How much does SEO cost in the UK? Why the honest answer is a range of ranges
There is no meaningful single UK SEO price. A small November 2026 sample included local SEO from £399 + VAT a month and an SEO/PPC launch offer at £595. Two other examples were AI-search-specific retainers starting at £700 + VAT and £1,500 + VAT. These are different packages, not a representative UK market range.
On this page
The question is simple. The honest answer is not, and most of the guides at the top of the results are written by SEO agencies with a stake in what you decide. We are an agency too, so here is the method and its limits, and you can judge for yourself.
What we sampled
We collected a small non-random selection of advertised UK SEO and AI-search prices on 8 November 2026 and rechecked the original supplier pages on 10 November 2026. We found them through ordinary searches, not at random, so this is a sample of advertised prices, not a market average, and certainly not a list of what anybody actually pays.
| Supplier | Advertised wording | What the page says is included | Term and VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dandy — local SEO | “From £399 + VAT a month” | Google Business Profile, citations, two blog posts, one or two links monthly, technical fixes and AI-search work | Rolling monthly; national and e-commerce services priced separately |
| T40 — SEO/PPC launch | “£595/month for SEO or PPC”; “£1,450/month” combined with two articles | Setup, technical audit, tracking for 20 keywords, reporting and quarterly strategy in its published launch scope | VAT treatment not established; ask for a quote |
| built by humans — AI-search/AEO | “From £700 + VAT a month” | Daily tracking of 30 prompts across four AI engines, four articles, a press release, technical AEO and reporting | AI-search-specific work, not an equivalent core SEO retainer |
| Otter Labs — GEO/AI-search | “Retainers start from £1,500 + VAT per month” | Initial audit, ongoing content, schema, multi-engine tracking, quarterly reviews | Six-month minimum; not ordinary SEO management |
One further supplier, ProntX, blocked our reader, so we have not used a number from it. Two rows above are AI-search-specific retainers rather than conventional SEO management. This sample tells you how different the scopes can be; it cannot establish a typical £399–£1,500 UK SEO price band.
Why the same word covers wildly different prices
A monthly fee can buy very different things. These are the main drivers:
- Size and complexity of the site. Twenty pages and twenty thousand are different jobs. Online shops with filters and variants are harder again.
- Competition. Ranking for a searched-for phrase that dozens of well-funded businesses want costs more effort than a phrase few contest.
- How much content is written. Two articles a month and ten are different budgets.
- Technical work. An audit is one thing. Having someone fix what it finds, on your platform, is another. For a rebuild or platform move, see the website migration SEO checklist: redirects, URL preservation and indexation need their own plan.
- Links and mentions. What is done, how, and whether it is the kind of activity search engines would call natural.
- Reporting and strategy. A dashboard emailed monthly is not the same as someone interpreting it.
- Who does the work. Senior specialist time, a junior account team, or software with a person checking the output.
Two quotes at £600 and £1,500 may therefore be the same price per unit of useful work, or not. You cannot tell from the headline.
Three ways of charging
| Model | What it suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Project (an audit, a migration, a rebuild) | One-off problems with a clear end | Whether implementation is included or just a document |
| Monthly retainer | Ongoing work, where priorities change as you learn | What is actually delivered each month, and the minimum term |
| Hourly or day rate | Bounded specialist advice or agreed technical time | Scope, output and exclusions still need defining |
SMB normally charges a flat monthly fee per channel with a three-month minimum. That is our chosen commercial model, not proof that hourly or project pricing is inferior.
Questions to ask before you accept a quote
- What exactly is included each month, written down?
- What is excluded, and what would trigger an extra charge?
- Who will do the work, and who will I speak to?
- How long is the minimum term, and what happens when it ends?
- What happens to the content, links and set-up if we stop?
- Will my own accounts and data stay in my name, and will I have full access?
- How will progress be judged? If the answer is only rankings, ask what rankings are for.
For SMB’s scope and responsibilities, see How we work.
Warning signs
- A guaranteed ranking or a guaranteed date. See Google’s own advice on hiring an SEO for why rankings cannot be guaranteed.
- A price that cannot cover the work promised. Weekly articles, links, audits and reporting for the cost of a few hours a month do not add up.
- Link packages. Fixed numbers of links bought per month.
- Opaque reporting. A traffic chart without a connection to enquiries or sales.
- No access. An agency that holds your analytics, search console or site and will not share it.
Whether SEO is the right spend at all
Price is only half of the question. For some businesses paid search is a better first step, and for some neither is. Our SEO or paid search decision helper shows its reasoning so you can disagree with it, and the argument is set out in SEO or PPC for a small business.
What SMB does
SMB charges a flat monthly management fee per channel, with a three-month minimum to begin. We do not publish a rate card, because scope varies too much for a headline price to mean anything, and we quote after understanding the work. That is a business choice, not a claim that it is cheaper or better than what is above.
How this guide could be wrong
These offers were rechecked on 10 November 2026, but may change. This deliberately small and mixed sample is not a representative UK market survey. Confirm current prices, VAT, service scope and contract terms directly with each supplier before drawing conclusions.
