How much does SEO cost? What 10 published price lists say in 2026

SEO costs most Australian businesses A$1,500 to A$5,000+ a month, according to Impressive's pricing guide, updated 22 September 2026.^[1] Online Marketing Gurus publishes a wider band of A$750 to A$5,000+ monthly.^[2] Neither guide says whether its figures include GST. In the US, published starting fees run from US$500 at The Frank Agency to US$4,000 for Optimist's full-service work.^[3][4] I read every figure on the publisher's own page on 28 September 2026. I'm Brenden House, and I run Searchmaxxed. We do agentic SEO: AI agents read your search data every week, and a person approves every change.

What do agencies and cost guides publish for SEO pricing?

The published spread runs from a US$500 small-business floor at The Frank Agency to RankOn Technologies' enterprise figure above US$30,000 monthly.^[3][6] Hourly rates run from US$50 for entry-level freelancers to A$300 for experienced Australian consultants.^[3][1]

The Australian pages print a plain $ sign, so I read those figures as Australian dollars. Only Click Click Media states its GST treatment: its prices exclude GST.^[5] Ask every Australian agency whether its quote includes GST before you compare two numbers.

Read the table by scope before price, because one fee can buy advice at one agency and finished pages at another. Optimist's advisory retainers start at US$3,000 monthly for teams that execute in-house.^[4] Its full-service work, from strategy through execution and publishing, starts at US$4,000 monthly.^[4]

How much does SEO cost per month in Australia?

SEO in Australia costs most businesses A$1,500 to A$5,000+ monthly, and Impressive sorts that market into three tiers by what the work includes.^[1]

• A$1,500 to A$3,000 monthly. Impressive describes this tier as the basics: a light audit, a handful of keywords, some meta tag fixes and maybe a citation or two.^[1]
• A$3,500 to A$5,000 monthly. This tier adds keyword research tied to buying intent, content creation, monthly link work or digital PR, and conversion reporting.^[1]
• A$5,500+ monthly. This tier adds advanced technical SEO with schema and internal linking, large-scale content with PR, AI search work and revenue reporting.^[1]

Schema is code that labels a page's content for search engines, and digital PR means earning coverage and links from news sites. Impressive's spending advice follows the same split. It puts a small local business in a low-competition market at A$1,500 to A$2,500 monthly.^[1] It puts a small or medium business in a competitive field at A$2,500 to A$5,000, and a national ecommerce brand at A$5,000+.^[1]

AI search now carries its own price in Australia. Click Click Media, a Sydney agency, prices a standalone AI SEO program at A$2,000 to A$3,500 monthly.^[5] Its larger ecommerce and multi-platform programs run A$4,500 to A$6,500.^[5] Its add-on for existing SEO clients runs A$750 to A$1,500.^[5] All three exclude GST, and the work runs month-to-month.^[5]

The Frank Agency says smaller businesses targeting local traffic typically need local SEO, citation building, Google Business Profile work and basic on-page work.^[3] Citation building means getting your business listed on directories and maps. We run that work as local SEO, and our Local Search package ships at least 8 page releases a month.

What does SEO agency pricing look like in the US?

OuterBox says most US agencies charge US$3,000 to US$7,500 a month.^[7] RankOn Technologies puts the US average at US$1,500 to US$5,000 monthly, and US$100 to US$300 for hourly work.^[6] Searchbloom says its price rises with competition, locations and scope.^[8]

OuterBox lists what each of its three packages includes. Its Essentials package costs US$2,000 monthly and covers these eight items:^[7]

• Regional keyword research and mapping
• Analytics and conversion tag setup
• On-page work on titles, meta descriptions, headers and service-page copy
• Core technical SEO for crawling, speed, indexing and Core Web Vitals
• Internal linking toward revenue pages
• Foundational off-site link building
• Content creation and optimisation on blog and service pages
• A monthly strategy review and report

Pro, at US$3,000 monthly, adds national keyword strategy, more link building and digital PR, schema and redirect work, and AI visibility work.^[7] Enterprise starts at US$7,000 and adds multi-site management, AI search readiness and enterprise dashboards.^[7] Essentials bills month-to-month.^[7]

What does each SEO price level buy in hours?

An SEO retainer buys hours, and published hourly rates show how few hours a small retainer holds. At Impressive's consultant rate of A$150 to A$300 an hour, A$1,500 buys 5 to 10 hours.^[1] A$5,000 at the same rates buys about 17 to 33 hours. In the US, OuterBox's US$2,000 Essentials package equals 8 to 20 hours at The Frank Agency's agency-specialist rate of US$100 to US$250.^[7][3]

Now set those hours against The Frank Agency's task estimates.^[3]

A 10-hour month covers about one small-site audit and two page edits. It could cover keyword research and three to five optimised pages instead. Add a report and a call, and the month is gone. In my experience, a low retainer often ends as a monthly report with little change on the site.

These hour counts are estimates, because an agency may price retainer hours below its consulting rate. Impressive says a retainer allocates a set number of hours across technical fixes, content, links and reporting.^[1]

What pushes an SEO quote up or down?

Competition, site size and health, geographic reach, content volume and link work set most of an SEO quote.^[3][1][2] Impressive adds AI search as a sixth factor, because agencies that include it invest more hours per campaign.^[1]

• Competition. Legal, finance and real estate need more time and links to outrank others, according to The Frank Agency.^[3] Impressive compares a local plumber in a quiet suburb with a national retailer competing with 50,000 pages.^[1]
• Site size and health. A 20-page service site needs far less work than a 10,000-page ecommerce catalogue.^[1] Sites with slow pages, broken links or poor structure need technical repair before other work pays off.^[2] We handle that repair as technical SEO.
• Geographic reach. Local SEO for one city costs less than multi-location or national work.^[1]
• Content volume. Thin or outdated pages need new writing or updates, which Online Marketing Gurus lists as an ongoing cost.^[2] We plan that work through content strategy.
• Links and PR. Competitive markets need sustained link acquisition and digital PR, which can involve media outreach and publication fees.^[1] We run it as link building and digital PR.
• Tools. Online Marketing Gurus notes that agencies pay for Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz and may pass part of that cost on.^[2]

Speed costs extra too. The Frank Agency says results inside 3 months may need more upfront time and a higher first bill.^[3]

What are the red flags at the cheap end?

The main red flag is a price with no hours behind it. Impressive says an A$500 monthly quote in a competitive market leaves too few hours to do the work properly.^[1] It links cheap SEO to automated link schemes, spun content and offshored delivery with no strategic oversight.^[1] Spun content is existing text that software rewords. Watch for six warning signs in the proposal itself.

1. Mass-produced content. Google's guidance lists extensive automation producing content on many topics as a warning sign.^[13] Google says automation aimed mainly at manipulating rankings breaks its spam policies.^[13]
2. Shortcut links and keyword stuffing. RankOn names cheap backlinks, keyword stuffing and hidden text as unethical tactics that can bring penalties.^[6] Online Marketing Gurus describes keyword stuffing as cramming keywords unnaturally into content, and says Google penalises it.^[2]
3. Vague deliverables. Impressive warns that a proposal without monthly deliverables, measurement and named staff is a contract for ambiguity.^[1]
4. Extras charged later. Online Marketing Gurus warns that some low-cost providers bill extra for reporting, content or link building left out of the first quote.^[2]
5. A promised position. RankOn says no one can promise top positions, and it calls a provider that makes that promise a red flag.^[6]
6. A long lock-in with no performance clause. Impressive lists this contract term as a red flag.^[1] Optimist, OuterBox's Essentials package and Click Click Media all work month-to-month.^[4][7][5]

How do you compare SEO proposals like for like?

Compare SEO proposals by monthly output first and price second, because two quotes at the same fee can hold different amounts of work. Put each proposal through the same eight checks, in this order.

1. Count the outputs. Write down how many pages the agency will publish or rebuild each month. Then list the technical fixes and link or citation actions separately.
2. Split strategy from execution. Some fees buy advice that your team must carry out, like Optimist's advisory retainer for teams that execute in-house.^[4] Others include the building and publishing.
3. Name the people. Ask who writes the pages and who ships the fixes. Ask whether you speak to them or to an account manager.
4. Check what gets measured. Impressive calls rankings and traffic inputs, and it treats commercial performance as the output.^[1] Ask for enquiries and revenue tied to the pages the agency built.
5. Convert the fee to hours. Use the agency's own hourly rate, then match those hours to the promised outputs.
6. Read the term. Note the minimum term and the exit terms. The Frank Agency says retainers often need a 3 to 6 month minimum commitment.^[3]
7. Confirm ownership. Ask who owns the website, the content, the analytics accounts and the data if you leave.
8. List the extras. Ask whether GST, content, links, tools and reporting sit inside the fee.^[2]

The first check comes from my own business. At Radiant Roof Repairs on the Gold Coast, the work that moved revenue was one page engineered for each buying search. Around it sat a well-run Google Business Profile, a review request after every job and weekly changes picked from last week's data. Ask every agency for outputs like those in writing.

Is an SEO agency cheaper than an in-house hire?

An agency usually costs less than an in-house SEO hire, according to Shopify's guide.^[12] Shopify puts in-house SEO above $40,000 per person a year, including taxes and benefits.^[12] RankOn Technologies puts a US in-house SEO team at US$138,000 to US$500,000+ a year.^[6] Tools add to the bill: Shopify says Semrush or Ahrefs can pass $1,500 in a month.^[12]

Where does Searchmaxxed fit, and what do its packages include?

Searchmaxxed is a Queensland team that sells agentic SEO through three parts: the Agentic Website, the Managed Search Loop and the Off-Page Source Layer. We work with companies across Australia and take on companies beyond it. Each of our four managed packages runs all three parts. They differ in how many pages ship and how much off-page work runs.

The work runs in six steps.

• We build AI agents that plug into your whole Search Console and GA4.
• Every week the agents scrape your competitors' sites and read the Google results. They also check what AI answers say about you.
• That data feeds our Managed Search Loop. It checks everything against your plan and picks the next best job.
• We build the on-page work on your Agentic Website. It lives on GitHub and Vercel, and you own it. The work covers new pages, fixes, schema and internal links.
• We build the off-page work through our Off-Page Source Layer. That covers links, reviews, citations, press and mentions on other sites.
• A person approves every change before it goes live. Then the agents measure what it did, and the loop picks the next job.

I ran these same steps by hand at Radiant Roof Repairs. I took it from zero to more than A$1 million a year in revenue with SEO as its only marketing channel. Three high-intent Gold Coast roofing searches reached number one within 90 days. High-intent means the person searching is ready to buy. The full story sits in the Radiant Roof Repairs case study. Our agents now run those steps every week. By my own count across our client book, our work has generated more than A$10 million in revenue through search.

Every managed package includes continuous audits, a 90-day plan broken into weekly releases and a monthly decision memo that measures you against competitors. You talk to the people doing the work, and you own the site, repository, content and data from day one. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) sit inside every managed package. Both aim to get your business named in AI answers.

• Local Search. At least 8 page releases a month, including service and suburb pages. It adds daily Google Business Profile management, reviews, local links, citation cleanup, a monthly press release and local AI answer tracking.
• Growth System. 30 page releases a month, and technical, schema and internal-link work never reduces that count. It adds landing-page work, source-layer basics, one qualified link action a month, Reddit engagement and AI visibility tracking.
• Agentic Search Engineering. Everything in the Growth System, with 50 page releases a month. It adds new page families, a monthly press release and continuous digital PR and link campaigns. AI answer tracking covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews.
• Custom & Enterprise. Scope can cover multiple markets, dedicated engineering, custom reporting and original first-party research.

Three entry products sit in front of the managed packages. The AI SEO Audit takes five business days, and we credit it to your build or first month if you start within 14 days. The Agentic Website Full Build goes live in 30 business days. The Agentic Migration keeps a design worth keeping and moves the site to a repository you own.

Terms run monthly, six-month or 12-month, and we agree the term on the call. We quote after we look at your website, your market and your goals. Compare the packages on our pricing page, then book a call. Let's talk pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I do SEO on my own?

Yes, if you have the time to learn it. Online Marketing Gurus lists free tools that get you started, including Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster Tools.^[2] The cost is your hours and a slower pace. Start with one page for each service you sell, and check Search Console every week.

Is SEO still worth it in 2026?

SEO is still worth it for a business whose buyers search before they buy. Shopify's guide says a strategy put in place today takes six to 12 months, minimum, to produce results.^[12] Online Marketing Gurus notes that paid ads stop delivering once you stop paying, while SEO builds lasting visibility.^[2]

What is the 80/20 rule in SEO?

The 80/20 rule in SEO says a small share of pages and tasks drives most of the results. Practitioners use it as a rule of thumb, and I treat it that way. At Radiant Roof Repairs, a small set of pages for buying searches carried the revenue. When you compare prices, pay for those pages first.

Can ChatGPT do SEO?

ChatGPT can help with SEO research and drafts, but it cannot run SEO alone. Google's guidance treats extensive automation producing content on many topics as a warning sign.^[13] At Searchmaxxed, our AI agents do the data work every week, and a person approves every change before it goes live.

How much does an SEO audit cost?

A one-off SEO audit in Australia costs A$2,000 to A$5,000, according to Impressive.^[1] The Frank Agency prices a full technical audit for a small to medium site at US$1,500 to US$4,000.^[3] Shopify quotes one-time technical audits at $2,500 to $15,000.^[12] Our AI SEO Audit takes five business days and ranks every fix by what it is worth.

How much do SEO consultants charge per hour?

Australian SEO consultants charge A$150 to A$300 an hour, according to Impressive's guide.^[1] In the US, The Frank Agency lists US$50 to US$100 for entry-level freelancers and US$150 to US$300+ for high-end experts.^[3] Impressive says hourly work suits deep audits, migration support and team training.^[1]

Why are published SEO price ranges so wide?

Published SEO ranges stay wide because they average across different sites, markets and scopes. Impressive calls a quoted range of $1,500 to $15,000+ so wide it's useless.^[1] Shopify's guide gives about $1,000 to more than $15,000 monthly in its summary and $1,500 to more than $20,000 in its body.^[12] Ask each agency what its fee buys each month.

Do Australian SEO prices include GST?

Often the page does not say. Of the three Australian pages I read, only Click Click Media states that its prices exclude GST.^[5] Impressive and Online Marketing Gurus publish figures without a GST note.^[1][2] Ask every agency to confirm GST in writing before you compare quotes.

Does AI search optimisation cost extra?

AI search optimisation costs extra at some agencies and sits inside the package at others. Click Click Media charges A$750 to A$1,500 monthly on top of its SEO, excluding GST.^[5] OuterBox includes AI visibility work from its Pro package upward.^[7] At Searchmaxxed, AEO and GEO sit inside every managed package, and our agents check AI answers every week.

Should I sign a 12-month SEO contract?

Sign a 12-month SEO contract only when the proposal names the monthly outputs and your exit terms. Impressive lists long lock-ins with no performance clause as a red flag.^[1] Optimist runs every retainer month-to-month.^[4] Searchmaxxed offers monthly, six-month and 12-month terms, and we agree the term on the call.

What should I own at the end of an SEO contract?

You should own the website, its content, your analytics accounts and your data. Ask every agency to confirm that in writing before you sign. At Searchmaxxed, your Agentic Website lives on GitHub and Vercel, and you own the site, repository, content and data from day one.

Can any SEO agency promise a number one position on Google?

No agency can promise a set position on Google. Impressive states it directly: "No agency controls Google’s algorithm."^[1] RankOn Technologies lists that kind of promise as a red flag.^[6] What we sell is the work: weekly releases through the Managed Search Loop, measured against your competitors every month.