SEO pricing is confusing because the work spans audits, strategy, implementation, and reporting. Clients often compare you to tools, not to consultants. This calculator helps you find a rate that reflects the actual value of what you deliver.
// frequently asked questions
Should I charge hourly or by retainer for SEO?
Retainers are the standard for ongoing SEO work because results compound over months. Hourly works for audits and one-off projects. The risk with hourly retainers is scope creep: clients add requests that inflate your hours. Define deliverables clearly and price by output, not by time logged.
How do I price an SEO audit?
Estimate the hours required to audit the site at your hourly rate, then add a deliverable premium of 20-30%. A 10-page audit that took 8 hours at $80/hr should not be billed at $640: it should be $800-850, because the document has ongoing value beyond the hours. Audits are assets, not timesheets.
How do I justify my rate when clients compare me to cheap tools?
Tools find problems. You solve them. Ahrefs can identify a technical issue in seconds; fixing it, prioritising it within a site's context, and explaining it to a non-technical client takes expertise. Price your judgment, not your access to software.
What billable percentage should I assume?
SEO specialists typically bill 55-70% of their working hours. The rest goes to research, algorithm updates, tool maintenance, and client communication that does not fit neatly into a deliverable. Factor this into your rate from the start.
// how does SEO specialist pricing compare to content strategist?
SEO specialists and content strategists overlap significantly, especially around keyword research and content planning. The key difference is technical depth: an SEO specialist is expected to read a crawl report, understand Core Web Vitals, and diagnose indexing issues. A
content strategist focuses on editorial planning and audience alignment. If you do both, charge the higher SEO rate for technical work and consider whether the content strategy work is worth unbundling.