The short answer: Most UK small businesses pay between a few hundred and a couple of thousand pounds a month for ongoing SEO. Northern's SEO retainers cost £400 to £750 a month, rolling monthly with 30 days' notice. One-off work, such as an SEO audit with the fixes done for you, starts from £1,500. What you should pay depends on how competitive your market is, how big your site is and how far you want to reach: one town, a region or the whole UK.
How is SEO priced?
SEO is usually sold in one of four ways:
- Monthly retainer. A fixed monthly fee for ongoing work: technical fixes, content, local SEO, links and reporting. This is the most common model.
- One-off project. A fixed price for a set piece of work, such as an audit and fix, a site migration or a batch of location pages.
- Hourly or day rate. Useful for advice or small jobs.
- Performance-based. You pay for rankings or traffic. Be careful with these. Rankings for the wrong keywords are easy to win and don't bring customers.
- The most popular monthly retainer is $501 to $1,000, charged by 20.4% of providers.
- 68.8% charge $2,000 a month or less.
- The average across all retainers is $2,917 a month, pulled up by agencies working for large companies.
- Local SEO averages $1,557 a month.
- The average hourly rate is $111.
- Monthly SEO retainer: £400 to £750 a month. Rolling monthly. Cancel any time with 30 days' notice. No 12-month contract.
- One-off projects: from £1,500. A fixed scope and a fixed price, paid 50% up front and 50% on completion. Typical delivery is two to six weeks.
- guaranteed number one rankings (no one can promise this)
- hundreds of backlinks for a fixed price
- long contracts with no clear list of work
- reports that show rankings for terms nobody searches
- no access to your own Google Search Console or Analytics
- Fix the website first. If your site is slow or hard to use, SEO traffic won't convert. Sometimes a website refresh is the better first spend.
- Start local. Rank in your own town before trying to rank nationally.
- Do some of the work yourself. You know your business. Writing first drafts or collecting reviews saves time and money.
- Measure enquiries, not rankings. Spend on what brings customers.
Ahrefs surveyed 439 SEO providers worldwide. It found 78.2% charge a monthly retainer, 48.9% charge per project and 34.8% charge by the hour (Ahrefs SEO pricing study, updated August 2024).
What do SEO providers typically charge?
These are typical market figures from the same Ahrefs survey, in US dollars and covering providers worldwide, not just the UK:
Ahrefs also found agencies charge more than freelancers, and more experienced SEOs charge more than newer ones. That matches what we see in the UK: a freelancer might charge a few hundred pounds a month, a small agency something like ours, and a large agency several thousand.
What does Northern charge for SEO?
We keep it simple:
Where you sit in the retainer range depends on what you need. A single-location business that wants to rank in its own town, such as SEO in Sunderland or Durham, is at the lower end. A business that wants to rank across a region, like Newcastle and the wider North East, or one that needs lots of new content, is at the higher end.
Northern isn't currently VAT registered, so the price you see is the price you pay.
What should a monthly SEO retainer include?
A good retainer is a plan of work, not a vague promise. Ask for a list of what will happen each month. For a small business, that usually includes some of the following.
Technical fixes
Making sure Google can find, crawl and understand your pages. That covers page speed, broken links, redirects, sitemaps, duplicate pages and structured data (schema).
On-page work
Matching each page to what people search for. Titles, headings, copy, internal links and calls to action.
Content
New pages and articles that answer the questions your buyers ask. Service pages and location pages usually come first, then helpful articles like this one.
Local SEO
Your Google Business Profile, reviews, and making sure your name, address and phone number are correct across the web. For most local businesses this brings more enquiries than anything else.
Links and mentions
Earning links from relevant, trusted sites such as local press, suppliers, partners and industry bodies. Not buying links in bulk.
Reporting
A plain-English report on the things that matter: enquiries, calls and sales from organic search. Not just a list of keyword positions.
Why are some SEO quotes so cheap?
You'll see SEO offered for £99 a month or less. It's worth asking what that buys. At that price, there's usually time for an automated report and very little actual work. Common warning signs:
Cheap SEO can do harm. Low-quality links and copied content can drag your site down, and fixing it costs more than doing it properly the first time.
How long does SEO take to work, and is it worth it?
SEO is slower than ads. For a local business with a sound website, you can often see movement in three to six months. A brand-new site or a very competitive market takes longer.
The payoff is that organic traffic keeps coming without paying for every click. Many of our clients run Google Ads for quick leads while SEO builds up, then shift budget as their rankings grow.
To judge whether SEO is worth it, work out what a new customer is worth. If one extra customer a month pays for the retainer, SEO usually makes sense, because the results build on each other over time.
How can I keep SEO costs down?
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost per month in the UK?
Most UK small businesses pay from a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds a month. Northern's SEO retainers cost £400 to £750 a month, rolling monthly with 30 days' notice.
How much does local SEO cost?
Local SEO for one town or area is usually at the lower end of the market. An Ahrefs survey found local SEO averages $1,557 a month worldwide. For a single-location UK business, our work typically sits at the lower end of our £400 to £750 range.
Can I pay for SEO as a one-off?
Yes. A one-off SEO audit and fix is a good start if your site has never been looked at. Northern's one-off projects start from £1,500 for a fixed scope.
Do I need a long SEO contract?
No. SEO takes months to build, so it makes sense to commit to a few months. But you shouldn't be locked in. Our retainers are rolling monthly with 30 days' notice.
Is SEO cheaper than Google Ads?
Over time, often yes, because you don't pay per click. But SEO takes months to work and ads work straight away. Many businesses use both.
Can anyone guarantee first place on Google?
No. Google controls its rankings and changes them often. Be wary of anyone who promises a guaranteed position.
Want to know what SEO would cost for you?
The quickest way to get a real number is to see where your site stands now. Ask for a free website audit and we'll show you what's holding you back, what we'd fix first and what it would cost.
