What should SEO actually cost in 2026?
An honest breakdown of agency pricing models, what each buys you, and how to tell when you're overpaying.
By Go Vista AI
Nobody publishes prices, which is exactly why buyers can't compare. Here's how the numbers really work, including ours.
£1,000
the realistic monthly floor for a managed campaign that can move anything
Source · Go Vista AI
Below roughly a thousand a month you're buying a few hours of someone's attention. That can be enough for a small local business with a clean site. It is not enough to compete in a contested market, and any agency claiming otherwise is selling reporting, not results.
Model 01
Monthly retainer
The default, and usually the right one. You're buying continuous strategy, technical work, content and links. It works because search compounds — the value comes from consistency, not from a burst of activity.
- Best for: businesses treating search as a core channel
- Typical range: £1,000 to £8,000 per month
- Watch for: retainers with no defined deliverables
Model 02
Project or sprint
A technical audit, a migration, a content architecture rebuild. Fixed scope, fixed price, clear end point. Excellent value when you have in-house capacity to implement afterwards.
- Best for: one specific, diagnosable problem
- Typical range: £3,000 to £20,000
- Watch for: audits delivered as a PDF and abandoned
Model 03
Performance-based
Superficially attractive, usually a trap. Payment tied to rankings encourages chasing easy keywords nobody searches for. Payment tied to revenue can work, but only with genuinely clean attribution on both sides.
Be careful
If an agency will only get paid on results, they will optimise for the metric in the contract — not for your business. Make sure the metric is revenue.
How to tell you're overpaying
Not by the invoice. By what's inside it.
You can't name the person doing your work
The monthly report is longer than the monthly output
Deliverables are described as 'ongoing optimisation'
Nobody has said no to one of your ideas in six months
You've never been shown something that didn't work
Our position
Fees start at £1,000 a month, deliverables are written down, and you speak to the people doing the work. If that's not what you're getting elsewhere, you're paying for overhead.
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