SEO costs as much as the work your site needs to get ahead of its competitors on Google. At Dilys there are two kinds of price: a one-off SEO audit for €205 and monthly SEO from €435 to €615, depending on whether the focus is content and conversions or ranking growth. Below you will see exactly what each amount buys, what drives the price, when the money comes back and how to spot an offer that will cost you more than it saves.
How SEO is paid for: the four models
Before you compare prices, compare what you are actually buying. You will come across four ways to pay, and each fits a different need.
One-off audit
A fixed fee for a full check of the site and a prioritised plan. The right choice when you do not know why the site does not rank, before a new site or before hiring an agency.
Monthly retainer
The most common model. Every month there is work on the technical side, content and links, and you get a report. SEO compounds over time, so consistent work pays the most.
Project with a clear end
A one-off task: migrating a site without losing rankings, restructuring the categories of an online store, local SEO for a new location.
Hourly
Handy for consultations and small fixes. For larger volumes it becomes unpredictable and usually ends up costing more than a retainer.
Dilys pricing: what each package includes
We publish our prices openly, because the most common question in the first call is “how much will it cost me?”. Here are the three SEO packages and exactly what each one includes.
| Package | Price | What it includes | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO audit | €205 one-off | Full technical analysis, broken link check, speed analysis, keywords, competitor analysis, PDF report with instructions | Sites that do not know what is holding them back on Google; before starting SEO or a new site |
| Content & CRO | €435 per month | 6 articles a month, landing page A/B tests, user journey analysis, lead magnets, UX recommendations | Sites with visitors that want more enquiries and sales from them |
| SEO Growth | €615 per month | Full technical monitoring, on-page optimisation, 4 SEO articles, link building (3 quality links), Google Business Profile, monthly rankings report | Businesses that want to climb in a competitive market and in Google Maps |
Not sure where to start? We always begin with a free preliminary analysis, after which you get a concrete quote - write to us. The €205 audit goes deeper, with keywords, competitors and an action plan.
What drives the price of SEO
Two companies can receive quotes that differ several times over, and both quotes can be honest. These six factors determine the amount of work.
- Competition in your industry. Overtaking three local firms is a different task from overtaking national chains and directory sites. The stronger the sites on page one, the more content and authority you need.
- The state of the site. A slow site, duplicate pages or a confused structure have to be fixed first. Sometimes that is the main work of the first months.
- The size of the site. A ten-page company site and an online store with thousands of products have very different needs: categories, filters, duplicate content, product descriptions.
- Geography. Local SEO for one city is the fastest route to customers, especially for services. National or international rankings mean more keywords, more competition and sometimes more languages.
- How much content is missing. If customers search for answers to forty different questions and your site answers five, the gap is filled with articles and pages - and those take time.
- What you take on yourself. A business that provides photos, case studies and expert answers pays less for content and usually grows faster, because its experience is real and Google recognises it.
How long before you see results
The cost of SEO is not the monthly fee but the monthly fee multiplied by the number of months until results. The first measurable improvements usually arrive between the third and sixth month, and for competitive keywords stable rankings come after 6 to 12 months of consistent work.
That is why you should compare offers by their annual total. Twelve months of SEO Growth come to €7,380, twelve months of Content & CRO to €5,220. That is the real investment to set against the revenue you expect.
How to work out whether SEO pays off
SEO pays off when the extra customers from Google bring in more profit than the work costs. The calculation is simple and you can do it before your first call with an agency. Here is an example with round numbers for a service business:
- Average order: €400 at a 35% margin → €140 profit per customer
- Cost of SEO: €615 per month
- Break-even point: 615 / 140 ≈ 4.4 → about 5 new customers a month from organic search
- Traffic needed: if 2% of visitors become customers, that is about 250 visits a month on commercial searches
If there are hundreds or thousands of searches a month for your services, and weak sites hold the top spots, the numbers work and every month adds up in your favour. If there are only a few dozen searches, start with ads or with local SEO.
A customer from organic search costs you nothing at the moment of the click. You pay for the ranking once - and it keeps bringing visits for as long as you maintain it.
That is the difference from advertising: ads bring visits immediately but stop the day you stop paying. If you need enquiries fast, see our Google Ads management; for the long term, the two work best together.
Cheap SEO: five signs you will pay twice
A low price is not a problem in itself. The problem is when it is achieved with methods Google penalises, or with work nobody can verify.
- Guaranteed first place. Nobody controls Google’s algorithm. A ranking guarantee usually means keywords nobody searches for, or tricks that lead to penalties.
- “Hundreds of links” for little money. Mass links from directories and site networks are exactly what Google discounts. One link from a serious site in your industry weighs more than a hundred random ones.
- No access to Search Console and Analytics. If you only get a PDF report without access to the data, you cannot check what you are paying for.
- A report with rankings only. Rankings are a means. The report should show organic visits and the enquiries or sales they bring.
- Nothing stays yours. The texts, profiles and accounts created for your site should remain yours after the contract ends.
Recovering from a Google penalty takes months, during which the site is barely visible, and usually costs more than doing it right from the start.
What you should receive every month
Whoever you buy SEO from, the monthly work should be visible. Here is the minimum to ask for:
- A list of the work done: which pages were optimised, which articles were published, which technical issues were fixed.
- Data from Google Search Console: impressions, clicks and average position for the searches that matter to you.
- Organic traffic and conversions: how many visits from Google turned into enquiries, calls or orders.
- A plan for next month: what will be done and why.
SEO and AI search: is it paid for separately?
More and more people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity instead of searching on Google, and Google itself shows AI Overviews above the results. The good news is that the foundation is the same: AI systems cite sites that answer clearly and specifically, have structured data and are mentioned by other authoritative sources.
That is why optimising for AI search, also called GEO or AEO, is not a separate service with a separate price but a way of writing content: a direct answer up front, questions and answers, tables with concrete numbers, clear authorship. Our SEO service takes AI search into account from the start.
Which package is right for you
Start with an audit if...
your site does not show up on Google and you do not know why, a new site or a migration is coming up, or you want a second opinion on your current agency’s work.
SEO Growth if...
the site has a good foundation but competitors rank above you; you sell services in a specific city and want to be in Google Maps; you need authority, not just texts.
Content & CRO if...
you already have visitors but few enquiries; customers ask a lot of questions before buying; you want every article to lead to a quote or a contact.
Conclusion
How much does SEO cost? At Dilys, €205 for a one-off audit and €435 to €615 a month for ongoing work. The more important question, though, is how much it will bring you. Do the calculation above, compare offers by their annual total and by what exactly you receive each month, and avoid anyone who guarantees you first place.
Dilys is an EU-based digital agency in Sofia, Bulgaria, working with international clients since 2006. For a concrete quote, write to us - we start with a free preliminary analysis. See what our SEO service includes and all our prices.
