How much does SEO cost in the UK?

What the research says

Whito’s UK agency retainer research found that UK agencies typically quote £1,250 to £3,500 a month for a single channel such as SEO. SMEs should expect to start at around £1,000 to £2,000 for meaningful agency work, according to the same research.

Look at every published price instead, including small providers and starter packages, and the picture shifts. Whito’s count of published UK SEO prices recorded a middle price of £799 a month in June 2026, with half of the 45 prices between about £410 and £1,500.

What pushes the price up

Competition is the big one. A solicitor in central London is fighting far stronger rivals than a dog groomer in a market town, and the work needed to compete grows with that.

Size matters too. A five-page brochure site needs much less work than a shop with 3,000 products. Content writing and link building are the most labour-heavy parts of SEO, so packages that include lots of either cost more.

What pulls it down

Automation, narrower scope and fewer meetings. A lot of SEO work is checking: is every page indexable, are titles sensible, has anything broken? Software does that well. Firms that automate the checking can charge less.

Freelancers, agencies and automated services

Freelancers are often cheaper than agencies and can be excellent, but you’re relying on one person’s time and skills. Agencies give you a team and usually charge for it. Automated services like ours sit at the low end on price and focus on the steady, repeatable work.

How to compare two quotes

Put the quotes side by side and list the monthly tasks each one includes, in plain words. Then ask how many hours a month the fee buys, who does the work, and how long you’re tied in. A £400 quote with a clear task list and no contract can be better value than a £1,200 quote that just says “ongoing optimisation”. If a provider can’t tell you what happens in a normal month, that tells you something too.

A worked example

Take a two-van plumbing firm covering one town. It needs a sound site, a page for each main job, a complete Google Business Profile and a steady trickle of reviews. Whito’s planning ranges put local service firms at about £300 to £800 a month with a provider. That’s a fair benchmark for this kind of business. A national online shop with thousands of products is a different job, and Whito’s range for online shops starts at £2,000.

The cost of doing nothing

Not spending is also a choice with a price. If your site has broken pages, slow mobile load times or service pages that never mention your town, you’re probably losing enquiries to firms that fixed those things. You don’t need to fix everything at once. You do need someone, or something, keeping an eye on it each month.

So what should you pay?

Work out what you need first. If your site is small and local, you probably don’t need a £2,000 retainer. If you’re in a crowded national market, £99 a month won’t win it on its own. Our guide to small business SEO budgets helps you match spend to ambition.

Common questions

Where this guide to UK SEO costs quotes prices, the figures come from Whito’s UK SEO cost research and Whito’s UK agency retainer research (2026). They’re typical ranges for planning, not quotes.

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