At the end of 2011 a survey of agencies and consultants from across the world was put together to bring to us the following information. The information is said to be imperfect due to the company that put it together is not a professional surveyor instead a go-to search engine optimization site/blog and in my opinion an authority in this industry where agencies, consultants and experts frequent. From my several years in this industry I can say that from my experience their data is spot on and I would like to share the information they compiled and to show you how we developed our our pricing structure and why we are so transparent about it. I am not a fan of receiving bills from large corporations such as my phone or cable and having an enormous amount of hidden fees. So in hopes of providing an opposite and far more pleasant experience I am sharing our fees on our website and how we came about the pricing.
2026 Updated Pricing
Hourly SEO Costs Vary Across
Countries, but $76-$200/hour is the average.
With the exception of India (the only developing region that was well-represented in our survey), hourly costs of $76-$200 (representing three responses) covered 50%+ of all firms. It was highest in Australia/New Zealand at 62%, followed by 58.1% in the US and 56% in Canada.
Monthly Retainer Pricing Has the Widest Distribution
Offsite SEO Deliverables: This depends on the keywords and geographic area.
With the exception of India (the only developing region that was well-represented in our survey), hourly costs of $76-$200 (representing three responses) covered 50%+ of all firms. It was highest in Australia/New Zealand at 62%, followed by 58.1% in the US and 56% in Canada.
By-the-Project Pricing is Popular
and Most Commonly $1,000-$7,500
70.1% of respondents said they offer project-based pricing (the most common pricing system selected in the survey). Obviously, there's a wide variety of prices here, not surprising given that the types of projects offered may be quite diverse.
70.1% of respondents said they offer project-based pricing (the most common pricing system selected in the survey). Obviously, there's a wide variety of prices here, not surprising given that the types of projects offered may be quite diverse.
Monthly Retainer Pricing Has the Widest Distribution
While both hourly and by-the-project rates do have a wide range of pricing,
monthly retainers are certainly the most distributed of the price questions
asked in our survey. The two most common were $251-$500/month (13.8%) and
$2,501-$5,000/month (11.3%)._
Though Project-Based Pricing is
Most Popular, the Majority of Consultancies Also Offer Monthly Retainers and
Hourly Rates
Early in my SEO career, project-based pricing seemed relatively rare. Today, it was the top response, offered by 70% of the participating firms. Monthly retainer pricing was next, offered by 60%, followed closely by hourly rates (55%).
Early in my SEO career, project-based pricing seemed relatively rare. Today, it was the top response, offered by 70% of the participating firms. Monthly retainer pricing was next, offered by 60%, followed closely by hourly rates (55%).
Now how we determined our pricing was a combination of how competitive
the keywords are, how competitive the geographic are is that you are attempting
to rank in. We found that these two numbers are in direct correlation.
The next factor we used was time. How long will the project
take?
Onsite SEO
Deliverables: This usually takes an hour per page.
•
For Homepage
•
Head Section Order
•
Title Tag
•
Description Tags
•
Keyword Tags
•
Heading Tags
•
Dashes or Underscores in URLs with Keywords
•
Installed Google Analytics
•
Strategic Internal Linking Development
Offsite SEO Deliverables: This depends on the keywords and geographic area.
•
Local Keyword Research
•
Custom Site Map
•
Local Keyword Optimized Content
•
Google Panda & Penguin Policy Compliant
•
Fully Transparent Reporting (Google Analytics)
•
Inbound Linking
•
*Guaranteed Results
So taking
everything in to consideration with $76-$200/hour being the average, and the
average agency in Miami charging $150.00 an hour we decided to be very competitive
with our pricing and keep it at $99.00 an hour with about an estimated hour per
page and or keyword phrase. Then you would ask for 20 keywords in a “Metro”
area the price should be $1,980.00 why are we charging only $1,399.00? With time we
have found that when you group similar keywords it becomes easier to rank for
them. Examples being keywords such as; “personal injury lawyer miami” & “personal
injury attorney miami”.
In conclusion
it comes down to how competitive are your target keyword, in your city and how
much time needs to be dedicated for your site to rank.
A big thank you to SEOmoz for putting most of this information together. I am a huge fan!
