You asked 3 SEO companies for a price. One said $300 a month. One said $1,800. The third wanted $6,000 and a 12-month contract.
That spread is normal. It’s also why so many business owners give up and pick whoever sounds most confident.
This guide shows how much SEO costs in 2026, using survey data from 439 SEO providers. Then it covers what moves the price for a business in Maryland, what each budget buys, and the quotes to walk away from. We’ll also tell you what we charge.
The short answer: how much does SEO cost?
Most businesses pay between $500 and $5,000 a month for SEO. In an Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers, 63% of clients spent in that range. Local SEO averaged $1,557 a month. Agencies averaged $3,209 a month, consultants $3,250 and freelancers $1,349. The average hourly rate was $111.
Those are global numbers, and US prices run higher. In the same survey, 79.1% of providers in the US and Canada charge at least $1,001 a month.
The survey ran in 2023 and was updated in August 2024 (Ahrefs). The numbers below all come from it unless we say otherwise.
The 3 ways SEO is priced
Most providers use more than one model, which is why the percentages below add up to more than 100.
Monthly retainer
This is the most common setup. 78.2% of SEO providers charge a monthly fee. The most popular tier is $501 to $1,000 a month, charged by 20.4% of them.
A retainer makes sense because SEO doesn’t finish. Google changes how it ranks pages. Your competitors publish new pages and collect new reviews. And a site that stops moving tends to drift down.
Hourly
34.8% of providers bill by the hour. The most common rate is $75 to $100 an hour. Consultants charge the most, at an average of $171 an hour.
Hourly works well for a second opinion, an audit of work someone else did, or training a staff member to handle the basics.
Per project
48.9% of providers sell fixed-price projects. The most popular fee is $2,501 to $5,000. For consultants, the most common project fee is $5,001 to $10,000.
Typical projects are a full site audit, a website move to a new platform, or a one-time cleanup of your Google Business Profile and directory listings.
Consultant, freelancer or agency: what each costs
| Who you hire | Average per month | Average per hour | Good fit when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | $1,349 | $72 | You need 1 task done and can manage it yourself |
| Agency | $3,209 | $99 | You want several channels handled by a team |
| Consultant | $3,250 | $171 | You want senior judgment and 1 person accountable |
Source: Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers, updated 2024.
Freelancers cost the least, but you do the managing. Agencies bring more hands. The trade-off is that the person who sells you the plan is often not the person doing the work. With a consultant, you talk to the person doing it.
More experience also costs more. Providers in business for 5 to 10 years average $3,648 a month. That’s more than double the $1,541 charged by those in business for 2 years or less.
If you’re comparing firms right now, this guide on how to choose an SEO agency in Maryland covers the questions to ask on the first call.
What changes the price for a Maryland business
National averages only get you so far. Three things decide where your business lands.
How many competitors are near you
A family dentist in a Baltimore suburb might have 15 practices within 3 miles, all fighting for the same map results. A repair shop in Hagerstown might have 2. The task list looks similar on paper. The effort to win is not.
How many locations and services you have
Each location needs its own Google Business Profile, its own page on your site and its own reviews. A business with offices in Rockville and Frederick is running 2 local campaigns. Each service line you want to rank for adds pages too.
What shape your website is in
In August, a Maryland equipment dealer found this site on Google and asked for a free consultation. Before we talked about rankings, we went through their website by hand. 98 of their “request a quote” buttons sent visitors to the homepage instead of a quote form. Every one of those clicks was a buyer asking for a price and not getting one.
More traffic wouldn’t have fixed that. So the project started with the site itself. We’re rebuilding it and cutting their machine catalog from 234 listings down to the 150 that still matter.
If your site has problems like that, the first months of spend go to repairs. That’s money well spent. But it changes the quote.
What you get at each budget
The dollar anchors below come from the Ahrefs survey. What each level covers is our read of typical scope.
Around $500 a month
This covers upkeep. Expect Google Business Profile updates, replies to reviews, fixes to your directory listings and a monthly report. It fits a business in a smaller town with few direct competitors. It won’t build much that’s new.
Around $1,500 a month
This is close to the local SEO average of $1,557. On top of upkeep, you should see a few new pages or posts a month, some local link building and fixes to your existing pages. It suits most single-location service businesses.
$2,500 to $4,000 a month
This is where our own work sits. Our engagements run $2,500 to $4,000 a month.
At this level you get strategy, technical fixes, new content every month and fixes to the parts of your site that turn visitors into calls. Reports tie back to leads, and you work directly with the person doing the work. It fits businesses where 1 new customer is worth thousands of dollars: contractors, law firms, medical practices and B2B suppliers.
Warning signs in an SEO quote
Walk away from any quote that includes these:
- A guaranteed #1 ranking. Google’s own hiring guide says: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google” (Google Search Central).
- A $99-a-month package. The most common local SEO rate is $75 to $100 an hour, so $99 buys about 1 hour of work a month.
- A 12-month contract with no monthly report. Ask what you’ll see every month before you sign.
- No answer to “who does the work?” If the work is sent overseas or to another firm, you should know that up front.
How to tell if SEO is paying for itself
Start with what 1 new customer is worth to you over a year. Then compare it to the monthly fee.
Say a new roofing job is worth $12,000 and you spend $3,000 a month on SEO. That’s $36,000 a year. You need 3 extra jobs a year to break even. Everything after that is profit.
Track calls and form fills that come from Google. Rankings are useful, but they move every day. Leads are what pay your invoices.
Give it time, too. Most local businesses see new leads start to show up after 4 to 6 months of steady work [benchmark estimate]. A newer site in a crowded market can take longer.
Get a number for your business
Averages are a starting point. Your price depends on your town, your competitors, your services and the state of your website.
If you want a number instead of a range, contact us. Tell us where you’re based, what you sell and where your site is today. We’ll tell you where you stand, what we’d fix first and what it would cost. Want to understand the basics first? Start with our overview of local SEO.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s worth it when 1 new customer covers several months of fees. For a roofer, a lawyer or a dentist, that math usually works. For a business with very low-priced sales and a small service area, a well-kept Google Business Profile may do most of the job on its own.
SEO consultants average $3,250 a month on retainer and $171 an hour, according to the Ahrefs survey. Their most common project fee is $5,001 to $10,000. You pay more than with a freelancer, and you get one experienced person who owns the results.
Yes, you can do the basics yourself. Claiming and filling out your Google Business Profile, asking for reviews and fixing your listings costs time, not money. Our guide to local SEO tips for Maryland small businesses walks through each step. Hire help when the basics are done and you’re still not showing up.
Providers charge for different amounts of work, different experience and different markets. The survey found agencies charge 138% more than freelancers. And providers with 5 to 10 years in business charge more than double what newer ones do.
Diane Caldwell
Diane is an SEO and demand generation expert with over 10 years of experience building and managing SEO programs for local and national businesses.