Pricing models, honest ranges, what each tier actually buys — and why the $299/month offer is the most expensive thing on this page. Written from fifteen years of doing the work and cleaning up after the shortcuts.
In 2026, legitimate SEO for a US small or mid-sized business costs $750 to $5,000 per month as an ongoing engagement, $1,000 to $7,500 for a one-time audit or project, or $100 to $300 per hour for consulting. Anything dramatically cheaper is almost always automated reports, offshore link spam, or both — and the cleanup costs more than doing it right would have.
| Model | Typical price | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | $750 – $5,000/mo | Ongoing growth — SEO compounds, and retainers match that reality | Vague deliverables; demand a named monthly work list |
| Project-based | $1,000 – $30,000 | Site migrations, technical overhauls, content builds | Projects end; rankings need maintenance after |
| Hourly consulting | $100 – $300/hr | Audits, second opinions, in-house team guidance | Hours expand to fill budgets without fixed scope |
| Performance-based | Varies | Almost nothing — sounds great, usually isn't | Incentivizes vanity keywords and gray-hat tactics that get rankings briefly and penalties eventually |
Four variables move SEO pricing more than anything else:
| Monthly price | What's realistic |
|---|---|
| Under $750 | Automated rank reports and little else. If a human is doing real monthly work at this price, the math doesn't work — something is automated or outsourced. |
| $750 – $1,500 | Legitimate local SEO: Google Business Profile management, on-page fixes, review systems, steady local content. The right tier for most single-location service businesses. |
| $1,500 – $3,500 | Technical SEO + content strategy + authority building, multiple locations or competitive local markets, measurable content production every month. |
| $3,500+ | Competitive national or multi-market campaigns: serious content operations, digital PR for links, ongoing technical work on larger sites. |
The $299/month SEO offer isn't a bargain — it's a different product wearing the same name. At that price the economics only support automation: templated "optimizations," spun content, and links from networks Google has been penalizing for a decade. The damage pattern is consistent: a few months of nothing, sometimes a brief lift, then a slide — and occasionally a manual penalty whose cleanup costs more than two years of legitimate SEO would have. We've done those cleanups. We'd rather you skip the first part.
Honest expectations by phase: months 1–2 are foundation (technical fixes, profile work, content begins) with little visible movement. Months 3–6 bring measurable lifts in local visibility and long-tail rankings — local SEO often shows map-pack movement here. Months 6–12 is when competitive terms move and compounding becomes obvious. SEO is the slowest channel we run and the only one whose results you keep when you stop paying. Anyone promising page one in 30 days is describing either a keyword nobody searches or a tactic you'll regret.
SEO is included inside our flat packages rather than sold as a separate line item, because rankings without conversion are decoration. The $799/month Starter package covers local SEO, Google Business Profile management, on-page work, and the website and conversion improvements that make rankings pay — alongside ad management up to $1,000/month in spend. Larger or more competitive scopes are custom-quoted after the free audit, in writing, with named deliverables. No percentage of anything, no long-term contracts.
Generic benchmarks end here. A free audit gives you your real costs, your real waste, and a prioritized plan — within 24 hours.
Free · No credit card · Money-back guarantee for new clients