GUIDE
What determines the cost of SEO?
SEO cost depends on the website, the work to be done and who carries it out. A useful quote connects the price to a defined scope, deliverables, responsibilities and a review process.
Define the work before comparing prices
List the services and markets that matter, the state of the website and the outcome you are trying to improve. A small content update, a technical audit and ongoing work across several languages involve different tasks.
Ask each provider to explain what they have assumed about the starting point. Site size alone leaves out important details such as template complexity, translation requirements and the availability of internal expertise.
Audit, project or ongoing work
An audit is a defined investigation with findings and priorities. A project delivers an agreed change, such as a set of service pages or support for a website migration. Ongoing work provides a recurring cycle of planning, implementation and review.
Compare the proposed outputs for each model. For an audit, look for affected URLs, evidence and a testable recommendation. For ongoing work, ask how monthly priorities are chosen, who completes them and how completed work is recorded.
Include implementation in the comparison
A proposal should explain who writes and reviews content, who makes technical changes and who verifies the result. A recommendation that needs a developer also requires development capacity.
Check whether research tools, translation, design, tracking setup and meetings are included. Ask about access needs, approvals and additional work. These dependencies often shape the true effort more than a headline package name.
Prepare a clear request for a proposal
Share your website, main services, target markets, known problems and previous work. Describe the resources your team can contribute and any launch dates or procurement requirements.
Useful questions include: What will be delivered? What information do you need from us? Who implements changes? How are priorities updated? What happens when the scope changes? How is the work handed over?
Connect the budget to the customer journey
Start with the business value of relevant enquiries and the steps between a visit and a customer. A planning model might combine relevant visits, enquiry rate, enquiry quality and the proportion that become customers. Use your own observed figures and document assumptions.
For a service business, gross contribution and delivery capacity can be more useful planning inputs than revenue alone. Treat scenarios as planning tools and review them when real data is available.
Agree on measurement and review
Decide which pages, markets and conversions the work concerns. Record the initial state and the dates of meaningful changes. Review the quality of enquiries with the people handling them.
A reporting discussion should connect the completed work with the observations and the next decision. Seasonal demand, campaigns and website changes are part of that interpretation.
Discuss the scope of your website
To discuss a suitable scope, send your website and the issue you want to solve. A defined question helps us choose between an audit, consulting or a broader SEO programme.
The proposal sets out the work, responsibilities, schedule and commercial terms. Get in touch with the context of your project.
YOUR NEXT STEP
What should your website focus on next?
Tell me about your website and business goals. We can discuss the pages, content and technical work that need attention.