SEO has quickly become an essential part of every business’ marketing strategy. There’s no doubt that having a prominent online presence can easily secure a business a considerable increase in customers and conversions; be it bookings at a local restaurant, new patients at a private dental practice, or even leads for local tradespeople and contractors.
Not only has the dominance of the internet turned more people towards the web to secure whatever product, service or information their hearts desire, but also the omnipresence of smartphones that almost every consumer in the west now owns.
Consumers now have instant access to a seemingly limitless supply of options, and it takes literally seconds to draw their smartphone from their pocket and look for a local or online provider. With this in mind, it becomes clear why it’s so essential to achieve that online presence; if you don’t appear in that quick search (of which 60%+ are now made on mobile devices) then your competitors will.
How Much Should I Pay for SEO?
The value of SEO is clear, but what about the cost? The United Kingdom is one of the world’s leading digital hubs, with a plethora of agencies and freelancers offering a range of digital marketing services, including SEO. With a range of skillsets and ultimately, pricing options available, how do you know what’s a fair quote, what’s too much, and what’s a low-ball price that likely indicates outsourcing or a low level of skill?
As a precursor, it’s worthwhile noting that every agency and freelancer price their services differently. Some opt to charge an hourly rate, others work on a day rate, and others will set a fixed fee for the completion of a certain project or workload. We’ve used our knowledge of the several SEO agencies in the UK to put together the rough pricing guide below.
SEO Pricing Guidelines
SEO That Costs £50 – £500 p/m
The lowest monthly fee for SEO & Digital Marketing we’ve ever come across was £50, unsurprisingly by one of the lowest-rated providers of digital marketing in the UK. It takes only a glance at the reviews of large national companies who claim to provide a worthwhile service at these low rates to get an idea of the kind of results you can expect from a £50 per month SEO campaign!
Towards the upper end of this price range, there could be some results to be had by spending £300 – £500 per month on SEO with an experienced freelancer, however, it may be worth bearing in mind how much of their time that would afford you, and where you’ll come in their list of priorities compared to their other clients.
As a final note in this category, it’s worth noting that there are some agencies that have a “we’ll work with anyone for any budget” policy. Our advice is to do your due diligence and look for any online reviews or feedback relating to their services and results in these cases.
SEO That Costs £501 – £1250 p/m
In this bracket, local businesses could get some good results from an SEO provider. While this almost certainly isn’t enough budget to cover a national campaign and compete with large established brands in the organic search results (unless you’re looking to appear for fairly low-competition keywords), there’s a good chance that if you’re looking to appear in local search results, an experienced freelancer or agency could deliver some valuable results and a great ROI at this monthly budget.
SEO That Costs £1501 – £3000 p/m
A budget in this category would cover a comprehensive local SEO service, ideal for those in highly competitive areas (such as solicitors or accountants located in the city centre), or a low-moderate national SEO campaign (essentially non-local keywords, such as “online diet and nutrition coach”).
The level of competition depends on a number of criteria, namely how strong the domains are which are currently ranking well for your target keywords, how well-optimised they are and how much catching up there is to be done!
SEO That Costs £3001 – £7499 p/m
This bracket covers most moderate SEO campaigns, which could take the form of a website looking to rank for a high number of moderately competitive keywords, or a handful or highly competitive keywords.
Again, this would usually be priced based on the amount of time an agency would need to spend working on your account to achieve the desired results, as well as any additional services that may be required, such as SEO copywriting, technical web development repairs or overhauls, entire website restructures and so on.
SEO That Costs £7500 + p/m
For a campaign priced at £7,500 and above, the client is most likely looking to either rank for incredibly high-competition and high-value keywords (e.g. “accident and injury solicitor”, “best car insurance” and so on).
This may also include a local business or firm with a high value per conversion on their end who service customers nationally (architects, insurance companies, solicitors) or established household name brands who are simply looking for a specialist SEO resource to improve and maintain their organic search visibility.
This service would usually cover every necessary aspect of their SEO campaign, including content marketing and PR activity as well as all technical onsite optimisation.
Getting the Best SEO Service for your Budget
Any SEO agency that is worth its salt knows that there’s no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ campaign. Therefore we must offer flexibility when it comes to pricing, and the contents of a search engine optimisation plan. A customer who’s just getting started on their path to the top of the search results may not have thousands of pounds to throw at their campaign each month, and therefore a plan that meets their requirements may be able to be put in place.
This may come in the form of a simple SEO consultancy service, an initial website audit and roadmap for the customer to follow and implement themselves, or simply stretching their campaign over a longer period.
Also, SEOs are often able to identify ‘quick win’ opportunities, helping the customer rank for lower competition keywords, achieving an initial influx of traffic and customers which could then be reinvested in taking their SEO campaign to the next level.
SEO at Competitive Prices!
Quick, run! We’re about to plug our SEO services! Only kidding, it’s totally worth sticking around and considering us for your SEO needs.
We work with a range of clients, from local companies looking for more customers and to scale their business, to national household name brands who have hundreds of branches across the UK. We have dedicated teams who look after local SEO and national SEO campaigns separately, ensuring every client receives an expert and dedicated service.
With years of experience in SEO and content marketing, our technical SEO and creative teams have the passion and the know-how to make a success of your search marketing campaign.
