In this article (13 sections)
You have three pricing pages open. One lists a tier called Essentials. One says "from" and a number. The third won't show a price until you book a call. Every agency calls its offer an SEO package, and no two of them count the same thing.
So we read the published SEO packages of 14 US agencies, on their own pricing pages, between 18 and 26 October 2026. We wrote down the price, what each tier counts, the contract and the setup fee. Here is what the market actually sells, and how to compare two offers before you sign.
Quick answer: SEO packages from agencies that publish a price start at a median of $1,250 a month (13 agencies, range $299 to $3,000, October 2026). The price tells you little on its own: 7 packages count links, posts or keywords, 3 only describe scope, and 1 guarantees rankings on two keywords. Compare what is counted, the contract, the setup fee and whether your Google Business Profile is included.
Not sure which package your site needs? We'll check your site, your Business Profile and your tracking, and tell you what to fix first, even if you never hire us. Get a free SEO audit
What do SEO packages cost? 14 agencies side by side
The median entry package is $1,250 a month, but the spread in what you get is wider than the spread in price.
Every figure below comes from the agency's own website. Where a page contradicts itself, we say so.
Which SEO packages are cheapest, and which cost most?
| Agency | Entry price a month | What a tier counts | Contract | Setup fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boostability | $299 self-guided; Professional "from $600" (its FAQ says $1,200) | Features, no counts | Not stated | Not stated |
| Flexsin | $400 to $1,200 | "2 keywords guaranteed top 10" at $400 | Not stated | Not stated |
| Loganix | $500 or $1,000 | 2 links a month | Month to month, 30 days | $500 |
| Thrive | From $500 | Not stated | Month to month | Not stated |
| LYFE Marketing | $600 to $2,400 | Priced by keywords, blogs and links | No long-term contract | Not stated |
| Pronto Marketing | $1,099 / $1,499 / $1,899 | 2, 4 or 6 links; 10 citations; 1 post a month | Not stated | $775 to $975 |
| Websults | $1,250 / $2,000 / $3,500 | 10, 25 or 50+ keywords; 1, 2 or 4 posts a month | Not stated | Not stated |
| Digitaleer | $1,500 / $2,500 / $5,000 | Activities, no counts | Month to month, 30 days | "No setup fees" |
| Firestarter SEO | $1,500 / $2,500 / $3,500 | 3, 6 or 10 guest posts a month | 12 months | Not stated |
| OuterBox | $2,000 / $3,000 / $7,000+ | Scope: 1 to 3 local markets | Month to month | Not stated |
| Hook Agency | From $2,800 (local SEO) | Not stated | 12 months, then monthly | Not stated |
| WebFX | $2,900 for months 3 to 6, after $8,600 a month for months 1 and 2 | Up to 150 keyphrases, 30 pages | 6 months | Front-loaded |
| Searchbloom | From $3,000 | No tiers | "No lengthy contracts" | Not stated |
| Agency Platform (white-label, sold to agencies) | $178 to $652 | Local SEO only | Month to month | None |
Sources: each company's own pricing page, read 18 and 26 October 2026 (Flexsin, Thrive, Hook, Pronto, Loganix, Websults, Firestarter, Digitaleer, OuterBox, WebFX, Boostability). Straight North, The HOTH, SEO.co, Main Street ROI and EZ Marketing blocked our checker, so they are not in the table.
How did we check the prices?
Only numbers printed on each agency's own site, read on two dates in October 2026, with no sales calls and no review sites.
We opened each pricing page, copied the price, the tier names, the counted deliverables, the contract term and the setup fee, and saved the source URL. "Not stated" means the page we read did not say, not that the agency has no answer.
Two pages disagreed with themselves. Boostability's pricing card shows Professional "Starting at $600," while the FAQ on the same page says "Professional plans start at $1,200." Digitaleer's page says both "no setup fees" and "No setup fees over $1k." We report the card price and the date, because that is what you will see too.
Victorious and Ignite Visibility publish ranges instead of packages. Victorious recommends "at least $6,000 a month" and a 12-month campaign; Ignite says "$2,000 to $10,000+." They are useful context, not packages, so they sit outside the median.
Why do some SEO packages count units and others promise rankings?
Every package we read is one of three things: a list of counted units, a description of scope, or a ranking guarantee.
1. Counted units (7 of 14). Pronto counts links and citations, Loganix counts links, Websults counts keywords, pages and posts, Firestarter counts guest posts, LYFE prices by keywords, blogs and links, WebFX counts keyphrases and optimized pages, and Flexsin counts keywords. Units are easy to compare: divide the price by what you get. They are also easy to game, because ten weak links count the same as ten good ones.
2. Scope lists (3 of 14). OuterBox, Digitaleer and Boostability describe the work without numbers. OuterBox's Essentials covers "one to three local markets." Digitaleer argues that "Performance pricing creates the wrong incentive." That is a fair point, but it means you cannot tell what $1,500 buys that $2,500 does not until you ask.
3. Ranking guarantees (1 of 14). Flexsin sells "2 keywords guaranteed top 10" at $400 a month, with more guaranteed keywords higher up. A guarantee sounds safe. In practice the agency picks keywords nobody searches, and those are cheap to rank. Ranking first for your own business name plus your city brings no customer who did not already know you. A guarantee is worth something only if you choose the keywords and they have real search volume.
"A package price is a promise about inputs. What you need to know is which inputs, and whether any of them reach your phone."
Our view: counted units are the easiest to hold an agency to, as long as the report also shows calls and forms. A long list of units with no link to enquiries is still a guess.
What do local SEO packages include?
Seven of the nine tiered agencies we read on 26 October include Google Business Profile work; link-only packages do not touch it.
For a business that serves a city, the map pack often brings more calls than the blue links. So the first thing to check in local SEO packages is whether your Business Profile is managed, and from which tier.
| What to look for | Who includes it (from their own pages) |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile optimization | Pronto, Websults, Firestarter and Boostability in every tier; Digitaleer from its $2,500 tier |
| Citations (directory listings) | Pronto: 10 a month; Firestarter: 4 to 7 a month |
| Local service or city pages | Websults: 1 to 3 "geo pages" by tier |
| Links only, no Business Profile work | Loganix |
| Local SEO sold separately | OuterBox |
Sources: own pricing pages, October 2026.
A link-only plan is not a bad product. It is a narrow one. If you buy it expecting map-pack calls, you will pay for months before you notice nobody touched your profile. Our local SEO services start with the profile for exactly that reason, and so does the citations work that keeps your name, address and phone the same everywhere.
Are cheap SEO packages affordable? The white-label math
Agencies can buy local SEO wholesale for $178 to $652 a month, so a $500 retail plan may be someone else's work with a markup.
Agency Platform, a white-label provider in our check, sells local SEO to agencies at $178, $296, $414, $545 and $652 a month, month to month, with no setup fee. Agencies resell that work under their own name.
That is legal and common. It explains why very cheap packages exist, and why they rarely include changes to your website: the wholesaler works on listings and posts, not on your pages. The difference between affordable SEO packages and cheap ones is usually not the price. It is whether anyone edits your site, fixes your speed and checks that the phone number on your pages can be tapped.
Ask any agency under about $600 a month one direct question: "Who does the work, and will they change my website?" A clear answer is a good sign.
Want a second opinion on a package you were quoted? Send us the proposal and your website. We'll tell you what it covers and what it leaves out. Get a free SEO audit
Should you sign a month-to-month or a 12-month SEO contract?
For a small business, month to month is the safer SEO contract: four of the nine tiered agencies offer it, one requires 12 months, and four do not say on the pricing page.
| Term or fee | What we found |
|---|---|
| Month to month | Loganix (30-day cancellation), Digitaleer (30-day notice), the white-label wholesaler, OuterBox |
| 12-month agreement | Firestarter ("We operate on a 12-month agreement"); Hook Agency 12 months, then monthly |
| 6-month commitment | WebFX, with months 1 and 2 at $8,600 each |
| Setup fee | Loganix $500; Pronto $775 to $975 |
| Not stated | Websults, Flexsin, Pronto (term), Boostability |
Sources: own pricing pages, October 2026.
The WebFX structure deserves a closer look. Its Silver tier is "$2,900 a month," but the first two months are $8,600 each. Over the six-month commitment that is about $20,200, or roughly $3,367 a month on average. Read every pricing table down to the first-month line.
A missing contract term is not neutral. It means you learn the commitment on the sales call, after you have decided you like the package.
Fixed price SEO packages or a custom quote: which should you ask for?
Fixed-price SEO packages let you budget today; "from" prices are an opening bid that changes after a call.
Pronto, Websults, Firestarter, Loganix and Digitaleer print fixed tier prices. Thrive ("from $500"), Hook ("starting price" $2,800) and Searchbloom ("from $3,000") print a floor. Neither is wrong. A custom quote can fit a business with five locations better than any tier. But you cannot compare a fixed $1,250 package with a "from $3,000" offer until the second number is real.
For a small business with one location, a fixed monthly SEO service is usually the safer start: you know the cost, and you can judge the work against it after three months.
How do you compare two SEO packages before you sign?
Run every offer through these before you sign. Write the answers next to each agency's name.
- Is the price fixed, or a "from" price that changes after a call?
- What exactly is counted each month: links, posts, pages, keywords?
- Is Google Business Profile management included, and from which tier?
- Will they change your website, or only send recommendations?
- How long is the contract, and how many days' notice to cancel?
- Is there a setup fee, and is it on the page or only in the proposal?
- If rankings are guaranteed, who picks the keywords, and how many people search them?
- Does the monthly report show calls and form submissions, or only rankings?
The cheapest price on a page rarely survives all eight questions.
Do monthly SEO services cover ChatGPT and AI Overviews?
More buyers now ask ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews before they search, and packages built only on links and rankings do not cover that.
An assistant can only name a business whose pages it can read. That means crawler access, the answers in the page text, schema and a fast site. None of the 14 packages we read counted any of this as a unit. Some may do it inside "technical SEO." Ask.
We think this belongs in every package from 2026 on. It is why our AI search optimization work is a fixed sprint, not an add-on buried in a retainer.
What does RankMeHi's SEO package include?
We publish our prices: a free audit, a one-off fix from $490, then monthly SEO from $690, month to month, with no setup fee.
Here is our own offer, run through the same eight questions:
| Question | RankMeHi |
|---|---|
| Fixed or "from"? | Published starting prices: Audit & fix from $490 one-off, ongoing SEO from $690 a month |
| What is counted? | The pages we fix or write, chosen from your Search Console data, listed in each report |
| Business Profile? | Yes, in the local work |
| Changes to your website? | Yes, we make them; the people who find a problem ship the fix |
| Contract | Month to month, cancel any time |
| Setup fee | None on ongoing SEO |
| Ranking guarantee | No. Nobody can honestly promise one |
| Report | Calls, forms and bookings first, then rankings |
Source: our published pricing, October 2026.
Because the site and the SEO are one job, the same team handles web design and web development when the audit shows the site itself is the problem. A new site starts at $2,490.
For one contractor near Seattle, Aria Glass, quote requests rose 368% a month, comparing the first 12 months of the site with the last 12 (form submissions counted in its form tool, November 2023 to August 2026). That is one business in one trade, not a promise about yours.
Do you need a package at all? If your phone already rings more than your team can answer, probably not yet. Fix capacity first.
Local service business that would rather pay per result? Our pay-per-lead option builds the site at a lower setup fee and bills per lead you approve.
Key takeaways
- The median published SEO package starts at $1,250 a month (13 agencies, $299 to $3,000, October 2026).
- Packages count units, describe scope, or guarantee rankings; only counted units can be checked month by month.
- Seven of nine tiered agencies include Business Profile work; link-only plans do not.
- Wholesale local SEO costs agencies $178 to $652 a month, which explains very cheap retail plans.
- Read the first-month line: one 6-month package costs about $20,200 before month seven.
- Ask whether the report shows calls and forms, not only rankings.
FAQ
How much do SEO packages cost in 2026?
SEO packages from US agencies that publish a price start between $299 and $3,000 a month, with a median of $1,250 across 13 agencies we checked in October 2026. Some add setup fees of $500 to $975, and one front-loads the first two months at $8,600 each.
What is included in local SEO packages?
Local SEO packages usually include Google Business Profile optimization, citations and some local pages. Seven of the nine tiered agencies we read include profile work, but link-only plans do not, and one agency adds it only from its $2,500 tier. Check the tier, not the package name.
Are cheap SEO packages worth it?
Cheap SEO packages under about $600 a month can be resold wholesale work (agencies buy it from $178 a month) that covers listings and posts but not your website. They can help a business with a strong site. For a slow or unclear site, the money usually goes further on fixing the pages first.
Should I sign a 12-month SEO contract?
A 12-month SEO contract is not a scam, but it removes your main lever if the work stalls. Four of nine tiered agencies we read bill month to month. If an agency asks for 12 months, ask what you get if the numbers have not moved by month four.
What should monthly SEO services include?
Monthly SEO services should include changes to your site, not only reports: fixes to existing pages, new pages chosen from search data, Business Profile work for local businesses, and a report in calls and forms. Units like links and posts are fine if the report ties them to enquiries.
Are guaranteed SEO packages safe?
Guaranteed SEO packages are only as good as the keywords they name. The one guarantee we found covers two keywords in the top 10 for $400 a month. If the agency picks them, they can choose terms nobody searches. A guarantee is useful only on keywords you pick.
The package price is a starting point, not a prediction
An SEO package is a list of promises about work. The price tells you how much the agency wants; the counted units, the contract and the report tell you what you get. Put two offers side by side with the eight questions, and the right one is usually obvious.
If you want a straight read on your own site first, we'll do the audit for free and tell you whether you need a package at all. Get a free SEO audit
Related: What SEO costs, by type of provider · Best SEO companies for small business
Services mentioned in this article
RankMeHi designs and builds business websites, then makes sure they are found and convert. Start with the two pages below.
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