How much does SEO cost in Australia? (2026 guide)
Most Australian small businesses pay between $300 and $2,000 a month for SEO. One-off projects — an audit, a round of on-page fixes, a technical clean-up — typically run $500 to $3,000. Freelancers charge roughly $80 to $180 an hour; agencies $150 to $350.
That's a wide range, and the reason it's wide is the point of this article. Here's what sits behind those numbers, what you should expect at each level, and how to tell a fair quote from a bad one.
What you'd pay, and what it buys
Under $300 p/m
Typically suits: A single-location business in a quiet market
What you should be getting: Basic on-page work, Google Business Profile management, light reporting. Not enough for competitive markets.$300 – $800 p/m
Typically suits: Most local small businesses
What you should be getting: On-page optimisation, local SEO, some content, Search Console monitoring, monthly reporting and a named person to talk to.$800 – $2,000 p/m
Typically suits: Multi-location or competitive industries
What you should be getting: The above plus regular content, technical work, link building, and strategy that changes based on results.$2,000 – $5,000+ p/m
Typically suits: Larger businesses, ecommerce, national reach
What you should be getting: A team rather than a person, ongoing content production, digital PR, conversion work, detailed analytics.
For a typical Australian small business — one location, a handful of services, competing locally — the sensible range is $300 to $800 a month.
Why the range is so wide
Four things drive it.
Competition in your market. Ranking a mobile mechanic in a regional town is a different job from ranking a personal injury lawyer in Sydney. Some industries have decades of established competitors and enormous budgets behind them.
Where you're starting. A well-structured site with clean foundations needs maintenance. A site with duplicate pages, no tracking and a broken URL structure needs repairs first, and that first quarter costs more.
Whether content is included. Content is the most labour-intensive part of SEO. A $400 retainer that includes two articles a month isn't giving you much else. Ask what the split is.
Who's doing it. A solo consultant has lower overheads than an agency and usually does the work themselves. An agency has more capacity and more specialists, but you may be dealing with an account manager rather than the person touching your site.
One-off work vs a monthly retainer
A one-off project makes sense when:
- You want to know where you stand before committing to anything
- Your site has specific technical problems to fix
- You've just launched or migrated and need the foundations set properly
- You want to do the ongoing work yourself and need a plan
A monthly retainer makes sense when:
- You're competing against businesses doing the same thing
- Your market moves — new competitors, changing search behaviour
- You want content produced regularly
- You don't have anyone internally to keep at it
There's an honest middle ground that's rarely offered: get a proper audit done, have someone fix the foundations, then take it from there. If a business only ever needs six months of work, it should only pay for six months of work.
What "SEO" should include at each level
Use this to check a quote against what you're being charged.
Every engagement, at any price, should include:
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics connected and actually being read
- Page titles and meta descriptions written for every important page
- A site structure where each service has its own page
- Reporting you can understand, showing clicks and rankings over time
- A named person you can email
From around $500 a month, add:
- Google Business Profile properly maintained, not just created
- Content published on a regular schedule
- Internal linking worked on deliberately
- Technical issues found and fixed as they appear
From around $1,000 a month, add:
- Link building or digital PR
- Competitor monitoring
- Conversion rate work, not just traffic
- Strategy that visibly changes based on what the data shows
If you're paying $800 a month and getting a monthly PDF of rankings and nothing else, you're being overcharged regardless of what the market rate is.
Warning signs in an SEO quote
Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google's results. Anyone guaranteeing a position either doesn't understand that or is counting on you not to.
A twelve-month lock-in contract. SEO does take months to work, and that's a real argument for patience — but it isn't an argument for being unable to leave. A good provider keeps you because the work is good.
No named person. If you can't find out who'll actually be doing the work, it's likely being outsourced.
No reporting, or reporting you can't read. A forty-page automated document is not a report. You should be able to see clicks, rankings and enquiries, and understand what changed.
A quote with no audit behind it. Nobody can price this work sensibly without looking at the site first. A number offered before anyone has opened Search Console is a guess.
Pressure to decide today. SEO is a long game by definition. There is no urgency, and manufactured urgency is a signal in itself.
What I charge
I publish my prices, which is unusual in this industry and shouldn't be.
SEO Foundations — $299 a month plus GST. On-page optimisation, Google Business Profile management, Search Console monitoring, monthly reporting. Suits a local business that wants steady, competent work.
SEO Growth — $499 a month plus GST. The above plus content, deeper technical work, and more time on the site each month. Suits a business in a competitive market or with more ground to make up.
No lock-in on either. Month to month, cancel with written notice before the next invoice. That isn't generosity — it just means I have to keep earning it.
One-off work is $180 an hour plus GST if you'd rather have a specific thing fixed than an ongoing arrangement.
And the [free website and SEO audit](/free-website-seo-audit) is genuinely free, done by hand, with no obligation attached. Plenty of people take the audit and do the work themselves, which is fine.
Common questions
Is SEO worth it for a small business?
Usually, if people search for what you sell. If your customers find you by referral or by walking past, your money may be better spent elsewhere. A quick way to check: search what you do plus your town, and see whether anyone is competing for it.
How long before SEO works?
Title and description improvements can show within weeks on pages that already rank. Real ranking movement usually takes three to six months, and competitive markets take longer. Anyone promising results in thirty days is describing ads, not SEO.
Can I do SEO myself?
The basics, yes — and you should. Page titles, descriptions, a service page for each service, and a properly filled-out Google Business Profile will get most small businesses further than they expect. It's the technical and strategic layers where help earns its keep.
What's cheaper, SEO or Google Ads?
Neither, over time. Ads cost money for every click and stop the day you stop paying. SEO costs more upfront in effort and keeps working. [The full comparison is here.](/resources/seo-vs-google-ads)
Is a cheap SEO package ever worth it?
A $99-a-month package is buying you an automated report and nothing else. You'd get more from spending two hours fixing your own page titles. If budget is tight, do the basics yourself and spend on SEO when you can afford it properly.
Do I need to sign a contract?
You shouldn't have to. Ask to go month to month. If the answer is no, ask why the work needs a legal obligation to keep you.
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Want to know what yours would cost?
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you without looking. [Request a free website and SEO audit](/free-website-seo-audit) and I'll review your site by hand and tell you what's worth doing, in what order — and whether you need ongoing help or just a few fixes.