How much does SEO cost in the UK?

Usually somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds a month.

In our experience, freelancers often charge £300 to £1,000 a month, smaller agencies £1,000 to £2,500, and larger agencies £3,000 and up. Our own SEO plans run from £1,200 to £3,500 + VAT a month, with AI search included in every one.

What you get at each level

Under £500 a month. Usually a few hours of work: some tidying up, a couple of blog posts and a report. Fine for a very small local business with little competition.
£1,000 to £2,500 a month. Proper ongoing work: technical fixes, new pages and content, your Google Business Profile, links from other websites and reporting that ties back to enquiries.
£3,000 and up. For competitive industries, several locations or national reach, with more content, more outreach and more strategy.

What changes the price

How competitive your market is. Ranking for plumbers in a small town is a different job to ranking for solicitors in London.
How many services and places you want to be found for. Each one needs its own page and its own effort.
The state of your website. If it’s slow, messy or missing pages, that needs fixing first.
How much content you need. Useful pages and articles are what rank, and they take time to do well.
AI search. Being recommended by ChatGPT and Google’s AI now needs its own work. Ours is included.

The red flags

I once met a business owner fresh from five agency calls. All five had promised him number 1 on Google.

Nobody can promise that. Google decides, not the agency. Other warning signs:

Guaranteed rankings, or results “in two weeks”.
Cheap packages that don’t say what’s actually being done each month.
Reports full of rankings and traffic, but nothing about enquiries.
Long contracts with no way out if it isn’t working.

How long until it works?

Quick wins, like fixing your Google Business Profile or a broken page, can help within weeks. Meaningful movement usually takes a few months, and it keeps compounding after that. SEO is a long game, which is exactly why it’s worth starting properly.

Is it worth it?

Work out what a new customer is worth to you. If one extra customer a month covers the cost, and SEO keeps bringing them in month after month, it’s one of the best investments you can make.

For Woodford Recycling, a new website and an SEO rebuild took them from 2 or 3 online orders a month to as many as 18 in six months. And we rank in the top three for “SEO Cambridge” ourselves, so we practise what we preach.

Quick answers

Is SEO a monthly cost? Usually, yes. One-off fixes help, but the businesses that win keep going.

Can I do SEO myself? The basics, yes: a good Google Business Profile, reviews and clear service pages. The rest takes time most business owners don’t have.

Is SEO still worth it with AI? More than ever. Read Is SEO dead? to see why.

See our SEO plans and prices, or get a free Growth Audit to find out what would make the biggest difference for you.