How much does SEO cost? SEO pricing, day rates and what a good quote includes

An SEO quote for a small or medium-sized business site in France usually comes to between €600 and €2,500 per month, excluding VAT, for an ongoing retainer, after an audit costing €500 to €3,000 depending on the size of the site. A freelance consultant’s day rate is around €185 on French freelance marketplaces, and much more for a seasoned expert. The amount alone is not what matters: a good quote details the deliverables, promises no guaranteed ranking and includes an exit clause.

How much does SEO cost?

There is no official price list for SEO. The published figures come from freelance marketplaces and service providers, so they are self-reported. Cross-checked, they still give useful orders of magnitude for judging a quote you receive. The figures below are those of the French and wider European market, in euros.

The orders of magnitude to remember

• SEO audit: from €450 to €5,000 depending on the scope, most often between €500 and €3,000 for a brochure site or a small online shop.
• Monthly retainer: from €600 to €2,500 excl. VAT per month for a service business, up to €10,000 per month for a full campaign on a competitive site.
• Link building: from €50 to €500 excl. VAT per link, sometimes €1,000 on high-authority sites.
• Freelance consultant: an average day rate (known in France as the TJM, taux journalier moyen) of €185 on Codeur, a French freelance marketplace, with experienced profiles charging €400 to €900 per day.

SEO pricing: what makes the bill vary

Four factors explain almost every gap between two quotes. First, the size of the site: a hundred pages and ten thousand pages do not call for the same work. Next, the competition on your keywords: ranking for a local query such as « plumber in Lyon » or for a national one such as « mortgage insurance » does not take the same resources. The technical state of the site matters too, because a slow or poorly structured site needs fixes before any content work. Finally, the length of the commitment and the expertise of the person who actually works on your account weigh on the price.

How to estimate your SEO budget for your site

Before asking for quotes, set an order of magnitude so you know whether the proposals you receive make sense. The estimator below applies the ranges in this article to the size of your site, the level of competition and the services you have in mind. It gives a range, not a firm price.

SEO pricing by service

An SEO quote is read line by line. Here are the four items that come up most often and what each one covers.

SEO audit

The audit is billed once, upfront. A basic audit costs €500 to €2,500 from an agency and €450 to €600 from a freelancer. A detailed audit starts at around €3,000 from an agency and €2,000 from a freelancer, and can reach €10,000 for a large e-commerce site. It should lead to a list of fixes ranked by priority, not to a tool export.

Monthly retainer

This is the item that weighs most over time: over twelve months, three quotes from the same study range from €4,100 to €33,000 excl. VAT depending on the scale of the deliverables. The results of SEO work are rarely measurable before three to six months, hence the preference for a commitment with a review point rather than a 24-month contract.

Link building

The price of a link depends on the authority and real traffic of the site that publishes it. Expect €50 to €500 excl. VAT per link for a sponsored article on a legitimate site, more above DA 60. A link costing a few euros on a site with no traffic is useless and can expose you to a manual action from Google. A very small business often spends €500 to €1,500 over three to six months for five to ten well-chosen links.

Redesign and migration

A redesign is not always priced separately: it falls under fixed-fee projects, from €1,000 to €20,000 depending on the number of URLs to redirect and check. The challenge is not to lose the traffic you have earned when the site changes.

What should a good SEO quote include?

A quote that fits on one line, « SEO services: €1,200 per month », protects you from nothing. Here is what you should find in it.

Deliverables and method

• A list of target queries with their intent and estimated volume, approved by you.
• The details of the setup: audit, fixes included, tools used.
• Quantified monthly deliverables: number of pages optimised, pieces of content written, links obtained.
• A monthly report based on your own Search Console data, with clicks and impressions.

Contract terms

• An exit clause: an initial period of 6 to 12 months, then 3 months’ notice.
• Transfer of the rights to the content upon payment, including after termination.
• Search Console and analytics accounts opened in your name, with administrator access.
• The list of domains used for link building, with no private blog network.

Freelance vs agency: how much does an SEO consultant charge?

A freelancer costs less because there is no company structure to fund. An agency brings specialised teams and production capacity, but the bill goes up and direct contact with the expert gets diluted.

An SEO consultant’s day rate

A freelance SEO consultant’s day rate can be read on several scales. The average recorded by Codeur is €185 per day, or about €50 an hour, but it mixes very different profiles. Independent consultants’ rate cards put a junior profile between €250 and €350, an experienced one between €400 and €600, and an expert with more than eight years’ experience between €600 and €900. An agency often charges €1,000 to €1,500 per day.

When to choose one or the other

A freelancer suits a medium-sized site that needs a clear strategy and a single point of contact. An agency makes sense when you need to produce a lot of content or run several markets in parallel. For a specific job such as technical SEO, an independent consultant can often cover the whole scope alone.

What are the red flags in an SEO quote?

A few things should make you step back before signing.

Guaranteed rankings

Nobody can guarantee first place on Google: the algorithm is opaque and changes often. A serious provider commits to resources and deliverables, not to a ranking. A promise of a « guaranteed top 3 » is red flag number one.

Other traps to spot

• A long commitment, for example 24 months, with no way out.
• High setup fees with no breakdown of the deliverables.
• Links bought on networks of sites, with no list of domains.
• A report that does not show your Search Console data.
• Unclear ownership of the content after the contract ends.

Always compare at least three quotes on the same scope, and ask for an anonymised sample report before signing.