You’ve already read our article on what SEO actually is, picked up some tips on how to do it, and explored the SEO tools you need — only to realise you might not be able to handle it on your own? Or maybe you simply want to know how much the SEO cost will actually be? Then you’re in the right place. We’ll break down the cost of SEO work for e-shops, content websites, and business sites alike. We’ll explain why the prices are what they are and what a solid SEO specialist should bring to the table.
What Does SEO Work Actually Include
SEO is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses both technical and content SEO. Very few agencies or specialists can deliver both, because content SEO requires the specialist to also have a strong grasp of copywriting. So keep that in mind. Here’s everything SEO work typically involves:
Keyword Research
This is where it all begins. An SEO specialist should carry out in-depth keyword research that identifies the relevant keywords and phrases your potential customers are using when searching for the products you sell or the content you offer online.
From this research, a content strategy is built for your website or e-shop. Why is strategy so important? The SEO specialist identifies low-competition keywords to target first, so search engines begin to recognise you as an authority in your niche. Once you’ve built up some authority, you can start going after higher-volume, more competitive terms.
Sample Keyword Research: What It Should Look Like
A word of warning: Keyword research is often done poorly. If some “SEO specialist” delivers only a few dozen keywords with no categorisation, they probably don’t know what they’re doing. Worried that you didn’t receive a comprehensive enough analysis?
We’ve prepared a sample keyword research document in the format we actually use ourselves. The sample analysis covers the topic of accounting. It’s available for free on Discord for subscribers of our Patreon.
SEO Content Creation and Content Planning
A blog content plan is an absolute must if you want to approach building a profitable website in a systematic and efficient way.
From the keyword research, an SEO specialist knows what people are searching for, including the keyword difficulty (KD). Based on that, they should create a content plan and a roadmap for your blog.
They should prioritise keywords that are easiest to rank for — those where you can reach the top positions in search engines as quickly as possible. Of course, you also need to factor in other considerations, such as which topics generate the highest margins (especially if you run an e-shop).
Then comes the creation of high-quality, relevant, and engaging content that’s optimised for keywords and covers the topic so thoroughly that readers have no need to look elsewhere.
The worst thing that can happen at this stage is an SEO specialist or copywriter selling you mediocre content just for the sake of publishing something.
That’s utterly useless. SEO content needs to be the best piece of content on the topic — at least within your market. If you’re unsure what that looks like, we’ve written a guide on our Patreon on how to craft the perfect SEO article.
Also watch out for purely AI-generated articles. It’s perfectly fine to use ChatGPT as a writing aid, but publishing an unedited AI article is not acceptable. Artificial intelligence is merely a tool to improve the quality of your output — its work should never be treated as final or ready to publish.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO may be becoming less of a differentiator over time, but if your site is slow, poorly optimised for mobile, or has a weak structure, you’ll be penalised. That’s why it’s one of the first things to address — it can deliver quick wins in SEO.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to activities outside your website that help improve your search engine rankings. This includes sharing content on social media and, importantly, link building. Link building is the strategy of acquiring backlinks — getting other websites to link to yours.
When other sites link to you, they send a signal to search engines that your site is important. The more authoritative the linking site, the more valuable the backlink.
When it comes to link building, make sure your SEO specialist isn’t selling you links from low-quality websites. Link building only works if the links are genuinely high-quality.
Without link building, results come very slowly indeed.
Local SEO
If you run a shop, restaurant, bar, or café, you should definitely pay attention to local SEO. Not every SEO specialist focuses on it, so finding the right person to work with may take some effort.
Why does it matter? Because you want to be discoverable in the town or neighbourhood where your business is located. Optimising your website for searches within a specific geographic area is therefore essential.
Tracking, Analysis, and Optimisation
SEO needs to be measured using the right SEO tools. Google Analytics and Google Search Console aren’t enough on their own, as they only show you how your overall search traffic is moving.
Dedicated SEO tools let you track how you’re climbing for specific keywords, how many keywords your articles and pages are ranking for, and they allow you to refine and improve your content based on real data.
How Much Do SEO Specialists Charge
SEO specialists typically charge between €20 and €200 per hour, depending on the scope of work and the level of expertise required.
How Much Does SEO Cost
It’s extremely difficult to give a definitive answer on how much SEO costs. We recommend checking out our content website packages to get an idea. But here are some typical price ranges for individual services.
How Much Does Keyword Research Cost
Keyword research is one of the most expensive items — a thorough one will set you back at least €1,200, with part of the cost covering analytical tools. It also involves dozens of hours of manual work, which an experienced specialist can streamline with scripts and automation, but even so, larger keyword analyses rarely take fewer than 15 hours.
How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost
Another significant expense is the SEO audit, which typically includes:
- Technical analysis (examining site architecture, performing crawls, reviewing no-index pages, pages returning 404 errors and broken links, evaluating URL structure and page load speed including JS and CSS files, image and video sizes, plus various other e-shop-specific aspects),
- Content analysis (category and product titles, meta titles and descriptions for search engines, alt text on images and videos, content pages and internal linking, with attention paid to crawl depth, redirects, use of filters, and parametric filter pages for landing pages),
- Backlink profile analysis (checking whether spammy links are pointing to the site and what the overall link portfolio looks like),
- and verification that the site is properly connected to systems like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Overall, the goal of an SEO audit is to identify and fix issues that could negatively impact organic search performance. These audits can cost anywhere from €200 to €2,000 depending on the size of the website or e-shop. The average price sits around €800.
How Much Does an SEO Content Strategy Cost
The last major line item is creating a content strategy based on keyword research. This involves combining keyword data with competitor analysis and business priorities. Content strategies typically cost between €400 and €800.
Once your keyword research, SEO audit, and content strategy are done, the monthly cost depends entirely on how many issues need fixing and how much content you’ll be creating together with your SEO specialist.
How Much Does a Quality SEO Article Cost
You can buy articles at all sorts of prices online — any freelance copywriter will write one for a few dozen pounds. But most of the time, it won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. If you want a quality SEO article, you need to understand that it involves:
- Mini keyword research,
- competitor analysis,
- crafting an optimal article structure,
- writing the article itself,
- publishing it on the website,
- optimising images and links for SEO,
- internal linking,
- adding it to SEO tracking tools.
That’s why quality SEO articles typically cost around €120–€200 when all the above services are included. As a general rule, one excellent article is far better than ten that no one ever finds through search engines.
SEO Cost Per Month: What to Expect
As mentioned above, once you have your keyword research, SEO audit, and content strategy in place, the monthly SEO cost depends entirely on how many issues need fixing and how much content you’ll be producing with your specialist.
At our agency, LK MEDIA, monthly budgets start at around €600, which includes basic fixes and 3–4 articles.
Checklist: How to Write a Quality Optimised Article on WordPress or Shoptet
Are you a copywriter, blogger, or e-shop owner who wants to create quality articles that maximise your chances of earning organic traffic? We’ve prepared checklists from our own workflow for WordPress and Shoptet — for the price of a coffee (about €2.50).
How Long Before You See SEO Results
Generally, the earliest you can expect to see any SEO results is around 3 months, with most meaningful progress appearing after 6 months. It heavily depends on the quality and authority of the domain you’re starting with.
If you’re starting on a brand-new domain, expect a minimum of 6 months before you see any results. Highly competitive niches (weight loss, parenting, gambling) or topics related to health and finance (known as YMYL topics) take even longer.
On the other hand, if you’re working with an established e-shop or building a site for a well-known personality (one that Google already recognises), you might see results within a month or two, especially in a low-competition space.
The volume of work matters too. If you’re only publishing one article a month, you might not see results even after six months. The sweet spot is 4–8 articles per month during the first 6 months. For brand-new domains, we recommend starting with 8–10.
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
