Each of the four has a place on a written quote, and checking those places is how you judge the quote in front of you. The quote should come after someone has looked at your site. We review your site and your search visibility before we recommend any work, and we put the price in writing before anything starts.
| What moves the price | Where it shows on a written quote |
|---|---|
| Your market | Markets covered: the locations and audiences the work is for |
| Your competition | Starting point: the searches the plan targets, and what the review of your site and visibility found |
| Your content needs | Monthly work: the pages to improve or create, and the ongoing tasks |
| Your website's condition | Foundation work on the site, plus a separate one-time project if the site needs replacing |
How SEO pricing is structured on a quote
A monthly retainer and a one-time project are two forms an SEO quote can take. A monthly retainer is a recurring fee for ongoing work. A one-time project is one price for a defined job with an end, such as a new website. The fee line on your quote should say which one you're looking at, and the written list of work says what that fee covers.
The difference matters when you compare two amounts. A price for rebuilding a website and a monthly fee for improving how that website shows up in search pay for different jobs. If a quote includes both, each should have its own list of work and its own fee so you can see which charge continues after the build.
A monthly fee is easiest to judge next to a written list of that month's work. When repairs are finished or other pages need attention, that list should explain any changes to the agreed work. A written list of agreed work gives you a record you can hold the agency to. Our SEO services page shows what a monthly SEO plan covers.
How the market you want to reach changes the cost of SEO
The locations and audiences you want to reach, locally or nationwide, set how much there is to build and keep up. A business with one location needs the quote to name the area and the customers it wants. A company with many locations needs the quote to say which locations are covered. For a home service company with several services and service areas, we go through this in how we market home service companies.
A brand selling nationwide needs its audience defined just as clearly. Ask for a written list of work that names the products or services the pages will cover and who those pages are for. "Nationwide" on its own doesn't tell you how much writing is involved.
Each added location brings information that needs checking and keeping up to date. To reach another audience, you may also need pages that explain a different part of your business.
On the quote, your market shows under Markets covered. That line lists the locations, service areas or audiences the fee is for. If you talked about customers nationwide and the written quote covers the area around one office, settle that before you judge the fee.
How your competition changes the cost of SEO
The more competition there is in the searches you care about, the more work it takes to appear in them. If the sites already showing up for those searches explain a service thoroughly and yours barely mentions it, catching up is a bigger job. A good quote ties what the review found to the pages it recommends working on.
The Starting point is where competition appears on the quote. That section names the searches the plan targets and says what the review found about where you stand in them. "Your industry is competitive" is too broad to explain a fee.
Google's Search Central documentation, on its page "Do you need an SEO?", says: "An SEO audit should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved." Those estimates help you judge the proposed fee.
How the content you need changes the monthly cost of SEO
The amount of writing depends on what your pages already explain and what's missing. An existing service page might need a fuller explanation. A product line might need pages that don't exist yet. Those are different writing jobs, and you want the quote to tell them apart.
On the quote, content shows under Monthly work, with the pages named and what will be done to each. "More content" leaves too much unanswered. "Expand the service page because it doesn't say what customers can buy" is a piece of writing you can discuss.
When you add a service or change a product, the pages about it need updating, and reaching more of your market can call for new pages. That is why content work can continue after the first set of pages is finished. The monthly fee should cover the pages and updates agreed for that month. The list of this month's work says which pages get attention now, and why.
How the condition of your website changes the cost of SEO
Problems with your site's structure or speed add repair work to the quote. A problem like that is worth fixing before you add pages that would inherit it.
Your website's condition has its own line, Foundation work on the site, with each problem named next to its repair. "Improve technical SEO" doesn't tell you what will be repaired. You should be able to follow what is being fixed, even if someone has to explain a term to you.
Building on a site costs less than replacing it. So if someone recommends replacing yours, ask why the current one can't support the planned changes.
If the site does have to be replaced, that is web design and development work, and it belongs under a separate One-time project line with its own list of work and its own fee. The quote should also say which repairs the monthly fee covers.
Why SEO costs what it does
SEO costs what it does because the fee pays for people's work on your site, and none of it buys a place in the search results. Google's Search Central documentation, on the same page, states: "Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results." No line on an SEO quote should be a payment to Google for a place in its unpaid search results.
The work is reviewing your site, writing and rewriting pages, and finding and fixing what is wrong with it. On a written quote, that work appears as named pages and named repairs.
Ad spend is not part of the SEO price
Paid search is a separate line of work, and its ad spend goes directly to Google. For Google Ads management, we quote our fee separately, so the two numbers are shown apart. On a quote, look for Ad spend, billed by Google on its own line.
How to read an SEO quote or proposal
A proposal should show account ownership, the fee structure, the monthly work, and the reporting. The opening sections, the starting point and the markets covered, explain what the site review found and which customers the work is meant to reach. Those two sections tell you whether the pages and repairs further down are aimed at the job you want done.
The monthly work comes next. It tells you which pages someone plans to change and what they plan to do to them, so you can compare it with the priorities you discussed. Look here, or under the one-time project, for any repair that came up in conversation.
Then come the fees, each one next to the work it covers. When two proposals name different pages or different repairs, the totals aren't comparable until you've sorted out that difference. It can be as plain as a website rebuild that one proposal includes and the other leaves out.
Ownership belongs in writing as well: the domain, the website, the content and the accounts. With JAWC, you own your domain, your site and your content.
The reporting section says how you'll check the work once it begins. Each month, our report shows the work completed, changes in your search visibility, and the inquiries we can track, in plain English. You can read that report against the written list of work.
If a conversation changes which pages are included, or moves a repair into a separate project, the written quote should change with it. What you sign should be the same work you just talked about.
What to question on an SEO quote before you sign
A promised search position is a reason to question the quote. Google's documentation states: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."
A fee needs a list of the pages and repairs it covers. Without one, you have nothing to compare the fee with. Ask for it in writing before you agree to anything.
The same Google page says: "Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do." Expect the person proposing the work to explain what each change does and why your site needs it.
How to get an SEO quote for your business
We start with a free visibility report. It checks where your business ranks on Google for the searches that matter and whether it appears in the Google Maps pack. It also checks whether AI answers mention your business or a competitor, and how your reviews and profile compare locally.
After that, we review your site and your search visibility before we recommend any work. Your goals and what we find shape the work we recommend. We explain the work we recommend and its price before you decide, and we put the number in writing before anything starts.
Where you rank on Google for the searches that matter
We audit your site and your search results first. The work and the price come to you in writing.
Built in-house by our U.S. team, doing this since 2011.