How SEO is priced, and what you are paying for
What decides an SEO price
An SEO price is the sum of four disciplines and the rate they ship at. Technical work makes the site readable. On-page work builds and fixes the pages that earn rankings. Off-page work builds the external record. AI search work makes your facts quotable by answer engines. The monthly number tracks how much of each ships and how contested your market is. We'll recommend the right scope and quote for your business.
The four disciplines inside an SEO price
Any quote worth comparing states how much of each of these ships in a month.
Technical SEO
Crawling, indexing, rendering, redirects, speed and structured data. It is priced by how much debt the site carries, and it comes first because content published into a broken foundation earns nothing.
On-page and content
The pages themselves: one per buying search, written to answer it completely. Priced per page, and page count is the honest unit of a retainer.
Off-page and sources
Directories, reviews, citations, editorial mentions and digital PR. Priced in hours and relationships rather than software, which is why it is the first thing a cheap retainer drops.
Local search
Profiles, categories, service areas and the review flow, plus a page per area you serve. Priced by the number of locations and areas.
AI search and answers
Entity facts, retrievable page structure, crawler access and weekly answer readings. Priced by the number of buying questions tracked and the surfaces measured.
Measurement
Query-level reporting, surface readings and enquiry tracking. Small as a line item, and it is what makes every other line checkable.
What our work has done for clients
Searchmaxxed's work has generated more than $15 million in revenue through search for its clients.
Searchmaxxed's work has generated more than $15 million in revenue through search for its clients.
One client came to us with a website that wasn't working. Three months later he was on page one for one of the most competitive searches in his industry. Now he has more high-intent leads than he can handle, and we're building the systems to handle them.
Results come from client records. A record of what happened, never a projection of your result.
See case studies →Why two quotes at the same price differ by five times
Most proposals price a bundle of hours and describe deliverables in language that fits any amount of work. Ten pages and two pages both read as content production.
The gap shows up in month two, when one provider ships pages and the other ships a report about pages.
No stated unit of work
If the quote never says how many pages, fixes or source actions ship in a month, there is nothing to compare and nothing to enforce.
Technical work assumed, not scoped
A site with indexation faults needs that work first. A quote that skips it is quoting for content that will not rank.
Off-page silently dropped
Source work is the most labour-heavy line, so it is the first to disappear from a cheap retainer while the invoice stays the same.
Reporting without enquiries
Positions and sessions are inputs. A price is only justifiable against calls, forms and revenue.
How a monthly price gets built
Four inputs decide the number, in this order.
Site condition
Crawl, index coverage, template history, migration history
A fix list with the work sized before anything is quoted
Market difficulty
Competitor page counts, source profiles, search demand
A page and source target per search worth winning
Production rate
Approved plan, your approval capacity
A monthly production commitment you can hold us to
Measurement scope
Search set, surfaces, locations, CRM access
A reporting scope attached to the price
How to check you are paying for work
Four questions, every month, of any provider including us.
WHAT SHIPPED
The change log: pages published, fixes deployed, sources built. Named, dated and checkable against the commitment.
WHAT MOVED
Query-level movement for the pages that shipped, rather than a sitewide average that hides them.
ENQUIRIES
Calls and forms attributed to those pages and searches, with job or deal value where you can share it.
WHAT IS NEXT
Next month's plan, drawn from those readings rather than from a content calendar written in month one.
What each discipline looks like as a service
The service pages state the scope in full.
Technical SEO
Search engine optimisation
Link building and digital PR
Start with a free growth plan
Compare the packages and their monthly page-release commitments, then talk to us about the right scope and quote for your business.
Three plans. One goal: pipeline from search.
- ✓4 high-quality backlinks a month
- ✓A monthly strategy call
- ✓A monthly progress report
- ✓1 free website tool during the engagement
- ✓10 high-quality backlinks a month
- ✓2 best-of list placements a month
- ✓A fortnightly strategy call
- ✓A weekly progress report
- ✓One press release each quarter
- ✓2 free website tools during the engagement
- ✓20 high-quality backlinks a month
- ✓6 best-of list placements a month
- ✓A weekly strategy call
- ✓A weekly progress report
- ✓One press release each month
- ✓3 free website tools during the engagement
What every package includes
- ✓Pages built from your agreed topical map, with the whole map completed within six months.
- ✓Location-page work for every area you serve.
- ✓Google Business Profile management: posts, photos, services and Q&A.
- ✓Directory listings and citation clean-up.
- ✓Technical improvements, structured data, internal links and on-page optimisation.
- ✓AI answer tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
- ✓Every week we read the evidence, prioritise, build, test, publish and measure.
- ✓You own everything: site, repository, content and data. Month to month: no lock-in, 30 days' notice.
Questions about SEO pricing
How much does SEO cost in total?
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Why do agencies avoid publishing prices?
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Is cheap SEO ever worth it?
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Should technical work be a separate project?
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How is off-page work priced?
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Does AI search cost extra?
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When does SEO pay for itself?
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What are your prices?
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- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
- Google Search Central, Search Console performance report
- Google, Guidelines for representing your business on Google
Written and reviewed by Brenden at Searchmaxxed. Last reviewed 19 August 2026.