The cost of SEO in Australia ranges from $1,000+GST to $10,000+GST and above per month. For a local campaign, prices start at $595+GST/month (larger, more competitive suburbs will be more). Major City / National / International SEO campaigns range from $3,000+GST per month to $10,000+GST and above per month. A one-time consultation & strategy with a qualified SEO consultant starts at $5,000+GST, and execution of findings by a technical SEO expert is charged at $150+GST/hour.
How much does SEO cost across different cities in Australia?
We studied the websites of SEO agencies who publicly advertise pricing for their SEO services in each of the cities across Australia (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast). Based on this research and gathered data, we took an average advertised SEO cost for each of the cities.
Here are the results compared to our own average pricing in each city.
What is the cost of SEO in Brisbane?
SEO agencies in Brisbane offer services ranging from approximately AUD $1,250+GST to over AUD $3,500+GST per month
We took a comparative average cost across our clients in Brisbane and found the average SEO campaign cost is $4,699+GST/month. The largest campaign budget is $11,000+GST/month and the lowest budget is $1,000+GST/month.
What is the cost of SEO in Sydney?
SEO agencies in Sydney offer services ranging from AUD $499+GST to over AUD $10,000+GST per month, depending on factors such as the scope of work, industry competitiveness, and the agency's expertise.
We took a comparative average cost across our clients in Sydney and the average SEO campaign cost is $3,710+GST/month. The largest campaign budget is $12,125+GST/month and the lowest budget is $1,128+GST/month.
What is the cost of SEO in Melbourne?
SEO services in Melbourne typically range from AUD $787+GST to over AUD $7,871+GST per month.
We took a comparative average cost across our clients in Melbourne and the average SEO campaign cost is $4,062+GST/month. The largest campaign budget is $4,125+GST/month and the lowest budget is $4,000+GST/month.
What is the cost of SEO in Perth?
SEO services in Perth typically range from AUD $1,000+GST to AUD $5,000+GST per month, with some agencies offering packages as low as AUD $500+GST or as high as AUD $39,000+GST.
We are currently working with one SEO client in Perth that's spending $3,125+GST/month on SEO.
What is the cost of SEO in Adelaide?
SEO services in Adelaide typically range from AUD $787+GST to over AUD $7,871+GST per month.
We took a comparative average cost across our clients in Adelaide and the average SEO campaign cost is $2,420+GST/month. The largest campaign budget is $3,960+GST/month and the lowest budget is $880+GST/month.
What is the cost of SEO on the Gold Coast?
SEO services on the Gold Coast typically range from AUD $277+GST to over AUD $3,000+GST per month.
One of our SEO clients on the Gold Coast is spending $5,940+GST/month on SEO.
What is the cost of SEO on the Sunshine Coast?
SEO services on the Sunshine Coast typically range from AUD $500+GST to over AUD $5,000+GST per month.
We took a comparative average cost across our clients on the Sunshine Coast and the average SEO campaign cost is $2,170+GST/month. The largest campaign budget is $3,450+GST/month and the lowest budget is $1,200+GST/month.
Costs For Different Types Of SEO Campaigns
What is the most common price point for SEO in Australia?
We took a sample across our clients and the most common price point for SEO ranges between $2,000-$5,000 per month.
Local SEO Cost
In 2025, the cost of SEO for local campaigns (including Google Business Profile optimisation) ranged from $880+GST/month to $12,125+GST/month. The cost for Google Business Profile optimisation ranged from ranged from $665+GST/month to $1,710
Larger Enterprises/Corporate SEO Cost
Larger companies often pay more for SEO because they require more extensive services due to the scale of their operations. We have worked on SEO projects for companies like Proctor & Gamble (Gillette, OralB) everything works on an hourly basis for these campaigns. Our hourly rate is $150+GST, and it's not uncommon for these projects to require anywhere from 200-500 hrs depending on the complexity of the project.
National SEO Campaign Cost
For clients working with us in 2025 on a nationally focused SEO campaign, including targeting multiple cities, costs ranged between $3,960+GST/month and $11,000+GST per month.
eCommerce SEO Cost
Our average spend on eCommerce SEO for clients selling products across Australia in 2025 is $5,157+GST/month.
Minimum SEO Investment
We have a lot of legacy clients spanning back 10 years, which we have on minimum budgets as low as $880. They have been spending this type of budget for many years and no more budget is required to defend and maintain their rankings. However in 2025 the minimum SEO investment to work with our company is $3,000+GST
Maximum SEO Investment
We have worked on one time SEO projects that have cost $15,500+GST, delivered within a single month, and quoted monthly SEO campaigns at $32,000/month targeting 32 different business locations across Australia.
Long-Term SEO Benefits
We have been helping sites rank since 2013. In those days, websites would increase in traffic and improved visibility in as little as 6 months.
In 2025, we have found that a brand new website will take a minimum of 12 months to gain traction in the market, and 12-24 months of consistent SEO to reach top 3 positions and gain the long term benefit of organic traffic and visibility in the market.
Factors Influencing SEO Costs
There are many factors that influence SEO costs, such as the location of the business or service offering, whose running the campaign (expert, junior, amateur, DIY, one man band, agency), the industry you're operating in and how big the campaign needs to be, to name a few. Let's break it down.
How does location affect SEO costs?
High density areas naturally attract more competition, with higher population and often higher income. This will generally mean the SEO costs are higher as many other companies are vying for the same traffic. On the other hand, targeting a lower level suburb won't have as much competition or as high a cost, but the traffic isn't there either due to socioeconomics and demand.
How does an SEO's expertise affect SEO costs?
Executing effective SEO strategies often results in higher costs because of the expertise required.
Experienced SEO providers don't often come cheap, and you don't want them to. Someone with a high level of understanding in different areas such as technical SEO, link building, on page optimisation, content marketing, semantic SEO, user intent, and comprehensive SEO strategies will cost an agency around 100-150k to hire, but they are worth their weight in gold.
The more an SEO knows, the higher cost it will be, but the more value they will bring.
How does industry competitiveness affect SEO costs?
If an industry is really competitive, there are only so many spots on the first page, and hundreds of people are competing for that one spot. The higher the competition, the higher the SEO cost, due to more resources required to get to the top.
How does the state and size of a website affect SEO costs?
The state and size of a website is a huge factor, and ranking a brand new website is more affordable on a technical and content level than an older site. This is due to older sites being all over the place and harder to 'clean up'. A newer site can be organised perfectly and rolled out with SEO best practices, with no extra cost of undoing penalties, disavowing files, fixing technical errors, performing website audits, auditing content, fixing old content, etc.
How does the complexity of an SEO campaign affect SEO costs?
Complexity comes down to how technically built is the website, what is the intent of the keyword, how well Google understands your site and the keywords you use. The more complex, the higher budget is needed to explain to Google what something means.
For example, if we're operating with a plumber, the keyword complexity is pretty low as Google is very familiar with this service. If we're operating with a more complex industry, the SEO cost will be impacted. If there are many locations or different services, or the campaign is international, there will be a higher budget needed due to more resources required.
Fact: The complexity of larger organisations necessitates collaboration with enterprise-level SEO providers who can deliver tailored strategies.
How does the scope of a SEO campaign influence SEO costs?
The scope and scale of your SEO project is what will determine your final cost. A good SEO company should understand the scope of your campaign and consider what it will take to achieve a successful outcome - there is no one size fits all cost.
What are the most common SEO pricing models?
SEO has come a long way since the late '90's, and with it has come many different SEO pricing models and ways to market them.
Different pricing models for SEO include monthly retainers, fixed contracts, one-time projects, or hourly payments.
SEO Hourly Rate
SEO pricing ranges anywhere from $50 per hour to over $250 per hour depending on the agency you hire. At Websites That Sell, our standard rate for 2025 is $150+GST/hour.
This is the simplest way to quote, and arguably the most accurate bang for buck. You'll get a budget based on how many hours the SEO company thinks they will need to get your results.
SEO Sprints
The SEO company will do a 'sprint' of a particular service, such as a 3-month sprint of content, then another 3-month sprint of backlinks. Each sprint will require different resources and prices as a result. This can be an efficient way to reduce costs.
Monthly Retainers
Monthly SEO services often start at around $400 and can go beyond $10,000.
This is one of the more traditional models and can vary greatly, with scarily low prices to overpriced. This generally means the SEO would do a set amount of things each month in a holistic manner, with the resources being shared.
Tiered SEO Packages
SEO agencies may offer tiered packages that include varying levels of service for different price points.
Another one of your traditional pricing models, you might see this as 'silver, gold, platinum', or 'basic, standard, advanced'. This works to provide more resources to different tiers within the package, and what you are quoted will depend on the competitiveness of your industry and the scope of your campaign.
Generally, the higher package will get you there faster (however there is no legislation to govern SEO agencies around this), and the lower packages will only be suitable for a handful of clients.
Project-based SEO
Fact: SEO pricing can vary from $500 to $5,000 per project based on the project's scope and requirements
This might look like a one time SEO audit, fixing the content across the site, a one-time SEO migration to a new site, or combining two sites into one. You will engage the company for a once off project and pay in full, or with a deposit model.
How to Calculate The ROI Of A SEO Campaign
If you’ve been in business for a period of time, no doubt you would have come across the Lifetime Value of a Customer concept.
If not… here’s how it works (in a nutshell).
THE FORMULA: (Average Value of a Sale) x (Number of Repeat Transactions) X (Average Retention Time in Months or Years for a Typical Customer)
Now you can work out at what rate you’re willing to buy customers with your marketing… you can scientifically and mathematically determine what you can spend in order to acquire new business.
Here’s the numbers you’ll have to gather:
1) Keyword Search Volume – this is the number of people that are looking for your products or services.
Example Figures For A Plumber In Brisbane: 2,020 searches across 11 keywords.
2) Traffic Capture - based on various studies completed in the SEO space and info provided by AOL, the industry standard for the amount of traffic captured by a website on the first page ranges anywhere from 2-37%.
For full report visit Chitika
In a new market, a safe figure to go with would be around the 17-20% mark. This won’t blow up your numbers and create unrealistic expectations.
Example Figures For Plumber In Brisbane: 17% traffic capture.
3) Lead Conversion – this is the percentage of traffic that actually turns into phone calls, email form enquiries or opt-ins. Be super conservative here.
Example Lead Conversion For Plumber In Brisbane: 10%
Once we have these real life figures for our business, we can accurately forecast what a ranking on the first page could be worth in terms of Lead Flow.
All you need to calculate is: (Total Traffic) X (Traffic Capture) X (Lead Conversion)
So in our example, there was a total of 2,020 searches/month multiplied by 17% traffic capture, which gives us 343 visits to the website.
Now multiply this figure by your lead conversion rate (10% in our example) – which reveals, in our example, this kind of SEO traffic will yield an average of 34 new enquiries every month.
4) Client Conversion – this is the number of clients/customers you convert from your enquiries. This figure is totally dependent on you, your sales skill level or closing procedures you may have in place.
A conservative figure is 50%, but for this example let’s work with 25% client conversion.
5) Average Sale Value – In our example, the average fee for a plumber starts at $50/hr and let’s say the average job would require 3 hours.
Example Average Sale Value For Plumber Brisbane: $150.00
6) Cost Of Paid Traffic – In our example, the average cost was anywhere from $16-$30 per click via Google Adwords.
How To Calculate The Precise ROI To Expect From SEO
First, let’s work out what your SEO traffic would be worth on a monthly basis.
Sale Value Of SEO Traffic Per Month: (Client Conversions) X (Sale Value)
In our example, we converted a total of 34 enquiries at an average sale value of $150. Which would make the search traffic worth $5,100/month.
A Brisbane campaign would require a fair bit of work, so in terms of SEO, you would be looking at a realistic cost of $1,500 per month for a campaign like this.
So in this example, you’d be looking at a profit (before any fulfilment expense etc.) of $3,600.
Cost Of Equal Adwords Traffic: (Traffic Capture) X (Cost Per Click)
In our example, we were working with 343 visits/clicks per month at an average click cost of $23.
So the cost of Adwords to achieve this kind of traffic would come to $7,889, which is dramatically lower than the potential sales made.
How to Determine the Value of an SEO Investment
SEO takes time, and of course you want to be reassured that it's working. Here are a few things you can look at to check the value and 'what's working':
Quality of Work Received
Look at the different modalities - are you getting high quality links from unique websites? Is your content helpful and well written? Is the coding of your site done well and strategies executed properly? A good SEO should be able to communicate the quality of these factors in ways you will understand.
Reporting of SEO Campaign
Is the campaign growing, or showing signs of growth? Do you understand the report and feel well communicated to?
Growth in website impressions
If you're on the first page, more people are going to see your site and potentially click on your site. You want to see those impressions grow in order for conversions to follow.
Growth in website traffic
Traffic is the driving force behind a successful campaign. The higher you are up in the search, the more traffic you will get, and the higher ROI you will experience as a result.
Growth in phone calls
Many businesses begin to see positive results within six months to a year after launching their SEO campaigns. Are the people who you want to call you, actually calling you?
Growth in enquiries/form submissions
Enquiries and form submissions are another conversion metric that SEO should help to improve, delivering high quality leads that actual convert.
Growth in sales
Sales aren't directly impacted by SEO, but you can influence your form submissions and sales process by understanding how your website is performing, your target market, and the widespread perception of your brand.
Growth in brand awareness
When your impressions grow, when you're featured across the SERPs, have links on popular websites and an active presence on social media, your brand will grow, which can only mean good things for your bottom line.
DIY V's Professional SEO
Should you give your mate who knows some stuff about websites a go? Or do you need to hire a pro?
SEO Complexity
This will determine whether you should hire a professional or can handle it DIY. If the site just needs basic optimisation, some content and local citations, and the industry isn't too competitive - you can probably handle this in house or as a DIY job, however there are a few more factors to consider below before doing so.
DIY SEO Time Investment
DIY SEO requires significant time for learning and implementation, which may distract from other business activities. You have to learn SEO, stay on top of updates, understand link building, coding ins and outs, content best practices, and how to handle the back end of your site. Where is your time best spent?
Focus on Core Business
Hiring SEO professionals allows businesses to focus on other vital projects related to growth. If your time is best spent in sales, dealing with customers and making your product better, hiring a professional will allow you to spend time on what matters.
Professional Preference
Many companies, especially small to mid-sized businesses, prefer professional SEO services over doing SEO themselves. A lot of smaller companies like working with local businesses, where corporate companies prefer a larger agency. If your time is worth more than the cost of getting an SEO, think of how much you're saving by outsourcing.
SEO Results Comparison
Professional SEO services often yield better results than DIY SEO in the long run. While there are no guarantees, you will be positioning your site for the best chance of success by going with a company who lives and breathes SEO.
How Can I Get A Precise SEO Quote?
Quality SEO doesn't allow for a cookie-cutter approach.
The only way to provide a precise quote is to analyse your website and market. We do this with a free, no-obligation SEO analysis.
We'll show you exactly what your competitors are up to (and simple ways to outsmart them), what is and isn't working on your site and the hidden opportunities to accelerate results. It's perfect for busy people who need answers fast - but you must qualify.
1) You must have an active and healthy business already.
We do NOT work with:
Get Rich Quick Schemes
Network Marketing Companies
Adult Themed Material
Start-ups Without Funds
2) You’re already making sales.
Relying solely on SEO to bring in new traffic and sales is foolish. You need to have a system in place that currently generates leads and sales.
3) You have a solid product or service and a good reputation.
The way we work with every client is not only to generate more traffic, sales, and profits, but our secret system works in such a way that it generates goodwill (good karma if you like) in your market.
If you’ve read the above you know you meet the criteria, you know you can benefit from our services, and you think we’ll be a good fit, then we’d love to chat with you to determine the most accurate and effective SEO quote for your business.