SEO quotes vary because agencies may be pricing different work, different levels of implementation and different business problems. Compare the scope, people, exclusions, reporting and contract terms before the monthly total. A higher fee does not prove better work, and a lower fee does not prove poor work. Ask what will actually change on your website.
Two proposals can both say “monthly SEO” and have very little else in common. One may include writing and publishing service pages. Another may recommend pages but leave your team to create them. One may include development time; another may send a technical audit and quote separately to fix it.
That is why comparing the headline number first is often the wrong way round. You need to know whether you are comparing the same job.
Start with the brief you gave them. Did each agency see the same website, target area, services, competition and business objective? If one is quoting for a local service and another for selling across the UK, the difference begins before either has written a proposal.
A useful quote should explain what the agency thinks is holding the business back and what evidence supports that view. “Your SEO needs improving” is not enough. Neither is a report of hundreds of warnings with no explanation of which ones matter.
Google’s guidance on hiring an SEO says an audit should provide realistic estimates of improvement and the work involved. It also says an SEO should take an interest in what makes your business different, your customers and your competitors. 1
Give each shortlisted agency the same short brief. Include the work you want more of, who buys it, where you can serve them, what you have tried and what counts as a useful enquiry. Then ask each to explain its priorities against that brief.
The word “included” can hide a lot. Ask who does the work and what the finished result looks like.
| Area | What to compare | What can sit outside the fee |
|---|---|---|
| Research and planning | Which services, customers and competitors will be investigated, and how priorities are chosen | Extra markets, locations or products |
| Content | Research, writing, owner review, editing and publication responsibilities | Photography, specialist interviews or large extra page batches |
| Technical work | Whether the agency fixes issues or only documents them | Development, hosting changes and migrations |
| Measurement | Search data, useful enquiries, context and decisions in the report | Tracking repairs or separate sales-system work |
| Communication | Who you speak to, how priorities change and how decisions are recorded | Extra workshops or specialist consultancy |
This is a comparison checklist, not a claim about what every agency must include. A smaller, clearly scoped service can be entirely sensible. The problem is buying one thing while assuming you are getting another.
For the fuller scope checklist, see what should be included in a monthly SEO fee.
A one-off SEO audit buys a defined assessment. A monthly retainer buys ongoing capacity or agreed deliverables. A fixed project buys a specified result, such as an agreed set of landing pages. Ask the agency which pricing model it is using, how much implementation is covered and when additional work needs your agreement. These are different ways to scope SEO pricing, not a league table of quality.
Ask it to name the work behind broad labels. Does technical SEO include fixing crawling problems, or only listing them? Does keyword research lead to agreed pages and changes? If link building is offered, what methods are used and who approves them? If structured data is proposed, what relevant information will it describe? A longer list does not make the quote better; each item needs a reason connected to your business.
Search engine visibility and organic traffic can help you understand progress, but neither is the same as a useful enquiry or a sale. Agree which landing pages matter, what a qualified enquiry means and how results will be compared with the starting position. That gives the monthly review a business purpose rather than making a search engine score the end goal.
Separate the initial work from what repeats. An audit, a migration plan or rewriting a small set of service pages may be a defined project. Maintaining and improving a growing website may need an ongoing arrangement.
Ask what happens in the first phase, what happens afterwards and why there is a continuing fee. If the answer is a list of repeated tasks, ask how the agency decides whether those tasks are still the right priority.
A setup fee is not automatically bad. A proposal without one is not automatically better. Compare the total commitment, the work covered and what happens if you stop after the initial phase.
Do not compare a project total with one month’s retainer as though they cover the same period. Include VAT where applicable and check payment dates. Be clear about what is an estimate, an allowance or a fixed deliverable.
A team may bring useful specialist skills, continuity and implementation capacity. It may also have more overhead. A freelancer may be a good fit for a narrow problem, but have less capacity for several different disciplines at once. Those are questions to investigate, not verdicts based on the business model.
Ask who will actually work on the account and which parts they handle. Will the person who understood the sales conversation still be involved? Who checks the writing? Who fixes a technical problem? Who makes a decision if the original plan is not working?
You do not need a biography for every person. You do need enough detail to know that the proposed work has an owner and the required skills.
Ask the same questions you would ask of an expensive one. What is the scope? What will be done manually? What is automated? What are the limits? Can you see a useful example of the work?
A lower fee might reflect a smaller job, less overhead or more work left with you. It might also mean the promised workload is unrealistic. The price alone cannot tell you which explanation is true.
Do not treat cheap as a synonym for a Google penalty. Google warns about specific harmful practices, including deceptive work and link schemes, not a universal price threshold. A costly provider can use bad methods too. 1
If the proposal depends on large volumes of easy links, guaranteed rankings or unexplained techniques, ask for the method in plain English. Google says no one can guarantee a number-one ranking. 1
Look for a clear explanation of the work and evidence that fits your situation. A case study should tell you what changed, over what period and how the result was measured. A graph without a baseline or a definition of the enquiry is not enough.
Ask any agency to put you in touch with a current client, with that client’s agreement. Ask how the work and communication match the proposal, rather than asking only whether the client likes the team. Do not expect access to another client’s private contact details or analytics without permission.
Our guide to checking agency reviews and case studies explains how to separate praise from evidence of commercial results.
A higher fee is easier to understand when the agency can show the specialist work, implementation responsibility or competitive problem it covers. A larger document and more confident sales language are not substitutes.
Ask what the extra work actually is. Google says the established SEO fundamentals still apply to its AI features; there are no extra technical requirements or special schema needed just to appear in them. Inclusion is not guaranteed. 2
There may be useful work in improving answers, sources, clarity and measurement. But an “AI-ready” label does not explain an additional fee on its own. Ask which deliverables differ, how they help a reader and what the agency can genuinely measure.
Do not confuse a tool’s content score with evidence that your business has been cited in a live AI answer. They answer different questions.
Compare notice periods, minimum commitments, ownership and extra charges. A lower monthly price with a longer required commitment may cost more overall than you first expect.
Check who owns the website account, domain, content and measurement accounts. Ask what you receive if the relationship ends and whether anyone charges to hand it over. Keep the answer in the agreement, not just the sales conversation.
Google recommends granting read-only Search Console access during an initial audit rather than handing over write access immediately. Access should fit the work you have actually agreed to. 1
One thing we are clear about at Bamsh: the price of SEO should not be a mystery. Our prices are shown on this website, plus VAT. A monthly engagement includes the SEO work itself, AI optimisation, adding and creating pages, some web development and link building. For you, that means more of the people searching for what you do can find you, and you are more likely to be mentioned when they ask AI tools, with no surprises on the bill. Whatever you ask for, you get a fixed price in writing before any work starts.
You can read Bamsh’s current prices and published scope as one option. Treat the written proposal for your business as the place to settle the exact work and commercial terms. This article does not turn a generic checklist into a promise that every item is included in a particular package.
No. The middle price might be the right fit, but its position between two numbers is not evidence. First remove proposals that do not explain the work or fit the business. Then compare the useful work, responsibility, risk and total commitment of the remaining options.
Ask each to confirm, in writing: the problem being solved; the first priorities; what is implemented versus advised; who supplies and publishes content; what is excluded; the total commitment; how results will be judged; and what you keep if you leave.
If the answers still describe different jobs, you are not ready to compare the price. Get the scope clear first. Then choose the service that fits the actual problem, even if that means a smaller project or no retainer yet.
