Credo is very SEO-focused for the clients we bring in who are looking to hire. In fact, over 70% are looking for a project that has an SEO component (technical, content, outreach) involved.
There are many studies out there that show “SEO consultant rates” or “SEO agency rates”, and while those may have more respondents than ours they are also more global-focused and less focused on the specific countries that Credo serves.
So, this section is mostly about US and UK based SEO agencies and consultants, though we also give you a view into our view on the global SEO market and its rates.
The important takeaways from this section are:
Let’s get into the numbers.
First, let’s look at the SEO firm average rates worldwide.
Worldwide, SEO firms charge on average $149 per hour.
Here is how it breaks down:
As you can see, on average:
Now let’s look at some deeper cuts to see how the numbers change.
Link building is a common activity in SEO and is absolutely important for ranking sites. We were interested in whether firms that build links charge more or less than firms that do not.
Here are the findings:
Takeaways:
Overall, this data surprises me a little bit, though then I remember that this is worldwide and the data skews lower than I usually think it will.
The figures I expected are that a higher percentage of links-offering firms bill between $101-$200 than non-links firms and that non-links firms charge more as a percentage in the higher hourly rates.
The other way we wanted to look at the data was by company size. Here are the results:
And here’s the data:
| Hourly Rate | Solo | 2 to 5 | 5 to 10 | 10 to 20 | 20 to 50 | 51+ |
| Under $50 | 8.05% | 12.90% | 9.52% | 10.53% | 3.57% | 4.00% |
| $51-$100 | 28.74% | 19.35% | 9.52% | 0.00% | 14.29% | 24.00% |
| $101-$150 | 24.14% | 41.94% | 23.81% | 47.37% | 35.71% | 16.00% |
| $151-$200 | 21.84% | 12.90% | 33.33% | 31.58% | 28.57% | 28.00% |
| $201-$300 | 10.34% | 11.29% | 9.52% | 10.53% | 14.29% | 20.00% |
| $301-$500 | 2.30% | 0.00% | 9.52% | 0.00% | 3.57% | 4.00% |
| $501+ | 3.45% | 1.61% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 4.00% |
| N/A | 1.15% | 4.76% |
Here are the SEO firm minimum monthly one-time projects as reported by our 242 respondents:
The raw data:
| Project minimum | Count of Single project minimum | Worldwide SEO firm single project minimum |
| Under $1,000 | 55 | 22.73% |
| $1,000-$1,999 | 65 | 26.86% |
| $2,000-$2,999 | 45 | 18.60% |
| $3,000-$3,999 | 15 | 6.20% |
| $4,000-$4,999 | 7 | 2.89% |
| $5,000+ | 40 | 16.53% |
| Do not accept one-time projects | 7 | 2.89% |
| No minimum | 8 | 3.31% |
The important takeaways:
Here are the SEO firm minimum monthly retainers worldwide as reported by our 242 respondents:
The raw data:
| Worldwide SEO firm minimum monthly retainer | ||
| Monthly retainer | Count of Monthly minimum budget | Worldwide SEO firm minimum monthly retainer |
| Under $1,000 | 62 | 25.62% |
| $1000-1,999 | 66 | 27.27% |
| $2000-2,999 | 42 | 17.36% |
| $3000-3,999 | 25 | 10.33% |
| $4000-4,999 | 5 | 2.07% |
| $5,000+ | 23 | 9.50% |
| I do not accept ongoing engagements | 4 | 1.65% |
| No minimum | 15 | 6.20% |
Now that we’ve established the worldwide SEO agency/firm rates, let’s look at the US numbers.
Here’s the raw data:
| Hourly Rate | SEO agencies |
| Under $50 | 2.22% |
| $51-$100 | 5.56% |
| $101-$150 | 40.00% |
| $151-$200 | 31.11% |
| $201-$300 | 15.56% |
| $301-$500 | 3.33% |
| $501+ | 1.11% |
The interesting callouts are:
Here are the US SEO firm minimum projects according to our 137 respondents:
The raw data:
| Project minimum | Count of Single project minimum | US SEO firm single project minimum |
| Under $1,000 | 22 | 16.06% |
| $1,000-$1,999 | 37 | 27.01% |
| $2,000-$2,999 | 32 | 23.36% |
| $3,000-$3,999 | 9 | 6.57% |
| $4,000-$4,999 | 3 | 2.19% |
| $5,000+ | 27 | 19.71% |
| Do not accept one-time projects | 3 | 2.19% |
| No minimum | 4 | 2.92% |
Here are the US SEO firm minimum monthly retainers according to our 137 respondents:
The raw data:
| US SEO firm minimum monthly retainer | ||
| Monthly retainer | Count of Monthly minimum budget | US SEO firm minimum monthly retainer |
| Under $1,000 | 25 | 18.25% |
| $1000-1,999 | 41 | 29.93% |
| $2000-2,999 | 28 | 20.44% |
| $3000-3,999 | 17 | 12.41% |
| $4000-4,999 | 4 | 2.92% |
| $5,000+ | 14 | 10.22% |
| I do not accept ongoing engagements | 1 | 0.73% |
| No minimum | 7 | 5.11% |
Now let’s look at UK SEO agency hourly rates numbers. We had significantly fewer UK agencies who do SEO respond than US (90 for US, 24 for UK) so these numbers are not as strong as US, but they’re still directionally helpful.
Here’s the raw data:
| Hourly Rate | UK SEO agencies |
| Under $50 | 8.33% |
| $51-$100 | 37.50% |
| $101-$150 | 29.17% |
| $151-$200 | 12.50% |
| $201-$300 | 12.50% |
| $301-$500 | 0.00% |
| $501+ | 0.00% |
Here are the main callouts:
Now let’s look at the average SEO agency (2+ people) rates both worldwide and for the United States.
Here are the SEO agency hourly rates worldwide for our 155 respondents:
The raw data:
| SEO agency hourly rates worldwide | ||
| Hourly rate | Count of Average hourly rate | SEO agency hourly rates worldwide |
| Under $50 | 14 | 9.03% |
| $51-$100 | 24 | 15.48% |
| $101-$150 | 54 | 34.84% |
| $151-$200 | 36 | 23.23% |
| $201-$300 | 20 | 12.90% |
| $301-$500 | 4 | 2.58% |
| $501+ | 2 | 1.29% |
| N/A | 1 | 0.65% |
Here are the worldwide SEO agency projects minimums as reported by our 155 respondents:
The raw data:
| Worldwide SEO agency minimum project | ||
| Project minimum | Count of Single project minimum | Worldwide SEO agency minimum project |
| Under $1,000 | 33 | 21.29% |
| $1,000-$1,999 | 39 | 25.16% |
| $2,000-$2,999 | 28 | 18.06% |
| $3,000-$3,999 | 10 | 6.45% |
| $4,000-$4,999 | 5 | 3.23% |
| $5,000+ | 31 | 20.00% |
| Do not accept one-time projects | 5 | 3.23% |
| No minimum | 4 | 2.58% |
Here are the worldwide SEO agency minimum monthly retainers as reported by our 155 respondents:
The raw data:
| Worldwide SEO agency minimum monthly retainer | ||
| Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | Worldwide SEO agency minimum monthly retainer |
| Under $1,000 | 40 | 25.81% |
| $1000-1,999 | 38 | 24.52% |
| $2000-2,999 | 27 | 17.42% |
| $3000-3,999 | 19 | 12.26% |
| $4000-4,999 | 5 | 3.23% |
| $5,000+ | 17 | 10.97% |
| I do not accept ongoing engagements | 3 | 1.94% |
| No minimum | 6 | 3.87% |
Before digging into the average SEO consultant rates in US and UK, let’s look at them worldwide.
The average SEO consultant hourly rate worldwide as of January 2019 is $148 per hour.
Here is the data:
And the data:
| Hourly Rate | Solo |
| Under $50 | 8.05% |
| $51-$100 | 28.74% |
| $101-$150 | 24.14% |
| $151-$200 | 21.84% |
| $201-$300 | 10.34% |
| $301-$500 | 2.30% |
| $501+ | 3.45% |
| N/A | 1.15% |
As you can see, the average is $148 per hour but the takeaways are:
Here are the worldwide SEO consultant project minimums from our 87 respondents:
The raw data:
| Worldwide SEO consultant single project minimum | ||
| Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | Worldwide SEO consultant single project minimum |
| Under $1,000 | 22 | 25.29% |
| $1,000-$1,999 | 26 | 29.89% |
| $2,000-$2,999 | 17 | 19.54% |
| $3,000-$3,999 | 5 | 5.75% |
| $4,000-$4,999 | 2 | 2.30% |
| $5,000+ | 9 | 10.34% |
| Do not accept one-time projects | 2 | 2.30% |
| No minimum | 4 | 4.60% |
Here are the worldwide SEO consultant monthly retainer minimums from our 87 respondents:
The raw data:
| Worldwide SEO consultant minimum monthly retainer | ||
| Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | Worldwide SEO consultant minimum monthly retainer |
| Under $1,000 | 22 | 25.29% |
| $1000-1,999 | 28 | 32.18% |
| $2000-2,999 | 15 | 17.24% |
| $3000-3,999 | 6 | 6.90% |
| $5,000+ | 6 | 6.90% |
| I do not accept ongoing engagements | 1 | 1.15% |
| No minimum | 9 | 10.34% |
Now let’s look at US SEO consultant (only 1 person in the company) rates. We had 47 such respondents.
Here’s the raw data:
| Hourly Rate | US SEO consultants |
| Under $50 | 2.13% |
| $51-$100 | 23.40% |
| $101-$150 | 27.66% |
| $151-$200 | 27.66% |
| $201-$300 | 8.51% |
| $301-$500 | 2.13% |
| $501+ | 6.38% |
The interesting callouts are:
Here are the single project minimums for the 47 US SEO consultants in our dataset:
The raw data:
| US SEO consultant minimum single project | ||
| Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | US SEO consultant minimum single project |
| Under $1,000 | 7 | 14.89% |
| $1,000-$1,999 | 15 | 31.91% |
| $2,000-$2,999 | 12 | 25.53% |
| $3,000-$3,999 | 4 | 8.51% |
| $4,000-$4,999 | 1 | 2.13% |
| $5,000+ | 6 | 12.77% |
| No minimum | 2 | 4.26% |
Here are the monthly retainer minimums for the 47 US SEO consultants in our dataset:
The raw data:
| US SEO consultant minimum monthly retainer | ||
| Monthly retainer | Count of Monthly minimum budget | US SEO consultant minimum monthly retainer |
| Under $1,000 | 7 | 14.89% |
| $1000-1,999 | 17 | 36.17% |
| $2000-2,999 | 9 | 19.15% |
| $3000-3,999 | 6 | 12.77% |
| $5,000+ | 2 | 4.26% |
| I do not accept ongoing engagements | 1 | 2.13% |
| No minimum | 5 | 10.64% |
Similarly to the SEO agencies, we had dramatically fewer UK respondents than US respondents. We had 47 respondents in the US versus just 16 in the UK.
As such it’s barely worthwhile to give averages as they are so skewed, so here is the raw data:
| Hourly Rate for UK SEO consultants | Count |
| Under $50 | 1 |
| $51-$100 | 11 |
| $101-$150 | 2 |
| $151-$200 | 0 |
| $201-$300 | 2 |
| $301-$500 | 0 |
| $501+ | 0 |
If you really want the averages, here they are:
Because we do not have enough data here, we will not call out interesting pullouts.
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