Over 90% of pages on the internet do not get any organic traffic from Google. One of the main reasons users never see most pages is poor search engine optimization (SEO).

You could spend a lot of time and money building an in-house team to enhance your SEO strategy. However, outsourcing the process is a better way to improve your SEO.

But then you may wonder: how much does SEO cost for a small business?

Throughout this guide, you will learn about SEO basics, what goes into the pricing for SEO services, and whether it is worth it to outsource your search engine optimization.

What Is SEO?

SEO is enhancing your website through various mediums to increase the likelihood that it will appear on the first page of search engines like Bing or Google.

A couple of ways that you can improve your chances of appearing on the first page include improving your website’s speed or building your authority on a particular niche.

What Are the Different Types of SEO?

Before shopping for a search engine optimization service provider, you will want to know the types of SEO. That way, you understand what services you are shopping for.

Local SEO

Local SEO is essential for local businesses because it ensures your web pages provide relevant information for users looking for particular businesses.

Technical SEO

Technical search engine optimization focuses on making your website readable to website crawlers. These crawls tell search engines whether you published or updated a new page. Without these crawls, no search engine can find your pages.

On- and Off-page SEO

On-page SEO is when you optimize a page’s keywords, headers, and images. In contrast, off-page SEO is when you focus on getting search engine optimization backlinks from other websites.

eCommerce SEO

This type of SEO primarily focuses on optimizing your website’s product and category pages. You can improve eCommerce SEO by adding more relevant keywords and enhancing your product’s schema.

What Determines the Price of SEO Services?

As mentioned, there are varying types of SEO that will affect your small business website’s rankings differently. However, each type of SEO can break into different factors that determine a service’s cost, like:

• SEO campaign timeline and goals
• Agency’s pricing model
• What tools the consultant or agency will need to use for your project
• The niche your small business focuses on
• The complexity of your SEO campaign
• Whether you pay hourly, monthly, or annually

Moreover, you can expect to pay more for search engine optimization campaigns if you want to see results quicker, because this will force agencies to re-allocate their staff toward your project.

How Much Does SEO Cost for a Small Business?

The cost for SEO for a small business depends on what services you purchase. For instance, if you need monthly SEO reporting that includes various forms of optimization, you can expect to pay between $750 and $2,000 per month.

According to ahrefs, a popular SEO tool, the most popular pricing tier is $501–$1000 per month. However, if you were to pay hourly rates, you could end up spending between $100 and $150 per hour.

However, according to ahrefs, if you are a small business that wants to focus on local SEO, you will pay close to 23% less for services than other SEO campaigns.

Meanwhile, less-experienced freelancers or consultants will charge less than SEO agencies. However, they may lack the experience that an agency possesses, which could result in your money not being well-spent.

What Is the Cost for In-House SEO?

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for an SEO specialist is around $48,000 per year. However, there are more costs that you must consider when hiring someone, like training, benefits, and overhead.

On top of that, you have to worry about them quitting, which means that you will need to spend more time and money searching for a new employee.

Why Does SEO Cost So Much?

Whether you outsource your work or hire in-house workers, you will spend quite a bit on search engine optimization. However, that is because SEO takes time to implement and show results.

Moreover, search engine specialists must dig through every detail of your website and figure out how to make it perform better than your competitors’ site, as they also likely have SEO specialists.

In addition to the preliminary work that specialists must perform, they have more work they need to accomplish when it comes to optimizing your front end or back end. For example, if they focus on on-page SEO, they must research keywords, trending topics, similar keywords, and where your competition has gaps in their content.

Or, if they focus on the back end, they have to go through all of your pages to make sure that search engines indexed them. Either way, SEO requires expertise, which is what you are paying for.

What Is a Good Price To Pay For SEO Services?

First off, you must determine what services you can afford. From there, you will want to purchase a basic package from a search engine optimization agency.

If you are a small business, you should consider monthly or annual plans if a budget does not limit you. They are more effective than paying SEO specialists by the hour. These plans have varying pricing.

However, Sparktoro’s SEO pricing survey found that the median cost was $2,500 to $5,000 per month.

Is SEO Worth It?

Considering the amount of traffic that search engine optimization can bring to your website, investing in SEO for your small business is worth it. While enhancing your website’s SEO can prove to be a long journey, it can bring you more targeted customers than other marketing means.

How much does SEO cost to you?If you are considering hiring a digital marketing agency, go with Cincy SEO. We can audit your website, enhance your local SEO, and help you with pay-per-click campaigns and other SEO services.