Pricing models for SEO agreements (aka how to price an SEO retainer)

Pricing SEO services is one of the most common things people struggle with. And I get it – set your price too high and you lose clients, set it too low and you’re working for peanuts (or worse, losing money 🙄).

So how do you find that sweet spot where you can actually sell it, be profitable, demonstrate real value to the client, and everyone’s happy?

This week, lets break down the different pricing models, what actually works in practice, and – crucially – how to avoid the race to the bottom that kills so many agency SEO offerings.

📖 Heads up: This one’s a little longer than usual because pricing is genuinely complex. But if you’re offering (or thinking about offering) SEO services, this might be the most important SEO Weekly you read this year. Grab a coffee or if you don’t have the time bookmark it and come back later ☕

Pricing Models

There are several ways to price SEO services, and I’ve tried most of them. Briefly, here’s what each looks like in practice…

➡️ Monthly Retainer (Fixed Scope)

This is the most common model (and the one I use) for good reason. The client pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined set of deliverables – tactically and financially you all know where you stand. But there are challenges… 

What it may look like:

– £1,350/month for: tech audit & fixes, 2 content pieces, 30 link outreaches, strategy call, tracking & reporting

– £3,000/month for: everything above plus more content, more links, competitor analysis, conversion optimization

– £6,000/month for: comprehensive SEO program with dedicated account management

Pros:

– Predictable revenue for you

– Clear expectations for the client

– Easy to scale (add more clients at the same tier)

Cons:

– Scope creep can kill your margins

– Clients may not understand why they’re paying the same amount every month when “results vary”

Pro tip: Build in flexibility. Have a base scope, but give yourself room to say “yes, we can do that” or “that would be additional to the retainer.”

➡️ Tiered Packages (Bronze/Silver/Gold – possibly fits as an extension to a maintenance agreement)

This is essentially the retainer model with pre-defined tiers that make it easier for clients to choose.

What it may look like:

– Starter (£1,350/month): Basic SEO essentials

– Growth (£2,500/month): More content, more links, more strategy

– Premium (£4,500+/month): Full-service SEO with priority support

Pros:

– Makes decision-making easier for clients

– Natural upsell path as they grow

– Clear differentiation between service levels

Cons:

– Can feel rigid if client needs don’t fit your tiers

– May leave money on the table if you could customize

Pro tip: Use tiers as a starting point, but be flexible. “Most clients at your stage start with Growth, but we can customize based on your specific needs.”

➡️ Hourly/Time-Based

You charge for the time you (or your team) spend on SEO work.

What it may look like:

– £75-150/hour depending on expertise level

– Client gets X hours per month, or pays as they go

Pros:

– Fair for variable workloads

– Easy to justify costs and plan time (you worked X hours)

Cons:

– Clients focus on hours, not results

– You’re penalized for being efficient

– Unpredictable revenue (what we’re trying to avoid)

– Doesn’t scale well

The reality: This rarely works well for ongoing SEO as it keeps SEO in the “time for money” bracket. It’s better suited for one-off audits or consultancy.

➡️ Performance-Based

You charge based on results – rankings achieved, traffic generated, or revenue driven.

What it may look like:

– Base fee + bonus for hitting targets

– Percentage of revenue generated

– Fee per keyword ranking achieved

Pros:

– Aligns your success with client’s success

– Can be very lucrative if you deliver

Cons:

– You’re taking on all the risk

– Results depend on factors outside your control (their website, their product, their conversion rate, favourable algo updates)

– Difficult to track and attribute accurately

– Can attract clients who don’t want to invest properly

The reality: This sounds great in theory but often becomes problematic in practice. SEO takes time, and you can’t control everything that affects results. Most experienced agencies avoid pure performance-based pricing.

➡️ Project-Based + Ongoing Maintenance

You charge a one-off fee for initial work (audit, strategy, site fixes) then a smaller monthly retainer for ongoing optimization.

What it may look like:

– £5,000 upfront for comprehensive audit, strategy, and technical fixes

– £750/month ongoing for content, links, and monitoring

Pros:

– Gets you paid upfront for heavy lifting

– Lower monthly commitment feels more accessible

– Natural transition from project to retainer

Cons:

– Clients may not continue after the project

– You’re doing the hard work upfront for a smaller ongoing fee

– Over time, your value gets reduced to the lower fee

Pro tip: Make the ongoing retainer valuable enough that they don’t want to stop. Show them what happens when they do (i.e. competitors catch up), or build in 6 monthly / annual reboot projects at a higher (i.e. ad hoc) rate.

The Minimum Viable Retainer (And Why It Exists)

There is an uncomfortable elephant in the room that needs addressing: there’s a floor below which SEO retainers don’t work for you.

If you’re charging £300-500/month for SEO, you’re either:

1. Not doing enough to move the needle

2. Losing money on every client at this level

3. Or worse, both

Let me break down why:

Effective SEO ACTUALLY requires (we’ve covered this before):

– Technical audit and ongoing fixes (2-4 hours/month minimum)

– Content creation (min 2 pieces = 6-10 hours including research, writing, optimization)

– Link building (min 30 outreaches = 4-6 hours for research, outreach, follow-up)

– Strategy and planning (2 hours/month)

– Reporting and client communication (2 hours/month)

– Position tracking and analysis (1-2 hours/month)

‼️ That’s 17-24 hours of work per month at a minimum.

If you’re charging £500/month and doing all this yourself, you’re earning £20-30/hour. And that’s before any tools, overheads, or outsourcing costs.

As the Americans amongst us may say: “That math don’t work!”

In my agency, we start at £1,350/month. That’s not arbitrary – it’s the minimum at which we can deliver meaningful results while maintaining healthy margins (I’ve also covered why you have a responsibility to make profit in previous SEO Weeklies, too). 

Could we go lower? Sure. Would it be worth it for us? No. So why would we?

“But My Clients Won’t Pay That!” 

I’ll save someone writing the comment: “£1,350/month? My clients would never pay that!”

And I hear you, I really do. There are two sides to this… The first is about you, the agency, running a profitable business (see above). The second is that, in all honesty, SEO might not be the right fit for those clients right now. And that’s okay… Let me explain…

If a local café has a £500/month marketing budget, SEO probably isn’t their best investment (and therefore we shouldn’t be taking that money from them). They’d see better returns from Google Ads or social media. Or a plumber with a limited budget? They might not be ready for a full SEO program yet either. That doesn’t make them bad clients – it just means the timing or fit for this type of service isn’t right.

Before discussing pricing, ask:

❓ Can they sustain SEO investment for 6+ months?

❓ Do they understand it’s a longer-term strategy?

❓ Will increased organic traffic translate to revenue for them?

If you’re getting a “no” to any of those questions, or you’re consistently hearing “that’s too expensive,” your current client base might not be at the right stage for SEO investment – and I truly mean that as a reality, not a judgment… Businesses with £20k annual revenue genuinely can’t afford £1,500/month SEO. Businesses with £500k+ revenue absolutely can, if you demonstrate the ROI…

It is uncomfortable, but charging £300-500/month doesn’t make you accessible – it makes you dissatisfied and unable to deliver results. Then everyone loses. Remember, this agreement needs to work for you as the agency as well as the client…

Not every agency needs to offer SEO, and there’s no shame in that. It’s better to be excellent at services your clients can afford than to struggle with services that don’t fit their situation. 

🙏 This post is really about helping agencies who want to position this in their service offering – no-one is saying you HAVE to…

Outsourcing Costs 

If you’re outsourcing SEO work (as many agencies do), your pricing needs to account for this – it is critical for your profitability.

The minimum margin you should be charging is at least 2x your outsource cost.

For clarity, let me work through the logic…

If you’re paying £500/month to outsource the work and charging the client £600/month, you’re making £100/month. That needs to cover:

✅ Your time managing the relationship

✅ Your time presenting the work

✅ Your tools and software

✅ Your business overheads

✅ Your profit

✅ Any taxes on that profit

For that to work, £100 simply doesn’t cut it.

Let’s work the numbers backwards…

– Outsource cost: £500/month

– Your price to client: £1,200-1,500/month

– Your margin: £700-1,000/month

Now you’re making enough to justify the client relationship, invest in growth, and actually earn some profit.

This isn’t “marking up” – it’s pricing for the value you’re delivering vs the risk you’re taking on. You’re guaranteeing results, managing the relationship, and taking responsibility if things go wrong.

Value-Based Pricing

➡️ There’s a shift when you stop thinking about what SEO costs you, and start thinking about what it’s worth to the client…

For example, that local plumber (from above) gets 5 new customers per month from organic search. Average job value: £500. That’s £2,500/month in revenue, or £30,000/year.

What’s it worth to them to double that? £30,000/year in additional revenue.

Charging them £1,500/month (£18,000/year) to potentially double their organic leads is a realistic ROI… especially when you consider the lifetime value of those customers (i.e. if they do a good job, the client won’t go looking for a new plumber next time they need some help). 

The key questions you need to consider:

❓ What’s a new customer worth to this business both immediately and in their lifespan?

❓ How many customers do they need to justify the investment?

❓ Can we realistically deliver that within 6-12 months?

If the “math” works, the price is justified. If it doesn’t, either the price is wrong or they’re not the right client for this type of service – and that’s OK. 

The perception of “expensive”

When a prospect says your SEO retainer is too expensive, one of three things is at play:

1️⃣ They don’t understand the value – Your job is to educate them on what SEO can deliver and what it takes to do it properly.

2️⃣ They can’t afford it – That’s fine. Not every business is ready for professional SEO. Better to walk away than take on a client who’ll resent the investment.

3️⃣ You haven’t demonstrated ROI (or potential ROI) – Show them the math. “If we get you 3 extra customers per month at £X value, you’ll make £Y. Our retainer is £Z. That’s a X% return on investment.”

In reality, SEO is a longer-term investment, not a quick win. If a client doesn’t appreciate that, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s better to move on from the opportunity than take on a client who’ll complain about cost every month.

Scope Creep: The Silent Profit Killer

This is where many agencies lose money without realizing it.

You agree to a £1,500/month retainer for a defined scope. Then:

🚨 “Can you just optimize this new page we created?”

🚨 “Can you look at why our Google Ads aren’t working?”

🚨 “Can you help with our social media strategy?”

🚨 “Can you fix this technical issue on the site?”

Before you know it, you’re doing £3,000 worth of work for £1,500 🤦‍♂️. 

The solution is simple – define a scope with flexibility.

Have a clear base scope that everyone agrees to. Then build in the flexibility to say:

– “Yes, we can do that within the retainer” (if it’s minor and maintains goodwill)

– “That’s outside our current scope, but we can add it for £X” (if it’s substantial)

The key is having the confidence to say “that would be extra” when appropriate. Your time and expertise have value.

What Actually Works (My Model)

Here’s what we do in my agency, and it works:

Base retainer: £1,350/month (6-month minimum) – that’s about $1,750 USD.

This includes:

– Technical audit and ongoing fixes

– 2 pieces of optimized content per month

– 30 link outreach attempts per month

– Monthly strategy call

– Position tracking and reporting

Why 6 months minimum? I hear you ask… 

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t buy into the whole “SEO takes 6 months” argument. BUT, SEO DOES take time to demonstrate meaningful ROI. Shorter terms create pressure for quick wins that won’t always mount up to a positive ROI. 

Flexibility built in:

If a client needs more content, more links, or additional services, we can add them. But the base retainer covers the essentials to move the needle.

Pricing scales with complexity:

A local business with 20-30 pages plus a blog? £1,350/month works.

An e-commerce site with a mid-sized inventory (say up to 500 products)? For me, that enters the £3,000-6,000/month territory.

The deliverables might look similar, but the complexity, competition, options to navigate and potential ROI are completely different.

The Different Models in Practice

For most agencies, I’d recommend structuring your pricing around three main tiers. 

Starter clients – typically local businesses with smaller sites – work well at £1,200-1,800/month ($1,600-$2,400). At this level, you’re covering the SEO essentials: 2-3 content pieces, 20-30 link outreaches, and monthly reporting. It’s enough to move the needle without overwhelming a smaller business.

Growth clients – established businesses in semi-competitive niches – need more firepower, and that’s reflected in the £2,500-4,000/month range. You’re building on everything in the Starter tier but adding more content (4-6 pieces), more aggressive link building (50+ outreaches), competitor analysis, and conversion optimization. These clients understand SEO is an investment and are ready to compete seriously.

Enterprise clients – large sites operating nationally or internationally – require comprehensive programs starting at £5,000-10,000+/month. At this level, you’re providing dedicated account management, custom strategy, and priority support. The complexity, competition, and potential ROI justify the investment.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you’re currently offering SEO services (or thinking about it), start by auditing your current pricing. Ask yourself honestly: are you profitable for every client? Are you charging enough to deliver meaningful results? If you’re outsourcing work, are you building in a proper margin? These aren’t comfortable questions, but they’re essential… (Questions I’ve worked through with consultancy clients many times). 

Next, define your base retainer clearly. What’s the absolute minimum you can charge and still deliver results that matter whilst making money? What does that include, and just as importantly, what’s explicitly out of scope? Having this clarity prevents scope creep and awkward conversations later.

Then calculate your ROI story for your ideal client. What’s a new customer worth to them? How many customers do they need from SEO to justify your fee? Can you realistically deliver that in 6-12 months? If the math doesn’t work, either your pricing needs adjusting or they’re not the right client.

Set your minimum term – I recommend 6 months as the base. It gives you time to demonstrate results and protects you from clients expecting instant wins. Finally, build in flexibility from the start. Have a defined scope, but leave room to add services. Be comfortable saying “that would be additional” when appropriate. Don’t let scope creep kill your margins.

Ultimately, pricing SEO retainers isn’t about being the cheapest – it’s about being profitable while delivering value. There’s a floor below which SEO doesn’t work, and trying to compete on price is a race to the bottom. Focus on demonstrating ROI, set clear expectations, and charge what you need to deliver meaningful results. Your clients will respect you more, and you’ll build a sustainable business. 💰