SEO Agency Pricing Calculator
Pick your market, competition level, site size, and scope of work, and get a transparent retainer estimate built from labor hours times rate. Works both ways: budget a purchase or price your own services.
75 to 150 is the common agency band in the US. Many markets run lower.
Check at least one scope of work above to get an estimate.
Typical 2026 US market bands (directional)
| Engagement | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Local SEO | $500 to $2,500 / mo |
| National SMB | $2,500 to $7,500 / mo |
| Competitive national / enterprise | $7,500 to $25,000+ / mo |
| One-off audits | $1,500 to $10,000 |
| Hourly consulting | $75 to $300 / hr |
Why SEO pricing varies this much
SEO pricing is labor hours times expertise. A campaign is a bundle of recurring work: technical fixes, content production, link acquisition, and reporting. Each block takes hours, and the rate on those hours reflects the seniority of the people doing them. Competition is the multiplier most buyers underestimate. In insurance, legal, or SaaS, the sites you are trying to outrank are spending heavily every month, which sets the floor for the output volume you need just to keep pace. That is why a local plumber can compete at $1,000 per month while a national insurance brand cannot move at $7,500. This calculator makes the math visible: hours per scope, multiplied by market, competition, and site size, multiplied by the rate.
Retainer vs project vs hourly
- Monthly retainer: the default for ongoing growth programs. The work recurs (content, links, technical upkeep), so a fixed monthly fee gives both sides predictability and lets the provider plan capacity.
- Fixed-price project: best for one-time deliverables with a clear end state, like a migration, a technical overhaul, or a content hub build-out. Price it as estimated hours times rate plus a contingency buffer.
- Hourly: best for audits, second opinions, and ad-hoc consulting. Maximum flexibility, minimum predictability. Senior specialists in competitive verticals command $150 to $300 per hour.
Red flags when buying SEO
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google. A guarantee either targets keywords nobody searches for or signals tactics that risk a penalty.
- $99 per month "full SEO". At any defensible rate, that buys under two hours of work. It cannot include content, links, and technical work. It is usually automated reports and little else.
- No deliverables list. A legitimate proposal itemizes what ships each month: pages published, links earned, fixes deployed, reports delivered. If the scope is vague, the hours are too.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost in 2026?
Directional US bands: local SEO runs $500 to $2,500 per month, national SMB campaigns run $2,500 to $7,500 per month, and competitive national or enterprise programs run $7,500 to $25,000 or more per month. One-off audits range from $1,500 to $10,000, and hourly consulting runs $75 to $300. The spread exists because SEO pricing is labor hours times expertise, and competitive markets demand far more of both.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
It depends on what you expect. At $100 per hour, a $500 per month retainer buys roughly 5 hours of work. That is enough for maintenance tasks like monitoring, small fixes, and reporting, but not enough to produce content, build links, and fix technical issues in a competitive niche. If growth is the goal in a contested market, $500 per month either buys a very narrow scope or it buys corner-cutting.
Should I pay hourly or retainer?
Retainers fit ongoing programs where the work recurs every month: content, links, technical upkeep, reporting. They give both sides predictability. Hourly fits short, well-defined work like an audit, a migration review, or ad-hoc consulting, where flexibility matters more than predictability. Projects with a fixed price fit one-time deliverables with a clear end state, like a site migration or a full technical overhaul.
How long until SEO pays back?
Most realistic programs break even somewhere between month 6 and month 14, because rankings ramp up rather than arriving on day one. Budget for at least a 6 to 12 month horizon before judging the spend. To model your own payback month from traffic, conversion rate, and value per lead, use the SEO ROI Calculator at /tools/seo-roi-calculator.