of that is a placement.
| Firm size | Monthly retainer | What the invoice covers |
|---|---|---|
| Boutique firm | $3,000 to $7,500 | An account manager, a media list, and monitoring. Placements are hoped for, not committed |
| Mid size firm | $10,000 to $25,000 | A larger team, more meetings, and a longer report at the end of the month |
| National firm | $25,000 to $50,000+ | Senior names on the pitch, junior people on the account |
| AceIt | No retainer | You buy the placement. The invoice matches the coverage, and the target is in writing first |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
Compare our public relations and digital PR work, where the invoice matches the coverage.
The clause
Why AceIt, and what the guarantee covers
The real risk here is not the price. It is six months of invoices, a folder of reports, and a visibility line that never moved. You paid for effort and got a summary of it.
So we put the outcome on the invoice. Placement targets, outlet tiers, timelines, and deliverables are agreed before kickoff. If we do not deliver what we committed to, on the timeline we committed to, you get your money back. No competing pricing guide in this market will discuss a refund at all.
We never promise a specific ranking position, because search results are not ours to sell and any agency selling them is misleading you. We commit to qualified organic traffic, share of search, and citations in AI answers, with the refund behind every agreed deliverable. You also get senior people, no junior account managers, and replies in 1 to 2 hours. More at who we are.
Proof before you spend
What the money has already bought
Detail at case studies and get featured in Forbes.
Fit
Who this pricing fits
It fits you if
- You are a founder or marketing leader who wants to see the outlet before paying for it
- You run an ecommerce or local brand testing coverage without signing a year away
- You lead a B2B team that needs authority both search engines and AI models recognize
- Start with small business SEO, local SEO, ecommerce SEO, or enterprise SEO
It does not fit
- Anyone shopping for the cheapest link on the internet
- Anyone who wants a guaranteed number one ranking in writing
- Model the return with our ROAS calculator first
Questions
What people ask about the invoice
Anything else, email [email protected] and it comes back in 1 to 2 hours.
Most US agencies charge $1,500 to $5,000 a month for small business work, with the industry average near $3,209. Enterprise programs start around $10,000 a month and local SEO falls between $500 and $2,500. No monthly retainer is required here. You pay per placement, so a quiet month costs nothing and a heavy month buys exactly what you approved.
PR agency pricing runs $3,000 to $7,500 a month with a boutique firm, $10,000 to $25,000 with a mid size firm, and $25,000 to $50,000 or more with a national firm. Month to month deals cost 10% to 20% more than a 12 month commitment. Our model removes that question. You buy the placements you want, in the positions you want.
You get your money back. Targets, outlet tiers, timelines, and deliverables are agreed in writing before kickoff, and if we do not deliver what we committed to on the timeline we committed to, we refund you. We never promise a specific ranking position, because those are not ours to sell. We commit to qualified organic traffic, share of search, and AI citations, backed by the same guarantee.
A standard package covers technical SEO, keyword research, on page optimization, content production, link acquisition, and monthly reporting. Ours adds the part most agencies quietly outsource: earned placements priced individually and approved by you, plus schema and entity work so AI answer engines can cite you. Every deliverable is named in the scope, so nothing rides on hours logged.
Because a few hundred dollars buys automation, not attention. At that budget you get spun content, directory submissions, and links from private blog networks that put your domain at risk. Anything near or under $150 a month is a red flag, and cheap link packages usually cost more to clean up than they ever produced.
Expect early movement in 3 to 6 months and meaningful compounding between 6 and 12 months, which is why we build against a 12 month roadmap. Placements move faster. A digital article runs within its stated turnaround, most Forbes clients see a first opportunity within 4 to 8 weeks, and print takes 3 weeks to 2 months.
Next step
See exactly what your budget buys
Send us your niche, your target outlets, and the budget you have. You get a reply in 1 to 2 hours with the placements we recommend, the positions still open, and the price of each. Targets and timelines go in writing.
Backed by a 100% guarantee: the agreed results or your money back