Original UK pricing research · Updated August 2026
Most UK businesses should expect to pay £500 to £5,000 per month for ongoing SEO. Our August 2026 research found a median advertised retainer of £800 per month, a median one-off audit price of £900, and a median hourly rate of £150. The right budget depends on competition, site complexity and whether your provider only advises or also implements the work.
£800/month
Median advertised retainer
129 price observations
£900
Median one-off audit
60 price observations
£150/hour
Median hourly rate
19 price observations
These figures are a practical guide based on publicly advertised prices available in August 2026. Your quote will depend on your website, market, goals and the amount of implementation required.
The observed range shows what the extraction found, including unusual package prices and possible multi-service figures. The practical buying range is our editorial interpretation for comparing ordinary UK SME proposals.
| SEO service | Observations | Median | Full observed range | Practical buying range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly SEO retainer | 129 | £800/month | £70–£50,000 | About £500–£5,000/month for most SMEs |
| One-off SEO audit | 60 | £900 | £75–£50,000 | About £500–£3,000 for a scoped SME audit |
| Hourly SEO support | 19 | £150/hour | £50–£20,000 | About £75–£200/hour for specialist advice |
| Local SEO | 25 | £500/month | £100–£3,000 | About £300–£1,500/month per location |
| Ecommerce SEO | 31 | £2,370/month | £237–£11,850 | About £1,500–£6,000+/month |
| Technical SEO | 7 | £1,000 | £80–£15,000 | Scope-dependent: audit, migration or implementation |
A fee only makes sense in relation to scope. Use these bands to challenge a proposal, not as fixed market rules.
Best fit: A narrow local campaign, light consultancy or software-assisted support
A tightly limited scope: basic monitoring, a small set of priorities, and some local or on-page work. Do not expect technical implementation, content production and digital PR together.
Best fit: Small businesses and focused local or service-led sites
A practical roadmap, ongoing optimisation and reporting, usually with one main workstream at a time. The provider should be explicit about what is and is not included.
Best fit: Growing SMEs that need strategy plus consistent execution
Technical, content and authority work can run together at a sensible pace. You should have direct access to a senior strategist and clear monthly priorities tied to commercial outcomes.
Best fit: Competitive markets, larger sites and established ecommerce brands
More specialist capacity, faster implementation, content production and stronger digital PR or link acquisition. Reporting should connect rankings to leads or revenue.
Best fit: Enterprise, international, multi-location or highly competitive ecommerce SEO
Multiple specialists, stakeholder management, complex technical work and higher content or digital PR volume. Governance and delivery capacity matter as much as recommendations.
“SEO” can mean a monthly report or a multidisciplinary growth programme. The biggest cost drivers are workload, risk and who owns implementation.
Moving a local service page a few positions is different from challenging national marketplaces. The harder the SERP and the faster the target, the more research, content and authority work are required.
A 20-page brochure site is cheaper to diagnose than an ecommerce store with thousands of faceted URLs, JavaScript rendering issues and a risky migration ahead.
Strategy alone costs less than researched briefs, expert interviews, writing, editing, design and publishing. Ask how many genuinely useful assets the quote funds.
Earning relevant mentions requires ideas, data, outreach and specialist time. Cheap “link packages” often create more risk than value.
A solo consultant, boutique consultancy and full-service agency carry different overheads and capacity. Compare who will actually work on your account.
Recommendations are cheaper than delivery. A valuable scope says whether the provider will edit templates, publish content, brief developers and verify fixes.
Unsure which provider model fits the work? Read our SEO consultant vs agency comparison.
Best for: Ongoing growth where technical, content and authority work must compound over time.
Watch for: Avoid an open-ended list of activities. Insist on a rolling roadmap, owners, deadlines and measurable outcomes.
Best for: A site migration, technical audit, content strategy or another outcome with a clear finish line.
Watch for: Confirm whether implementation is included. A cheap audit can become expensive if nobody is responsible for shipping the fixes.
Best for: Second opinions, training, troubleshooting or support for an capable in-house team.
Watch for: Hourly pricing is poor value when the scope is vague. Agree a time cap and the exact decision or output the session must produce.
Best for: Occasionally useful when attribution and baselines are exceptionally clear.
Watch for: SEO is affected by development, brand, conversion rate and demand. Read definitions carefully and avoid contracts that reward vanity rankings.
A sensible buying process
Establish the technical, content and authority constraints before committing to a long retainer.
Turn the diagnosis into a roadmap with owners, dependencies and a commercial reason for each task.
Choose a project or retainer that gives the highest-priority work enough capacity to be implemented properly.
SaySEO is a boutique consultancy with a capped client roster. Our published starting prices sit above the cheapest packages because the work includes senior attention and a written scope.
From £950 one-off
A full technical, on-page, and competitor audit, built by hand rather than pulled from a template. It's the right starting point if you're not sure what's actually wrong yet.
From £1,500 /month
Ongoing SEO delivery for businesses that want steady, compounding growth, run by the strategist who wrote your roadmap in the first place, not handed off to a delivery team.
Custom quote
For larger catalogues, multi-location businesses, or teams that need dedicated strategy and hands-on execution at scale. Subject to roster capacity.
Our August 2026 research found a median advertised monthly retainer of £800 across 129 extracted price observations. A more useful buying range for most UK SMEs is roughly £500 to £5,000 per month: focused local work tends to sit near the lower end, while competitive ecommerce or multi-specialist campaigns sit higher.
The median hourly figure in our sample was £150, based on 19 observations. In practical terms, experienced UK consultants commonly sit around £75 to £200 per hour. Senior specialists may charge more for migrations, international SEO, forensic technical work or short high-impact engagements.
A small UK business with one location or a focused service area will often start between £500 and £1,500 per month. The right number depends on competition, website condition and who implements the work. It is better to fund one clear priority properly than buy a cheap package that spreads a small budget across too many activities.
It can be enough for a narrow scope, such as local SEO, advisory support or steady optimisation of a small site. It is unlikely to fund strategy, technical implementation, original content and digital PR simultaneously. Ask the provider to state exactly what will be delivered and what your team must handle.
SEO can be worth paying for when organic search influences real buying decisions and the provider can show how work connects to qualified traffic, leads or revenue. It is less likely to pay back when the offer does not convert, demand is tiny, implementation never happens or the engagement has no defined priorities.
Choose a project for a bounded outcome such as an audit, migration or strategy. Choose a retainer when implementation, content, testing and authority building need to continue over several months. Many businesses should begin with a fixed diagnostic project, then move into a retainer only when the roadmap justifies it.
Prices vary because SEO scopes are not standardised. Site size, technical debt, competition, location count, content volume, link requirements, seniority and implementation responsibility all change the workload. Two quotes called “monthly SEO” can include completely different services, so compare outputs and ownership rather than price alone.
Tell us what you are trying to achieve. We will identify the sensible starting point and give you a fixed, written quote—without forcing every business into the same package.
Discuss your SEO budget