What does SEO cost?

Why SEO has no single price

SEO is a label covering at least five separate jobs, and they do not cost the same. Finding out why a site is invisible costs less than fixing it. Fixing it costs less than keeping it fixed. A single number that covers all three is a number for a programme, not for a task.

• Visibility work. Crawlability, entity and schema correctness, query gaps against named competitors, and whether AI assistants name you or somebody else.
• Site performance. Core Web Vitals, render path, third-party script weight, and the fixes that follow.
• Measurement. GA4 and Google Tag Manager configured so the numbers are true, with Consent Mode v2 wired correctly.
• Accessibility. WCAG 2.2 AA scanning, manual keyboard and screen-reader testing, then remediation in code.
• Continuous AI visibility tracking. Category prompt panels run on a fixed schedule across the major assistants.

Two quotes for SEO can differ by a factor of ten and both be honest, because they are quoting different jobs. The comparison only becomes useful once each side writes down what is delivered.

The three ways SEO gets priced

• Hourly. You buy time. Suits small defined fixes. The risk is that the total is unknown until the work is finished.
• Fixed-scope project. You buy a defined deliverable for a stated price. The risk sits with the supplier, so the scope has to be written down before anyone starts.
• Monthly retainer. You buy continuing attention. Suits work that degrades as the site changes, which visibility, tracking and accessibility all do.

NovaLab uses the second and third. Diagnostics and projects are fixed scope, so the number does not move once the scope is agreed in writing. Continuing work is monthly. The one hourly figure on the site is the $175 overage rate on the $350 a month Care Plan, which covers one hour of small fixes per month.

What NovaLab charges to start

Those are the entry steps, not the full list. Every tier of every service, including the retainers and the fixed-scope projects, is on the pricing page. The method behind each one is on the services overview.

What moves a quote up or down

Four things change the number on a fixed-scope SEO engagement, and all four are knowable before anyone quotes.

• Template count. Accessibility and performance work is priced per distinct template, not per page. A site with 8 templates and 800 pages costs less to fix than a site with 40 templates and 80 pages.
• Custom component libraries. A bespoke widget set takes longer to test and longer to correct than a standard framework component.
• Competitor set size. A visibility panel for a category with forty named competitors takes longer to build than one with four.
• Decisions on your side. A measurement plan needs somebody who knows the business to agree what gets counted. That approval time is usually the longest part of a tracking rebuild.

What contact for pricing usually means

Three things, in roughly this order of frequency. The price changes depending on how large the buyer looks. The scope is genuinely unknown until somebody looks at the site. Or the number is high enough that the seller wants a relationship established before saying it.

The second reason is legitimate. The fix is a paid diagnostic that establishes the scope for a small published fee, which is how NovaLab handles it. Every other price on this site is stated in full, in US dollars, with no form in front of it.

Questions people ask

How much should I pay for SEO per month?

That depends on which job you are buying. NovaLab's monthly figures run from $350 for a site care plan, through $500 for tracking monitoring and $1,200 for accessibility monitoring, up to $4,000 a month for the full visibility programme. Continuous AI assistant tracking is separate at $3,000 a month. Every one of those is published rather than quoted on request.

Why do SEO prices vary so much between agencies?

Because the word covers several different jobs and nobody agrees on which ones are included. One quote might be content writing. Another might be technical remediation. A third might be a monthly report with no implementation attached. Comparing two SEO prices is only useful once both sides have written down what is actually being delivered.

What is the cheapest way to start with SEO?

A paid diagnostic rather than a retainer. NovaLab's cheapest is the $250 Tracking Health Check, which verifies whether your analytics can even measure the work. Visibility and performance diagnostics are $400 each. Accessibility opens at $300. Four of those five fees are credited against the engagement that follows, so the diagnostic is not money spent twice.

Should I pay per hour or on a monthly retainer?

Hourly suits small, defined fixes. A retainer suits work that has to keep happening, because visibility, tracking and accessibility all degrade as a site changes. NovaLab prices one-off work as fixed scope rather than hourly, so the number does not move once the scope is agreed, and prices continuing work monthly.

Do SEO agencies charge for the audit?

Practice varies. A free audit is usually a sales document, because nobody spends real time on work they are not paid for. NovaLab charges for every diagnostic and credits four of the five fees against what follows. The $400 Visibility Snapshot, the $400 Performance Diagnostic, the $250 Tracking Health Check and the $300 Accessibility Risk Check all work that way.

What is not included in an SEO price?

Third-party costs you would pay regardless. Hosting, a content delivery network, a server-side tagging endpoint, screen-reader or scanning tool licences where your own stack does not cover them, and any paid media. NovaLab quotes its own fee and names which third-party costs a given option adds before you commit to it.

Can I buy SEO as a one-off project?

Yes, for the parts that have a definite end. A GA4 and Google Tag Manager rebuild at $2,500, a Fix Sprint at $1,800, a Performance Overhaul at $3,500 and accessibility Remediation at $4,500 are all fixed-scope one-offs. Visibility work is the exception, because a competitor set and an assistant index both keep moving after you stop paying attention.

Where to go next

This guide covers the money. Three other NovaLab guides cover the questions that usually come with it. What is AI visibility explains what is being measured when an assistant recommends somebody in your category. Why traffic fell while rankings held covers the most common diagnostic question. Accessibility compliance deadlines states the two regulations that carry dates.