How much does SEO cost in the UK?

Four things that change the fee

The starting condition matters. A small service site with sound pages needs different attention from an online shop with a large catalogue, complex filters and a migration ahead. An SEO audit can establish that difference before an ongoing programme is priced.

The market also matters. One genuine service area, a national offer and multiple countries involve different audiences and content needs. The fee should reflect the actual work, rather than the number of place names a provider can add to a template.

• Site condition: technical issues, existing content and the scale of necessary repair.
• Commercial scope: the services, product ranges and markets that matter to the business.
• Delivery: research, writing, implementation, review and reporting responsibilities.
• Competition: the useful information and credible evidence your pages need to offer.

Compare the work before comparing the total

Two proposals called “monthly SEO” can fund very different things. One may provide recommendations for your developer; another may include content and implementation. Neither is automatically the better choice. The important question is whether the combined agency and internal scope is enough to make the changes happen.

Ask which pages and query groups will receive attention, what the first priorities are and how the provider decides what comes next. Establish who writes, checks business facts, approves work and publishes it. For a retailer, ecommerce SEO should explain catalogue and category responsibilities as well as general optimisation.

• Which deliverables are included, and which require another budget?
• Who implements technical recommendations and checks that they work?
• What does link work involve, and how is its quality assessed?
• Which accounts and content do we own, and what is handed over if the engagement ends?
• What appears in the report, and which decisions should it help us make?

Audit, project or retainer?

An audit is useful when the problem is unclear and you need a prioritised brief. A defined project suits a known task, such as technical repairs or improving a set of important pages. A retainer can support continuing implementation, content and measurement when there is an ongoing backlog worth working through.

Check the boundary carefully. An audit does not automatically include every repair it identifies, and a retainer should not be an unexplained list of recurring tasks. Our SEO service sets out the wider approach, while local SEO and maps work addresses genuine local discovery needs.

A useful first 90 days has a decision process

First confirm access, measurement and the existing site. Then map valuable buyer questions to useful pages, address obstacles and agree a manageable implementation order. New content should answer a distinct question with business evidence, not simply increase the page count.

Review what was delivered alongside page-level visibility, relevant visits and qualified enquiries where available. A short-term movement in traffic is not proof of return on investment. Demand, margins, seasonality and the sales process affect the commercial picture, so agree how the plan will change as better evidence arrives.

Use the pricing page for prices

This guide does not duplicate a price list that could drift out of date. Use Hulk’s SEO pricing and scope and the overall pricing overview to start the discussion, then request a written proposal confirming deliverables, exclusions, charges and responsibilities for your site.

If the immediate decision is where to put a limited marketing budget, read SEO versus Google Ads. If you need to understand the site’s condition first, request an audit and describe the commercial problem you want the review to help solve.