How much does SEO cost? Real prices and traps

From €290 to over €3,000 a month: what explains the gaps, what SEO support really contains, and the three signals that give away a dubious offer.

How much does SEO cost? Real prices and traps

SEO support costs between €290 and €900 per month for an SME, and between €900 and €3,000 for an e-commerce site or a competitive market. A one-off engagement, audit or technical optimisation, sits between €400 and €2,500 depending on the size of the website. These ranges cover very different realities: here is what they actually contain.

Prices per type of service

ServiceWhat it includesPriceWhen to use it
SEO auditTechnical, content and competitor analysis, prioritised action plan€400 to €2,500Before any decision
Technical optimisationSpeed, tags, structure, structured data, redirects€600 to €3,000Once, after the audit
CopywritingKeyword research and writing, per page€60 to €120 per pageOngoing
Link buildingLink acquisition, partner articles€200 to €1,500 per monthAfter the content
Monthly supportAll of the above, managed, with reporting€290 to €3,000 per monthLong-term goal

What makes the price vary

The competitiveness of your market

Ranking for "locksmith Paris" takes ten times the work of "locksmith Guéret". The number of established competitors, their seniority and their budget determine the effort required.

The starting state of your website

A recent, fast, well-structured website starts with an advantage. An old, slow, poorly tagged site needs weeks of repair first. A redesign is sometimes cheaper than the repair.

The volume of content to produce

This is the main line item. Ten pages to write is not the same budget as a hundred city or product pages.

Ambition

Page one on three local queries, or first place nationally on twenty queries, do not carry the same price.

Three signals of a dubious offer

A guarantee of first place. Nobody controls Google's ranking. An agency guaranteeing the top spot is guaranteeing something outside its control, or targeting queries nobody searches.

A €99 per month package. At that rate there is no time left to write or to analyse. These offers usually amount to an automated report sent each month, with no real action behind it.

No explanation of what will be done. A serious proposal details the deliverables month by month. If yours fits on one line, ask for the detail before signing.

How to judge a proposal

  1. Are the deliverables listed? Number of pages written, links targeted, technical points covered.
  2. Are the target keywords named? And are they reachable given your market?
  3. Is reporting planned? Rankings, traffic, and above all enquiries received.
  4. What happens if you leave? Content and access must remain yours.
  5. Is the commitment reasonable? Six months is an honest minimum, twenty-four an unnecessary constraint.

SEO or advertising

CriterionSEOGoogle Ads
First result3 to 6 monthsSame day
Cost per visitorFalls over timeConstant, sometimes rising
When the budget stopsTraffic holdsTraffic drops to zero
Best useDurable assetLaunch, seasonality, testing

The two complement each other. Advertising keeps the business running while SEO takes hold.

The calculation that matters

The real indicator is not the monthly cost but the cost per enquiry received. Support at €600 a month producing fifteen enquiries works out at €40 each. If your average order is €2,000, the question answers itself.

Before committing, request an audit: it will tell you what is achievable in your market and on what horizon. See also our SEO offer and our pricing.

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