Start with the work, not a universal price

SEO services can be sold as a monthly retainer, an hourly assignment or a fixed project. Those units buy different work. Define the site, countries and languages, technical access, content responsibilities, reporting and implementation before asking for a price. A recurring report is not the same deliverable as implemented fixes. This guide is buyer education: it helps you read a quote, rather than telling freelancers what to charge or estimating a market-wide average.

Read advertised prices in their own context

On 27 October 2026, Website Depot listed its Basic package at $950 per month and stated a six-month minimum for those packages. The advertised base arithmetic is $5,700, before unconfirmed charges. WebFX separately advertised SEO services starting at $2,900 per month. These are different providers and scopes, not endpoints of a representative price range. Keep the displayed dollar symbol when an ISO currency code is not explicit. Confirm taxes, setup, minimum term and exclusions directly; do not import one provider’s conditions into the other offer.

  • Website Depot Basic: displayed $950/month, with a six-month package minimum. Base-only illustration: 6 × $950 = $5,700. Tax, extras and explicit ISO currency code remain unconfirmed.
  • WebFX SEO Services headline: starting at $2,900/month. It mentions copywriting and implementation, but a written proposal must establish exact scope, setup, minimum term and taxes.

Compare six-month cash with minimum commitments

The original example uses a fictional retailer planning six months of work. Proposal A has USD900 setup plus USD900 monthly and a six-month minimum: its known six-month base is USD6,300. Proposal B has no setup charge and USD800 monthly, but a twelve-month minimum: its six-month base is USD4,800 while the full minimum-period base is USD9,600. Taxes and extras are unknown, so neither number is a final payable total. A separate twenty-hour assignment at USD125/hour totals USD2,500 before unknown extras; it does not buy six months of ongoing work.

Normalize the scope before choosing a proposal

Use the same currency, planning horizon and list of deliverables when comparing proposals. Separate cash due during your chosen period from the quoted minimum-period commitment, deposits, renewal conditions and exit terms. Ask whether writing, publishing, developer time, software and reporting are included. An attractive monthly number can omit the work your site needs. Do not choose a winner from the fictional arithmetic alone: a smaller amount with less implementation is not necessarily the same purchase.

Write an acceptance and review record

Give each proposal a source document and date, a named decision owner, an included-work list and explicit unknowns. Ask for an example finding, its evidence, the proposed fix and who will implement and verify it. Google’s hiring guidance recommends understanding recommendations, references and communication; at an initial audit stage it advises read-only Search Console access. Record acceptance as delivered work with evidence, and track later search performance separately. The worksheet downloads are local records; they do not contact vendors, submit orders or connect your Search Console account.

  • Compare one clearly defined scope and period.
  • Keep planned cash and minimum-period base separate.
  • Record explicit zero separately from unknown.
  • Request evidence and implementation ownership.
  • Review delivered work separately from search outcomes.

Keep prices separate from promised search outcomes

An advertised starting price is not your negotiated quote, and a quoted minimum is not a prediction of SEO results. None of these observations establishes average cost, agency quality, guaranteed rankings or the value of a backlink. Local-location work and audit depth have dedicated companion guides. The existing backlink cost calculator concerns a different unit of purchase. Recheck the source offers when making a decision, retain the dates, and leave unresolved taxes or fees marked unknown rather than silently treating them as zero.

Worked amounts are fictional USD examples unless a named, dated offer is identified. Unknown charges are not zero.