SEO Pricing: How much does SEO Cost in 2022

Have you ever wondered how much does SEO cost? What factors are taken into consideration when pricing SEO services and how much do you need to invest in SEO?

There are 3.8 million searches on Google every minute and 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search results. Let that sink in…

If you want to increase organic traffic and rank higher, you need to invest in SEO.

Table of Contents

SEO Cost Summary

In summary, the cost of SEO services includes SEO software, content creation, time, and the expertise of your SEO specialist and monthly reports.

How much does SEO cost

There is no standard SEO price. The rates for SEO services depend on what SEO services you need and who is offering the service.

The most expensive SEO service doesn’t mean that this is the best SEO provider but in most cases, you are paying for their experience, ethics, and effectiveness. Companies who offer SEO at very low prices usually tend to cut corners by using ‘black-hat’ techniques (improper SEO strategies) which can result in penalties, decreases in traffic, and spam for unsuspecting business owners.

The most important thing to know before paying for SEO services is that ranking on Google’s first page is NOT guaranteed. No company can guarantee that as algorithms change every day and you might get 4000 page views this month and only 1500 next month.

Cost of SEO Breakdown

What exactly am I paying for when I pay for SEO? These are some SEO services you can be billed for.

Website Audit

An SEO Audit and website analysis is the process of examining page performance prior to SEO changes or a website redesign.

This is done using different SEO software. Audits aim to ONLY identify issues your website has and the implementation of changes is a different service that is usually billed per hour.

The average cost for an SEO Audit is about $500 – $6000 (depending on the number of website pages and SEO consultant expertise).

SEO Software

There are different SEO tools at different price points. The most popular ones are Ahrefs (paid), SEMRush (paid), Google’s Keyword Planner (free), and Moz (paid).

Ahrefs

Ahrefs allows you to audit your website, explore competitors, and research keywords and backlinks all in one place.

There is no free version, subscriptions range from $99 per month to $999 per month depending on your package.

Google Analytics

Allows you to analyze in-depth details about the visitors on your website – top pages, how many clicks, location of website visitors, demographics, which devices people are using to view your website, how long people stay on your website, and many more.

GA provides valuable insights that can help you to shape the strategy of your business.

Google Search Console

A free web service that allows your webmaster to check indexing status and optimize the visibility of your website.

Keyword Research

There’s no point in creating content that doesn’t add value, hence it’s important to research which topics (keywords) your target audience and customers are looking for so you can capture their attention at different points in the search funnel.

Keyword Research tools cost from $110 to $2000 depending on which tool you choose. You will be billed for software and the time and expertise it takes to analyze keywords and then decide on the best ones for your website.

SEO Content Creation

After keyword research, content must be created and edited for on-page optimization.

Companies can hire an in-house content writer or make use of a content writing service. Freelancer writers usually bill per word and some even offer packages for commissioned content.

Depending on the different expertise levels and word count, content writing services can charge anything from $250 per 1000 words or more.

Link Building

To improve search engine visibility, your website needs backlinks.

There are internal links (links you add to other pages on your website) and external links (links from other websites).

Link building analysis is important every month as you can find broken links and it can help you disavow incoming links from websites that may harm your business’s reputation.

Technical SEO

Make sure that technical components of your website are functional – core web vital, sitemaps, page speed, URL structure, schema, site navigation, and more.

Your website needs to be secure, fast, crawlable for search engines and you should not confuse search engines with duplicate content, headings, and meta descriptions.

Rank Tracking

Doing all the work and not monitoring changes is a waste of money. You need monthly reports to see your ROI.

Do I need to hire someone to do SEO for me

Similar to other professions, you can do it yourself, but will always see the best results when you bring in experts to help.

You can do your business’ gardening or taxes on your own, but choose to hire a professional because you know that they will be worth the investment.

More SEO Resources

There are many parts to SEO and what works for one website will not particularly work for another website.