How much does SEO cost in the UK?
A useful SEO budget starts with the work you need and what the quoted fee actually includes.
Steen Stones · Reviewed
UK providers publish very different starting prices. DPOM lists local SEO from £185 a month plus VAT; Terrier lists small-business SEO from £1,250 a month excluding VAT. Those fees buy different services. Compare the work and terms before setting your budget.
What prices do UK providers publish?
| Provider / service | Starting monthly fee | VAT | Notice / commitment |
|---|---|---|---|
| DPOM local SEO | £185 | Plus VAT | 31 days notice; no long-term contract |
| DPOM national SEO | £335 | Plus VAT | 31 days notice; no long-term contract |
| Reposition local SEO | £350 | Not verified in this comparison | Not verified in this comparison |
| Terrier small-business SEO | £1,250 | Excluding VAT | 60 days notice; no minimum term |
DPOM lists local SEO from £185 a month plus VAT and national SEO from £335 a month plus VAT. Reposition advertises local plans from £350 a month. These are named supplier offers, rather than a representative survey of what UK businesses pay.
Terrier’s small-business service starts at £1,250 a month excluding VAT. It lists 25 priority pages optimised monthly, two new content pieces and two earned links each month. That tells you what it offers to deliver, rather than what return you will get.
What should you compare besides the monthly fee?
Check what happens when you want to leave. DPOM publishes 31 days notice with no long-term contract. Terrier publishes 60 days notice with no minimum term. Paying monthly does not mean you can stop paying immediately.
Read the exclusions. Terrier’s entry tier excludes multi-market or multi-language work, enterprise technical work such as migrations, and paid media. Reposition says additional services sit outside its monthly fee. Ask which work your proposal includes and what would create another bill.
Should you buy monthly work, hours or a project?
Monthly retainers, hourly fees and project fees are common SEO pricing models in the Ahrefs survey. Ahrefs polled 439 providers and checked that their websites offered SEO services. Knowing how a provider charges is the start of the comparison; you still need to know what it will do.
Use Google’s hiring questions alongside the price. Ask what results the provider expects, over what timeframe, and how success will be measured. Ask whether it will show you the changes and explain the reasoning behind its recommendations.
How much weight should you put on an average?
Read how an average was calculated. Ahrefs estimates averages for provider groups using the upper end of each respondent’s pricing tier. Those are estimates, not a list of exact invoices.
A local starting package and a programme with specified page and content work are different purchases. Ask what results the provider expects and how it measures success. That is how you get beyond comparing headline fees.
Do you need to pay for every part of SEO?
Google says small local businesses can probably do much of their SEO themselves. Before paying for help, ask the provider to explain the work it recommends and why your site needs it.
AI search does not automatically mean another Google-specific service fee. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode require no specific optimisation and that existing SEO fundamentals remain worthwhile. Ask what an additional proposal actually adds and how its success will be measured.