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The House of Solutions is an AI and digital growth agency. We help businesses grow with websites, SEO and AI search, performance marketing, branding, content, and practical AI automation.
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How Much Does SEO Cost for a Small Business in 2026?
How Much Does SEO Cost for a Small Business in 2026?
Short answer: Most small businesses pay for SEO as a monthly retainer. Industry surveys of SEO providers commonly put small-business retainers at roughly $500 to $1,500 USD per month, with competitive markets and larger websites costing several thousand. One-off audits and projects are priced separately. At The House of Solutions, our SEO & Content Growth package is $799 USD per month.
What are the common SEO pricing models?
| Model | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed monthly fee for ongoing technical work, content and reporting | Businesses that want steady growth |
| One-time project | A fixed price for a defined job such as an audit, a migration or optimising a set of pages | Fixing a specific problem or launching a new site |
| Hourly consulting | You pay for time, usually for advice or training | Teams that do the work themselves and need guidance |
What affects the price of SEO?
- Competition. Ranking a dentist in a small town takes less work than ranking a law firm in a major city.
- The state of your website. Slow, thin or technically broken sites need more fixing first.
- Number of pages and services. More pages mean more optimisation.
- Content. Writing new service pages and articles is often the largest part of the work.
- Area served. Local, national and international SEO are different amounts of work.
- Link building and digital PR. Earning mentions on other websites takes time and is priced accordingly.
- AI search optimization. Preparing content for AI answers adds structured data and answer-focused writing.
What should a monthly SEO package include?
- Technical monitoring and fixes for crawling, indexing and speed.
- Keyword and competitor research.
- On-page optimisation of a set number of priority pages.
- A content plan, and ideally the content itself.
- Local SEO basics such as your Google Business Profile, where relevant.
- A clear monthly report on rankings, traffic and enquiries.
Ask exactly how many pages, articles and hours are included. “Full SEO” means very different things from one provider to the next.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
Be careful with very low prices. Packages priced far below the market usually rely on automated reports, recycled content or bulk low-quality links, which can do nothing at best and harm your site at worst. Other warning signs:
- Guaranteed first-page rankings. Nobody can promise these.
- No explanation of what will actually be done each month.
- Reports full of numbers but nothing about enquiries or sales.
- Long contracts with no way out.
- You do not own your website, content or analytics accounts.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
SEO is a medium-term investment. Google’s own guidance says it typically takes four months to a year to see the benefit of improvements. Budget for at least six months before judging the result. We explain why in how long SEO takes to show results.
SEO or Google Ads: which is better value?
Ads bring visitors quickly but stop the moment you stop paying. SEO builds slowly but keeps working. Many small businesses use ads for immediate leads while SEO grows. See is Google Ads worth it for a small business.
How do I measure the return?
Track organic enquiries and sales, not only rankings. Compare the value of that new business with what you pay each month. Our guide to measuring digital marketing ROI shows the calculation.
What does The House of Solutions charge for SEO?
Our SEO & Content Growth package is $799 USD per month and includes technical SEO monitoring, keyword and competitor research, up to 10 priority pages optimised, SEO content planning and a monthly ranking and traffic report. See the SEO and AI search service, build a quote on our pricing page, or book a free consultation.