How Much Does SEO Cost Monthly? SEO Buyer’s Guide and Price Breakdown

You’ve been researching how SEO works and what its potential benefits are, and you feel ready to get started. Just one question remains: how much is all of this going to cost?

Setting expectations for an SEO campaign starts with understanding the average cost of SEO services you’ll need. While how much SEO services cost can vary significantly, you can expect to spend a few thousand dollars on a several-month campaign.

If that estimate sounds scary, don’t worry – there are many ways to find cost-effective SEO solutions, and SEO is an investment that more than pays for itself over time.

Below, we’ll dive into how much SEO costs per month, how much you can expect to pay for certain services, and how to create an SEO budget that fits your needs.

How Much Does SEO Cost Monthly (On Average)?

At Firestarter SEO, we serve a wide range of clients across a broad spectrum of industries. Our clients pay about $1500 on average for our monthly SEO packages, but every company is different.

Some may charge more for individual services or feature a higher hourly rate. Likewise, in our experience, the best monthly budget for SEO services comes down to three main factors: competition, goals, and a client’s resources.

Essentially, the more of an uphill battle SEO services are, the more costly they tend to be. Niches with high competition levels require more time and effort, as do SEO plans that target a wide net of specific goals.

But the plus side of this truth is that SEO costs are largely customizable. What works best for your business and goals can be a completely appropriate SEO game plan.

Popular SEO Services & Their Cost

While most SEO package prices cover a full range of services, some might list specific costs associated with a given project. You might also opt for a less structured approach and target individual services at different intervals.

Below you’ll find a brief overview of popular SEO services and their average costs. Local SEO cost estimates may vary, but these figures serve as a guide to help you plan your budget effectively.

Service	Cost Range
Link Building	Medium: approx. $100-1000 per link
Social Media	High: avg. hourly cost $100-300
Keyword Research/Optimization	Low: avg. software cost $100-500
Content Creation	Varies: may be $100-300 or $500+
Website Design/Maintenance	High: can cost upward of $5000

How to Create a Cost-Effective SEO Budget

Even if the cost of SEO services seems overwhelming at first, odds are you can create an SEO budget that fits your needs and helps your business succeed.

Some careful thought and planning will help you determine how much you can spend on monthly SEO packages without breaking the bank.

Consider Your Overall Marketing Budget

Before you start trying to crunch any numbers, take a look at your current marketing budget. Where are you currently investing the most, and how successful are those efforts?

If you determine which marketing efforts generate a lower return on investment (ROI), allocating more money to your SEO budget won’t sound like a risk.

Remember that SEO can create long-run ROI, unlike other marketing tactics, so long as it’s done correctly.

Find some areas where you can pull funds to invest in SEO. For instance, if you find your email marketing campaigns tend to produce little to no results, it may be time to ditch them in favor of SEO content creation.

We recommend allocating around 30% of your digital marketing budget to SEO.

Optimize Your SEO Budget

With an established budget at your side, it’s time to explore your financial plan in detail.

The “70-20-10” principle is a good rule of thumb to help you optimize your SEO budget (or get the best results for your money). The rule focuses on devoting 70% of your overall SEO budget to improving aspects that will drive real-time results.

But what does that mean, exactly? Real-time results come from immediate changes that enhance your business’ online presence.

Things like boosting page speed, updating pre-existing content, decreasing load times, etc., help your website perform better and sustain more traffic.

At the same time, you can use your SEO budget to focus on efforts that are more of an investment, like link building. Use around 20% of your budget to focus on new technologies and ways to make your product or service information easily accessible.

This may include things like uploading high-resolution images for buyers to peruse or creating a Google My Business account to add more information about your services to the web.

Your final 10% is more flexible and can be used to address ongoing projects, invest in new resources, and whatever else makes sense for your business.

Check Out the Competition

Analyzing your competitor’s organic traffic value gives you a point of comparison. In doing so, you can learn to identify how much your business must invest to gain a competitive edge.

You can estimate organic search value using tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to view estimated organic traffic and cost-per-click for specific keywords that apply to your business.

Working with a professional SEO agency can grant you access to this insight so that you can focus your attention on maintaining your business.

Benefits like this make understanding how much of a budget you really need for SEO costs much simpler.

Focus on High-Quality Content

Driving organic traffic and qualified leads to a sales page can be difficult. It’s rare to spot a product page among the top three Google search results unless it’s a paid ad.

So, it’s always wise to focus your SEO strategy on content creation to direct traffic to your product pages.

Based on the content your business already has to work with, consider to what extent you’ll need to invest in new assets.

You may need written content like blogs or newsletters, or you might focus on building your authority by pursuing things like guest blogging.

Drive Traffic Wisely

Consider how you can plan your SEO budget to drive substantial traffic to your top three products or other pages.

Is it best to focus on creating blog posts with internal links to your pages? Do you need more help with website design?

Think about where you’re at to discover the best ways to manage SEO costs and ensure they make a tangible difference.

Is the Cost of SEO Worth It?

The cost of SEO is undoubtedly worth the investment. While other digital marketing tactics can drive some results, SEO has an evergreen nature that can’t be overlooked.

When done properly, SEO can launch your business to the next level, so much so that SEO prices pale compared to the payoff.

• Market Longevity: A healthy SEO campaign lays a foundation that can easily be built on down the road. The result? A marketing base that’s easy to adapt to your business without sacrificing exposure.
• Long-Term Investment: What you pay today can be returned quickly and continue to produce results in the future. The better your SEO strategies, the more likely they will stand the test of time.
• Targeted Marketing: SEO allows you to connect with searchers as they’re looking for products, services, or information. That means you won’t waste time and money on audiences who will never be interested in what you have to offer.
• Increased Visibility: Other branding options simply aren’t as accessible as SEO. A good campaign helps you establish yourself as a trusted source in your industry, which will do wonders for your brand recognition.

The Bottom Line

The average cost of SEO generally falls around $1500-2000 a month, depending on the services you use and the professionals you work with. However, your business’ SEO cost per month is flexible and can be adjusted to get you the results you need at a price you can afford.

For affordable and top-notch SEO services that won’t disappoint, you can count on Firestarter. We are an award-winning Denver SEO agency with plenty of experience budgeting and managing monthly SEO packages.

Our 12 years of success are filled with customers with needs of all kinds. Reach out to us today to discover how we can offer affordable SEO services that work for you.