Ask five agencies what SEO costs and you'll get five non-answers. That's not an accident. Vague pricing protects margin and makes comparison shopping impossible. We'd rather lose a deal to honesty than win one on confusion.

The truth is that price tracks two things: the depth of work your situation requires, and the seniority of the people doing it. A local plumber and a 4,000-SKU Shopify store are not the same project — and a strategist with ten years of experience does not cost the same as a junior learning on your account.

Most legitimate engagements fall into one of three bands. These are real ranges from the market in 2026, not a "starting at" teaser:

• $1,500–$3,000 / mo — Local & single-location. Google Business Profile, citations, reviews, a handful of location and service pages, light content.
• $3,000–$7,500 / mo — Competitive local & mid-market ecommerce. Technical foundation, ongoing content, real link acquisition, conversion work.
• $7,500–$20,000+ / mo — Enterprise & high-volume stores. Dedicated strategist, engineering hours, digital PR, and multi-market scale.

Anything under ~$1,000/mo is almost always a templated, offshore content mill. It will not move a competitive market, and it can actively damage your site.

A healthy retainer splits across four buckets. If an agency can't tell you roughly how your dollars divide, that's a flag.

• Strategy & reporting — the thinking, prioritization, and honest measurement that ties organic to revenue.
• Production — content, technical fixes, on-page work, and design that actually ships.
• Authority — earned links and digital PR, the most expensive and most defensible line item.
• Tooling — the enterprise crawlers, rank trackers, and data platforms you'd otherwise license yourself.

The cheapest engagement is the one that works. A $5k retainer that drives revenue is far cheaper than a $1.5k one that drives nothing.

Work backwards from value, not from what feels comfortable. If a new customer is worth $4,000 in lifetime value and organic can realistically deliver ten of them a month, the channel is worth $40,000/mo to you. A $6,000 retainer against that is a rounding error.

Then give it runway. SEO is a 6–12 month investment before it hits full stride; budgeting for three months guarantees you pay for the hard part and quit before the payoff.

A few patterns reliably predict a bad engagement regardless of the number on the invoice:

• Guaranteed rankings or "we have a contact at Google."
• Long lock-in contracts with no performance accountability.
• Reporting that leads with impressions and "keywords tracked" instead of revenue, leads, or calls.
• A price that only makes sense if the work is offshored and templated.

If you want our honest read on your situation, get a free proposal — you'll get a real number and a 90-day roadmap, not a "starting at."

Ask five agencies what SEO costs and you'll get five non-answers. That's not an accident. Vague pricing protects margin and makes comparison shopping impossible. We'd rather lose a deal to honesty than win one on confusion.

The truth is that price tracks two things: the depth of work your situation requires, and the seniority of the people doing it. A local plumber and a 4,000-SKU Shopify store are not the same project — and a strategist with ten years of experience does not cost the same as a junior learning on your account.

Most legitimate engagements fall into one of three bands. These are real ranges from the market in 2026, not a "starting at" teaser:

• $1,500–$3,000 / mo — Local & single-location. Google Business Profile, citations, reviews, a handful of location and service pages, light content.
• $3,000–$7,500 / mo — Competitive local & mid-market ecommerce. Technical foundation, ongoing content, real link acquisition, conversion work.
• $7,500–$20,000+ / mo — Enterprise & high-volume stores. Dedicated strategist, engineering hours, digital PR, and multi-market scale.

Anything under ~$1,000/mo is almost always a templated, offshore content mill. It will not move a competitive market, and it can actively damage your site.

A healthy retainer splits across four buckets. If an agency can't tell you roughly how your dollars divide, that's a flag.

• Strategy & reporting — the thinking, prioritization, and honest measurement that ties organic to revenue.
• Production — content, technical fixes, on-page work, and design that actually ships.
• Authority — earned links and digital PR, the most expensive and most defensible line item.
• Tooling — the enterprise crawlers, rank trackers, and data platforms you'd otherwise license yourself.

The cheapest engagement is the one that works. A $5k retainer that drives revenue is far cheaper than a $1.5k one that drives nothing.

Work backwards from value, not from what feels comfortable. If a new customer is worth $4,000 in lifetime value and organic can realistically deliver ten of them a month, the channel is worth $40,000/mo to you. A $6,000 retainer against that is a rounding error.

Then give it runway. SEO is a 6–12 month investment before it hits full stride; budgeting for three months guarantees you pay for the hard part and quit before the payoff.

A few patterns reliably predict a bad engagement regardless of the number on the invoice:

• Guaranteed rankings or "we have a contact at Google."
• Long lock-in contracts with no performance accountability.
• Reporting that leads with impressions and "keywords tracked" instead of revenue, leads, or calls.
• A price that only makes sense if the work is offshored and templated.

If you want our honest read on your situation, get a free proposal — you'll get a real number and a 90-day roadmap, not a "starting at."