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Key Takeaways $700 vs $9,000 isn’t a scam — it’s three different products. Match the tier to your market, or you’ll pay $800 for a problem that needs $4,000 of work.
Budget from customer value, not package price. If the math doesn’t justify the retainer several times over, the scope (or the channel) is wrong.
Every discovery call I run reaches the same two questions. The first is “will this work?” The second is “what should SEO cost?”
Founders ask the second one nervously, because they’ve usually collected three proposals that quote three wildly different numbers for what sounds like the same service. One says $700 a month. One says $3,500. One says $9,000. Nobody explains the gap.
I price SEO deals every week at my agency, and I’ve reviewed dozens of competitor proposals that prospects forward to me. So here’s the honest breakdown I give every founder who asks — including the parts that don’t flatter my industry.
What the market actually charges
Start with real data instead of sales decks. Ahrefs surveyed 439 SEO professionals and found that 78.2% charge a monthly retainer, making it the dominant pricing model. The most common retainer bracket sits at $501 to $1,000 per month, but averages tell a different story: agencies average around $3,209 per month, while freelancers come in near $1,349.
Experience widens the gap further. The same survey found that providers with five to 10 years in business charge more than double what newcomers charge. Scope matters too — SEOs serving local markets average about $1,557 per month, while those competing nationally or globally average $3,474.
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