Real numbers
How much does an SEO agency actually cost?
Real ranges, what actually drives the price, and what you get for it, from someone who runs an agency alongside this product.
A genuine ongoing SEO retainer commonly starts around $400+ a month for a small local business, and runs into the thousands for a competitive, multi-location or national brand. Nobody can honestly quote you an exact number without knowing your market, your goals and what is actually included, but that is the realistic range most small businesses should expect. It is a real, meaningful line item, not a rounding error.
How it's sold
Retainer, project, or hourly?
Monthly retainer
The most common model for ongoing SEO. You pay a fixed monthly fee for continuous work: monitoring, on-page changes, content and reporting. Commonly starts around $400+/month for a small local business and can run into the thousands for a competitive, multi-location or national brand.
Project-based / one-off
A fixed fee for a defined piece of work, a technical audit, a site migration, a content overhaul, rather than ongoing management. Useful when you need a specific problem fixed, not a permanent relationship.
Hourly
Less common for full SEO management, more common for consulting or a specific technical fix. Rates vary widely by experience and market, and hours can add up quickly on anything open-ended.
What actually drives it
Why do two quotes for the same job look nothing alike?
Scope
A retainer covering strategy, on-page work, technical fixes, content production and link building costs more than one covering just a monthly audit and recommendations.
Market competitiveness
Ranking a local trades business in a small town takes a fraction of the effort of competing nationally in a crowded industry. Agencies price to the difficulty of the result, not just the hours.
Content production
If the agency is also writing and publishing content for you, that is real, ongoing production cost, not a one-off fee.
Agency size and overhead
A larger agency with more overhead, account managers and specialists typically costs more than a smaller, leaner one, without that automatically meaning better results.
What that money actually buys
A genuine retainer is real value, when it's the right fit.
You are paying for time you don't have to spend, expertise you don't have to build, and someone actively working your market rather than monitoring it. For a competitive market, or a business with genuinely no spare time, that is a fair trade.
If that's more than you want to spend right now
There's a genuine middle option.
EightySixOS is $79/month, with a 7-day free trial. It won't do the work for you the way an agency will, but it will tell you exactly what to work on and how, for a fraction of a retainer.
Questions
The honest answers.
What's a typical monthly SEO retainer?
It varies by market and scope, but a genuine ongoing SEO retainer commonly starts around $400+ a month for a small local business, and can run into the thousands for a competitive or multi-location brand. A specific, competitive quote for your business depends on your industry, location and goals.
Why do quotes for what sounds like the same job vary so much?
Two agencies can look at the same brief and price it very differently depending on scope definition (is content production included, is technical work included), how competitive they judge your market to be, and their own overhead. Ask exactly what's included before comparing numbers.
Is a cheap SEO agency a red flag?
Not automatically, but genuine SEO work takes real time. A price that looks too good to compensate for actual hours of strategy, content and technical work is worth asking hard questions about.
Retainer, project-based or hourly, which is better?
It depends on what you need. An ongoing retainer suits continuous improvement and monitoring. A project fee suits a specific, defined problem. Hourly suits occasional consulting. Most ongoing SEO work is sold as a retainer because the work itself is ongoing.
What if I can't justify that kind of spend right now?
That's a genuinely common position, and it's exactly what EightySixOS is for: $79/month to do your own SEO with a clear, prioritised plan, rather than an ongoing agency retainer.
Whichever fits, there's a genuine next step.