What does SEO really cost?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed or unsure about how much to spend on SEO?

Whether you’re a marketing professional or business owner, you naturally want to make every dollar of your budget count.

SEO costs can vary wildly – you may hear agencies quote anything from $500 to $10,000 per month.

Let me break down how to budget for SEO in a way that makes sense.

What really matters is finding the right investment level that will give you a positive return on investment for your business.

Think of SEO like a garden.

You can’t plant seeds today and expect flowers tomorrow. It takes time, care and consistent attention to cultivate results.

The same goes for getting your business to appear in Google searches.

The consistent SEO work pays off once you’re in the top Google rankings and generating quality traffic and leads.

So, what’s a reasonable SEO budget?

A good starting point for SEO for most local businesses is between $1,000 – $3,000 per month.

This SEO budget would typically cover:

Focusing on SEO for your core service or a single product category

Fixing technical website issues that might be holding you back

Getting your business listed correctly across the internet

Optimising your Google Business Profile listing

Creating and optimising helpful content that your target market want to read

How much you should invest in SEO depends on how quickly you want to move to the top of the search results and how competitive your keywords are.

Your SEO budget should reflect the potential pay off your business would get from being in the top results.

Most importantly, don’t feel pressured to spend more than you’re comfortable with.

It’s okay to start small with SEO if you need to.

It’s far better to have a modest, consistent SEO effort than to do nothing.

If you’re speaking to SEO agencies about pricing, there are some red flags you should watch out for.

Look out for these warning signs:

Agencies that want you to sign a long-term contract right away

An extremely low monthly cost, e.g. $250 (If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is)

Agencies that won’t explain what they’re doing with your investment

I advise starting with an SEO budget that you can maintain for 6-months.

You can always increase your budget as you start seeing results.

The key is to find an SEO agency that’s transparent about their work, has experience getting results, and whose team speak to you like a real person.

Also, remember that SEO is just one piece of your marketing puzzle.

SEO works hand-in-hand with your other efforts, such as email marketing, Google Ads and social media marketing.

The combination of SEO and these marketing activities makes for a powerful marketing system that will give your business a competitive edge.

If you’d like to talk more about what might work for your specific business, contact us to speak to an SEO strategist.