01 · Pricing
SEO prices in the UK: What this costs
Most agencies make you sit through a call before they'll tell you a number. Here's the number, and here's the honest version of what everyone else charges too.
02 · What SEO actually costs in the UK
What SEO actually costs in the UK
Ignore anyone who says "it depends". It does depend, but the ranges are well known and there's no reason to hide them.
- Under £300 a month
- Almost always automated. Directory submissions, spun content, a report generated by software. Occasionally it's a genuine one-person operation charging too little, but usually you're paying for a process that runs without anyone looking at it. If a price looks impossible for the hours involved, it is.
- £300 to £700 a month
- Real work, thinly spread. Usually a few hours a month, often a junior, sometimes offshore. It can move the needle for a very small local business in a quiet market. It won't do much in a competitive one.
- £700 to £1,500 a month
- Enough hours for someone experienced to actually do the work every month rather than just report on it. This is where most small businesses should be.
- £1,500 to £3,000 a month
- Ecommerce, competitive markets, or businesses with enough revenue that a percentage point matters.
- £3,000 and up
- Agencies with a team, an account layer and an office. You're paying for capacity and for people to manage the people.
A website is more variable. A template with your logo dropped in is a few hundred pounds. A properly built small business site is roughly £800 to £3,000. Ecommerce starts higher because there's more of it.
03 · Why cheap retainers are cheap
Why cheap retainers are cheap
It's arithmetic, not cynicism.
An experienced person in the UK costs an agency somewhere north of £40 an hour once you count everything. At £300 a month, after overheads, you're buying two or three hours, and reporting eats one of them.
So the work either gets automated, or handed to someone junior, or it doesn't happen and you get a nice PDF instead. That's why cheap SEO so often feels like nothing happened. Nothing did.
04 · What I charge
What I charge
| Tier | Build | Then, every month | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local | £950 | £750/month | A site for a business that needs the phone to ring. Built, then run: local SEO, your Google Business Profile, new pages when you need them, hosting and care on an account you own. |
| Growth | £950 | £1,100/month | The same site, more work on top. Content every month, more ground covered, more of the search results that matter to you. |
| Ecommerce | From £1,500 | £1,500/month | Shopify or a custom build, then the SEO and content to sell through it. More products, more technical work, more money on the other side. |
| Run · existing site | — | £750–£1,200/month | Already got a site you like? I'll run it without rebuilding it. |
No VAT to add. No setup fee. Three months to start, then 30 days' notice.
05 · What's in every tier
What's in every tier
- The build, if you need one, on hosting you own
- Search work every month: technical, on-page, content
- Your Google Business Profile, managed properly
- New pages when the business needs them
- One page of reporting a month, in English
- Me on the end of an email
What isn't included
- Ad spend. If we run ads, the budget is yours and goes to Google, not me.
- Ads management, unless we've agreed it as a line item. It's real recurring work and I'd rather charge for it than pretend it's free.
- Photography, video and copywriting for anything outside the site.
- Anything I haven't quoted for. If something new comes up, I'll tell you what it costs before I do it.
06 · Why the build is priced like that
Why the build is priced like that
£950 doesn't build a website, if you're counting hours. It's twenty-odd hours of work, so it's under £50 an hour, which is less than I'm worth.
I price it there on purpose. The build isn't the product. The site earning money is. A cheap build gets us to the part that matters, and I'd rather be judged on twelve months of results than on an invoice in month one.
The three-month minimum is what makes that possible. Over those three months the build roughly breaks even and no more; the point at which this becomes worth my while is month four. So I've got exactly the same interest as you in the site actually working, which is the right way round.
07 · FAQ
Questions people ask
- Is there a contract?
- Three months to begin with, then thirty days' notice whenever you want. The three months isn't a lock-in, it's arithmetic. The build is priced below what it costs me, so the first few months are where that gets made back, and SEO genuinely doesn't show much before month three anyway. Committing to less would mean charging more up front, and I'd rather do it this way round. After that you're free to go at a month's notice. If I'm not earning it, you shouldn't be tied to it.
- Do you charge VAT?
- No. I'm not VAT registered, so the price you see is the price you pay.
- How long before it works?
- Local search, usually two to four months for movement and six for something you'd call a result. Competitive or ecommerce, longer. Anyone promising page one in thirty days is either targeting phrases nobody searches or lying.
- Who owns the site?
- You do. Hosting and domain are on accounts in your name that I manage. If you leave, you take everything and nothing breaks. I've seen too many businesses held hostage by an agency that owns their domain.
- What if I already have a website?
- Then keep it. I'll run it as it is, £750–£1,200 a month depending on the work involved. I'll tell you honestly if it's holding you back.
- Do you work with my competitors?
- Not in the same town for the same service. If I'm already working with a plumber in Fakenham, I'll say so and turn you down.
- Where are you based?
- Norfolk. I work with businesses anywhere in the UK. Most of it happens over email either way.
08 · Get in touch
Tell me what's not working.
No forms with fourteen fields, no discovery call before you know the price. You've just seen the price.