Two honest quotes can differ tenfold.
SEO names an outcome rather than a quantity, which is why the same two words can describe an hour a month and a full-time program. Neither party is necessarily being dishonest.
One agency quoting a low figure may be delivering a monthly report, a few technical fixes and a handful of links. Another quoting ten times that may be producing content across several domains, running a large link program and managing local surfaces across a portfolio. Both are selling SEO.
This is why comparing prices without comparing deliverables tells you almost nothing, and why the first useful question is never how much, but how much of what.
- Number of keywords the program actually targets, which sets the scope of everything else
- Number and quality of placements delivered each month, counted rather than described
- Whether content is written and published, or only recommended
- How many domains are covered, which matters enormously for a group
- Whether you are shown the work afterwards in a form you can verify
What it costs here.
Month to month, cancel anytime, setup fee waived, dedicated account manager on every plan. Available as a monthly subscription or a one-time order. All prices in US dollars.
| Basic | Silver | Golden | Platinum Best value | Titanium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $65 USD | $125 USD | $235 USD | $325 USD | $575 USD |
| One-time | $75 USD | $140 USD | $260 USD | $380 USD | $620 USD |
| Domains | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Keywords | 5 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 100 |
| Guest posts (DA 20+) | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| Web 2.0s (DA 50+) | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| Amplification links | 1,500 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| Keyword research | Standard | Standard | In-depth | In-depth | In-depth |
| Premium indexing | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On-page technical audit | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Content gap analysis | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor traffic spy | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Toxic link check with disavow | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Turnaround | 8-10 days | 10-12 days | 12-14 days | 14-16 days | 16-18 days |
Our recommendation Platinum at $325 USD a month is the usual recommendation for a single property. Smaller properties should start at Basic or Silver, and a portfolio needs Titanium for its four domains. The calculator further down will tell you which of these your own numbers actually support.
- Dedicated account manager
- Month-to-month, cancel anytime
- Setup fee waived
- Every link delivered with a live, clickable URL
- You own the assets forever
- Available as a monthly subscription or a one-time order
Build the exact program in the builder, or send us the property and we will tell you what we would target and what we would not bother doing.
Compare it to commission, not to marketing spend.
A search program measured against a marketing budget looks like a cost. Measured against distribution cost, it usually looks like a rounding error. Set the figures to your own property.
You pay roughly
a year in OTA commission, in your currency.
Moving 15% of that volume to direct would keep
a year, in your currency.
The Platinum program is $325 USD a month, or $3,900 USD a year. At these numbers that is 19.8% of what you would keep.
These are illustrative projections based on figures you entered. They are not a forecast or a guarantee. Commission rates and channel mix vary by property and contract.
Three questions that separate the reasonable from the rest.
- 01
What arrives each month, in countable units?
Not activities, quantities. How many placements, on what kind of site, how many pages written, how many keywords tracked. If the answer is a list of verbs rather than numbers, there is nothing to hold anyone to.
- 02
Will you show me the work afterwards?
The answer should be a list of live URLs you can open. Anything less is a summary you have to take on trust, and the most common failure mode in this industry is work that was never verifiable.
- 03
What happens if I stop paying?
Ask specifically whether placements are removed, whether content is withdrawn, and whether you keep the assets. If anything disappears when you leave, you were renting rather than building.
A fourth question worth asking: does the agency guarantee rankings? If yes, be careful. Nobody controls search rankings, and a guarantee is either a misunderstanding or a sales device.
Five things that legitimately move the price.
If a quote is higher than another, these are the reasons it might reasonably be.
- 01
How many separate markets the property runs
A resort with a spa, restaurants and an events business is several search markets at once, and each needs its own keywords. This drives price more than room count does.
- 02
How contested the destination is
A major city costs more to compete in than a quiet region, because the authority required to rank is higher and takes longer to build.
- 03
How many domains are involved
A group with four properties on four domains is four times the keyword work, which is why Titanium covers four domains rather than stretching one allowance across them.
- 04
Whether content is included
Writing and publishing pages is a separate cost from link building. Here it runs from $26 to $480 USD a month depending on volume and length.
- 05
The starting condition of the site
A property with a history of poor previous work may need a toxic link check and disavow before anything else is worth doing, which is why that sits on the largest plan.
Three situations where we would tell you to wait.
We would rather say this here than take a payment that will be canceled in three months.
- Your annual commission figure is small enough that the program cost is a meaningful share of the gain. The calculator on this page says so directly when that is the case.
- Your booking path is broken or your site cannot take a direct booking easily. Fix that first, or the demand arrives somewhere that cannot convert it.
- Nobody at the property can spare an hour a month to approve content and read a report. The program will still run, but it will drift without any input at all.
Questions.
What does hotel SEO cost?
On this site, between $65 and $575 USD a month depending on the plan, month to month with no contract and the setup fee waived. Across the wider market you will see anything from under $100 USD a month to several thousand, and the range is wide because the term covers very different amounts of work. What matters is what is delivered for the figure, not the figure itself.
Why is there such a wide range in the market?
Because SEO describes an outcome rather than a defined quantity of work, so two quotes can differ tenfold and both be honest. One may cover a monthly audit and a handful of links, the other a full content program across several domains. The only way to compare is to ask what is delivered each month and whether you will be shown it afterwards.
Is a cheaper plan worse?
It is smaller rather than worse, provided the delivery standard is the same. The plans here differ in quantity, not quality: the same work, more of it. What should worry you is a low price paired with a vague description of what arrives, because that usually means the answer is very little.
How do I know if a quote is reasonable?
Ask three questions. What specifically arrives each month, in countable units. Will I be shown it afterwards as live URLs I can open. What happens if I stop paying. An agency that answers all three plainly is usually reasonable at almost any price; one that avoids them is usually not, at any price.
Should the cost be compared to my marketing budget or my commission?
Commission, in most cases. Marketing budget framing makes a search program look like a discretionary cost competing with everything else. Distribution cost framing makes it look like what it is: an attempt to reduce a much larger number that already leaves the business every month.
Are there setup fees or minimum terms?
No to both. The setup fee is waived on every plan here, there is no minimum term, and there is no cancellation penalty. Every plan is month to month and includes a dedicated account manager. If the work is not worth the fee, you stop.
Where to go next.
Start with the arithmetic.
Send us the property and we will come back with what we would target, what it costs and what we would not bother doing. We reply within 24 hours on business days.