In short: There's no single SEO price. What you pay depends on who does the work (an agency, a freelancer or a tool you run yourself), how many of the steps they cover, and how hard your searches are to win.
Key takeaways
- Every SEO quote covers some of six steps: reading the site, planning, writing, links, publishing and reporting.
- Compare quotes by the steps they cover, not by the price alone.
- Any route can keep you in charge if nothing goes live until you approve it.
- Be careful with any promise of a set ranking, a traffic number or a date for results.
- Ask new customers how they found you, because SEO reports count clicks and positions, not bookings.
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the work of getting your pages found on Google when customers search for what you sell. What you pay for it is the price of that work, so the figure depends on who does each part and how much of it they do.
The spread you’ve seen, from almost nothing to thousands a month, has a reason behind it. Each figure buys a different share of the same steps, done by different people.
Any number you’re shown should also tell you where it came from: a written quote, a published price list, or a survey you can open and check. A figure with no source tells you very little about what you’d pay.
By the end of this page, you’ll be able to read any SEO quote, see what it covers, and pick the route that fits your budget and the time you want to give it.
What you’re paying for in SEO, step by step
These six steps give you a starting point for comparing quotes. Also check the amount of work included, the size of your site and the competition for your searches.
The six steps behind an SEO quote
- Reading the site. What pages you have, which ones bring visits, who’s on page one for your searches, and where you’re close.
- Planning. Which searches to go after, in what order, tied to a goal such as more calls or more orders.
- Writing articles. Pages that answer what your customers type into Google, in your voice.
- Adding links. Links from those articles to the pages that make you money, so visitors and Google find them.
- Publishing. Putting the work on your site, with titles and headings set up.
- Reporting. Each month, what moved: clicks, searches and positions on Google.
An agency usually takes on all six.
A freelancer may cover only some of the steps, such as writing and publishing, and leave the plan to you. A tool does the steps it’s built for, and you decide what goes out.
If you’re starting from zero, our guide to SEO for small business and where to start walks through the first step in more detail.
How to tell a fair SEO quote from an inflated one
We understand that quotes are hard to compare when every one is laid out differently. But once you hold each quote against the six steps, you’re comparing the same thing.
Ask each provider which of the six steps the price covers, how many articles you get a month, who writes them, and what the report shows. A high quote that lists every step is easier to judge than a low one that won’t say what’s in it.
How much does on-page SEO cost?
On-page SEO is the work on your pages themselves: titles, headings, the words on the page and the links between pages. It’s often part of a monthly quote, and some providers price it as a one-off job.
The price comes from the provider’s quote, so ask how many pages it covers. Also ask whether new articles get the same care, or only the pages you have today.
SEO cost by route: agency, freelancer or doing it yourself
Price is only one line of the comparison. The time you give each month and how much of your site you keep in your own hands matter just as much.
| Route | What you get | Your time each month | Control you keep | Where the price comes from | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | Usually all six steps, done by a team | Least: calls and approvals | Depends on the contract | Their written quote | Long contracts, logins you don’t hold, reports you can’t follow |
| Freelancer | Some of the steps, done by one person, as agreed in the quote | Some: you plan and check | Depends on your agreement | Their written quote | Gaps between the steps they cover |
| Tool you run yourself | The steps the tool is built to do | Most, unless the tool does the steps for you | Highest: you decide what goes live | The tool’s published price | Tools that hand the work back to you, or write generic text |
Can I do SEO myself without hiring an agency?
Yes, and many business owners do.
Doing it yourself takes more of your time than paying someone. The upside is that you learn which pages bring you customers, and every decision stays yours.
We understand you don’t have time to learn SEO from scratch, and you don’t want to hand over your site and lose sight of what changes on it. But control comes down to one thing you can ask of any route: nothing goes live until you approve it.
Approval keeps you in charge, but your other tasks depend on what the provider or tool covers. A tool that does the steps for you can turn your monthly time into a check, not a project.
Is it worth paying for SEO?
Say you run a cleaning company, and each new customer from Google earns you $250 in profit after wages and supplies. Say your SEO budget is $600 a month.
Three new customers a month bring $750 in profit, which covers the $600 with $150 left. Any customer who books again adds to that, and an article stays on your site after the month you paid for it.
To know if it’s working, you need to know where customers come from. Ask each new customer how they found you, because most SEO reports count clicks and positions, not bookings.
Why SEO prices vary so much, and what no one can promise
Three things push an SEO price up or down. Knowing them helps you see why two fair quotes can still be far apart.
What makes SEO cost more or less
The size of the site comes first. A site with five pages needs less reading and fixing than a shop with hundreds of product pages.
Next is the competition for your searches. If your cleaning company is in a big city where many others publish articles, you’ll need more and better pages to stand out than a shop selling something few people offer.
Last is how much is done for you. A provider who plans, writes, links, publishes and reports will charge more than one who only writes.
What honest SEO providers won’t promise
Nobody outside Google controls where your pages rank. An honest provider gives you advice based on what they see on your site and in the results, and calls it advice.
Be careful with any promise of a set position, a traffic number or a date. Ask instead what they’ll do each month, how they’ll show it, and what they’ll change if a page doesn’t move.
How long before I see results from SEO?
We understand the worry of paying month after month with nothing you can see. A good monthly report shows clicks, searches and positions, so you can check for progress without treating those changes as promises of calls.
No one can give you a date, because it turns on your site and your competition.
New articles need time before they’re worth judging. In our own reports, an article younger than four weeks isn’t judged yet.
Where BiasharaPilot fits, and how to choose
BiasharaPilot is the do-it-yourself route, for business owners who want to stay hands-on without doing each step by hand. Our founder, Alvin, has spent ten years in SEO for agencies, media houses, ad companies, startups and WordPress companies, and has hired others to do this work for his own businesses.
That’s why we built it around the side owners often lose: control.
What the do-it-yourself plan does each month
The same six steps run every month: connect, read the site, plan, draft, publish, report. You can see each one on how BiasharaPilot works.
We draft articles in your business’s voice, and every figure in an article shows its source. Each week, we suggest links to the pages that make you money, and you see each one before it goes in.
Nothing goes live until you approve it. What you approve goes on your site within a few minutes, and the plugin keeps a list of every change with an Undo on each.
Your monthly report arrives on the first and takes about five minutes to read.
It counts clicks, searches and positions on Google, not customers or sales. Rubani, your SEO and strategy partner, answers questions from your own numbers and plan.
What it costs and which sites it works with
The price is set at launch, so we can’t give you a figure yet. Early access opens in waves, starting with the first people on the list, and joining doesn’t commit you to anything.
It works with WordPress and Next.js sites today.
If your site runs on something else, you can still join the list now, and a freelancer or agency can carry the work in the meantime.
If you’d rather have people involved, Managed SEO from AM Digital KE is the same system with our team reading every article, improving pages and meeting you every month.
How to choose your SEO route
- You want the least time and have the budget: an agency, with approval written into the contract.
- You need one or two steps done well: a freelancer, with the other steps planned by you.
- You want to stay hands-on and in charge: a tool that does the steps for you, such as BiasharaPilot.
- You want our system with our team: Managed SEO from AM Digital KE.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT do SEO?
ChatGPT can help you draft an article, a title or a list of ideas. SEO also needs a plan, checks on your pages, links, publishing and a record of what moved each month, which need more than drafting in a chat window.
AI tools are also becoming a place where customers ask for businesses. Once a month, BiasharaPilot asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity your customers’ questions and checks whether they name your business.
Do I need to know SEO to use a do-it-yourself tool?
Not with one that does the steps for you.
Your part is reading what’s planned and drafted, and approving what you’re happy with. You learn as you go, from your own site.
Your next step
Write down the six steps and hold every quote you have against them. You’ll see at once which ones cover the work and which leave gaps.
If you want to stay hands-on, with nothing on your site until you say yes, join BiasharaPilot early access.
It opens in waves and commits you to nothing, so you can see it first and decide then. You can also read more on our home page.
