SEO pricing. How much it really costs and what you pay for

I have heard the question “how much does SEO cost?” many times, and it really is a tricky one. We dealt with it years ago at the agency, and I have dealt with it as a freelancer too. It is important to remember that SEO should not be seen as a cost. It is an investment. And like any investment, it carries risks.

I often ask, “What do you expect from it in 12 months?” or “What made you want to look into SEO?” The answers usually reveal more about a client’s expectations. Demand, opportunity, expectations, delivery. Everything has to fit together. The price of SEO is not the price of an off-the-shelf product. It depends on four main variables, and if someone can give you a serious estimate before they understand your website and your business, they are selling you either a package with no results or a list of activities without much context or understanding.

I am writing this article as a consultant who has made a living from SEO (at least partly) since 2017 and who has also run dozens of my own websites (zijuspesne.cz, moony.cz, max-reality.cz, financniarchitekti.cz, ceske-volby.cz, politicky-slovnik.cz and others). In the days of content websites, I generated hundreds of thousands of visits a month, and it earned me a decent living.

I know what it costs to win organic visits for my own projects, and I know what they actually bring in. I later tried the same with e-shops, which I still run. In long-term partnerships such as Erika Fashion (women’s fashion and dresses), Manboxeo (original gifts) and Chlorito (pool chemicals), I have managed to multiply organic traffic, with a clear return and impact. It is the kind of investment that has paid for itself several times over.

With B2B clients and lead generation websites, the effect has often been even more interesting, because a larger share of their conversions comes from organic search than is the case in e-commerce.

Hourly rates

From this perspective, I will give you a picture of SEO prices. Everything is based on hourly rates. The market is used to it, and anyone who tries to sell marketing or SEO differently often meets with misunderstanding. I also sell SEO by the hour, but in practice it often comes closer to a monthly retainer.

The price of SEO is not the price of a website

Before we get to the numbers, one common misunderstanding. The price of SEO is not the price of a website. They are two different invoices and two different items. SEO builds on what you already have (or gives recommendations before you have it) and deals with visibility in search engines, not with someone building you a new page. If you have no website at all, or a technically broken one, part of the SEO budget will first be swallowed by fixing the website, and that needs to be budgeted separately. Not sure where a developer’s work ends and an SEO consultant’s work begins? They are very different. Some consultants give tips on how to proceed. I more often communicate directly with the developers and try to get things implemented.

Current indicative SEO prices in the Czech Republic

If you do not have time to read on, here is the summary.

Service	Price range	Most common rate
SEO consultant hourly rate	700 to 3,000 CZK (about 29 to 120 EUR)/h	1,500 to 1,800 CZK (about 62 to 74 EUR)/h
Monthly SEO retainer, small website / local service	5,000 to 20,000 CZK (about 210 to 820 EUR)	10,000 CZK (about 410 EUR)
Monthly SEO retainer, mid-sized Czech e-shop	20,000 to 40,000 CZK (about 820 to 1,600 EUR)	30,000 CZK (about 1,200 EUR)
Monthly SEO retainer, large e-shop / corporation	40,000 to 120,000 CZK (about 1,600 to 4,900 EUR)	60,000 CZK (about 2,500 EUR)
SEO audit (one-off)	15,000 to 50,000 CZK (about 620 to 2,100 EUR)	25,000 CZK (about 1,000 EUR)
Keyword research	9,000 to 50,000 CZK (about 370 to 2,100 EUR)	25,000 CZK (about 1,000 EUR)
Monthly link building, smaller project	4,000 to 20,000 CZK (about 160 to 820 EUR)	10,000 CZK (about 410 EUR)
Monthly link building, company with turnover over 200 million CZK (about 8.2 million EUR)	20,000 to 60,000 CZK (about 820 to 2,500 EUR)	28,000 CZK (about 1,200 EUR)
SEO advice or training for an in-house team	from 15,000 CZK (about 620 EUR)/day	,

These prices exclude VAT and are averages across freelancers and small to medium-sized agencies in the Czech Republic.

Now, why does every row in the table show a range rather than a single number?

What really determines the price of SEO

The price of SEO does not depend on the supplier’s price list. It depends on four variables, which the supplier converts into hours of work and then into money. If you understand these four things, you can judge for yourself whether someone is giving you a realistic offer or plucking numbers out of thin air.

1. Scope

A static website with ten URLs and an e-shop with 50,000 products are two completely different projects. For a small website, SEO is mostly about a few main landing pages, the technical basics, a content schedule, local SEO and setting the direction for off-site work. For an e-shop, you deal with parametric filters (one of the main drivers of traffic), page targeting (including how meta titles and headings are built), indexing, relevance, internal linking and site structure. That is the difference.

Scope can also be a matter of skills. Every client is different, each can do different things and has different resources on their side. Personally, I take a very individual approach and see SEO as something with a broad overlap into other areas. It is far more important to me to make my client money than to follow SEO scripts, spreadsheets and audits. For some clients, I put prioritised tasks into a spreadsheet, Basecamp, Teamwork, Freelo or another tool. For others, I handle article writing, on-site prioritisation, light UX, email marketing and more. Above all, I try to pick out the weakest points from my perspective.

I have one client for whom I manually created 10,000 parametric filters. On the other hand, I also have a client for whom a brief was enough, and they started creating filters themselves quite successfully. Because I do not work entirely as a solo freelancer, but have 2 to 3 people supporting me, I can cover a wider range. I enjoy starting from the big picture (strategy) rather than being buried in my own discipline. 

2. Competition in the industry

A local locksmith in Brno, financial services (investments) and a mid-sized Czech e-shop are three different planets. The locksmith can work their way into the top 3 on a monthly budget of 5,000 CZK (about 210 EUR). Financial products easily require an annual budget of over 1 million CZK (about 41,000 EUR) just for content and links. A mid-sized e-shop, meanwhile, has to cover thousands of queries for which it has relevant products and services, and then push hard on the 10 to 30 most important ones.

So when someone asks me for an SEO quote, the first thing I ask is: “Who are your three main competitors?” From the answer, I can estimate the budget faster than from the size of the company. The second question is often a little uncomfortable, and not everyone gets it. 
“Do you think you deserve to be in first place for XY? Do you really provide the best service at the largest scale?”

These questions open some clients’ eyes a little. Today, organic traffic is much less about hacking the system and much more about connecting the whole marketing mix and earning the best possible positions.

3. Client ambition

Wanting to “hold your positions and not slip” is one situation. Wanting to double your organic traffic within a year is quite another. 

Sometimes clients are not fully aware of their own ambition. When they tell me “we want to grow”, I ask: by how much, by when, and what exactly do you have in mind? Without that number, an SEO quote is a lottery.

In general, I most like taking over SEO from agencies, because the client is used to a certain standard which I am convinced I can take to a new level. Other colleagues in the field feel the same way. 

4. Supplier quality

The difference between an hour of a senior and an hour of a junior is not typing speed. It is the difference in what they decide not to do in that hour. A junior works through a list of activities. A senior works out which 20% of activities will deliver 80% of the results. The worst case is when a client pays a senior hourly rate for junior work, which used to happen routinely on the market. Here again I come back to agencies “reselling” hours, where the client pays 1,800 CZK (about 74 EUR) and the SEO specialist actually gets 300 CZK (about 12 EUR). 

I think it is fine for an agency or hub to take half of the hourly rate. It makes much less sense to me when they take four fifths.

What the price of SEO often does not include

Clients often look only at the consultant’s monthly fee and forget about items that are charged separately. The first is content. Someone has to write articles, category descriptions and landing pages, and if you do not want to write them yourself, budget for a copywriter. Of course, AI now cuts the time needed for this work dramatically.

The second is the link building budget. Quality link building is often paid for separately, as credit for external websites and arrangements, rather than being hidden in the consultant’s hourly rate. And third, tools, meaning licences for Ahrefs, Marketing Miner or Screaming Frog. A good offer names these things up front. If you cannot see them in the SEO price, they are hidden in the hourly rate. That is how I do it too. I pay for subscriptions to Claude Code, Ahrefs, Marketing Miner, Screaming Frog, Gemini and others, but I do not actually invoice them to clients separately.

Price bands. What you can realistically get for X CZK a month

I still see people offering ongoing SEO management for 5,000 CZK (about 210 EUR). And it can certainly make sense. For that money, you get a junior on the market who may be enthusiastic and needs a chance. I was like that once too.

However, if 5,000 CZK (about 210 EUR) is paid to a senior or an agency, it typically cannot move the client forward much. In my experience, a really good specialist will never take on that kind of engagement.

I work mostly with e-shops with an annual turnover of 70 to 200 million CZK (about 2.9 million to 8.2 million EUR). For a client like that, it makes sense to spend 40,000 to 60,000 CZK (about 1,600 to 2,500 EUR) a month on SEO. That also includes the link building credit for external parties.

SEO consultant hourly rate. What it depends on

An hourly rate of 800 to 3,000 CZK (about 33 to 120 EUR) is the reality in the Czech Republic in 2026. Where the truth lies depends on who you hire.

Supplier profile	Typical hourly rate
Junior freelancer / beginner consultant	500 to 1,000 CZK (about 21 to 41 EUR)/h
Mid-level freelancer (3 to 5 years of experience)	1,000 to 1,400 CZK (about 41 to 58 EUR)/hour
Senior freelancer / consultant (5+ years, references)	1,400 to 2,100 CZK (about 58 to 86 EUR)/hour
Well-known name in SEO	2,100 to 3,500 CZK (about 86 to 140 EUR)/hour
Agency hourly rate (re-invoiced)	1,500 to 3,000 CZK (about 62 to 120 EUR)/hour

What raises this rate besides years of experience:

Reputation in the field. Top of mind works in SEO too. I know several excellent SEO consultants who are fairly cheap, and that is because they have no website, do not post on LinkedIn and do not give talks. All three of these raise the possible hourly rate. When my name, Patrik Pilous, appeared in May in a ranking of the most visible SEO consultants and SEO specialists in the Czech Republic, I received 3 offers of new work within two days. 

• Own projects with proven results. A consultant who runs a website with 50,000 organic visits a month knows more about SEO than someone who only reads about it.
• Client portfolio in the niche. Someone who has done SEO for 5 women’s fashion e-shops will do your women’s fashion e-shop faster and better than a generalist.
• Specialisation. Technical SEO for large websites, international SEO, e-commerce SEO, local SEO: each of these specialisations has a different market and different prices.
• Connections. Cronyism does not only work in construction and healthcare 🙂

I try to build my value on demonstrable work for my client portfolio (Chlorito, XTB, CEMI, Erika Fashion, Manboxeo) and on my own projects with proven results.

Consultant vs. agency. Who is cheaper per result

This is the most common question from clients with a budget of up to 30,000 CZK (about 1,200 EUR) a month. Let’s break it down honestly.

Aspect	Freelance consultant	SEO agency
Price per hour	usually 30 to 50% lower	overheads, project manager, higher margin
Who works on the project	the person you deal with	usually someone else (a junior)
Strategic capacity	limited by one person’s time	wider team
Implementation capacity	higher (personally responsible for results)	often lower (people treat it as a 9-to-4 job)
Dependence on one person	high	low (staff turnover is not positive, but handing over from one person to another is easier)
Budget flexibility	high, quick adjustments	rigid, contracts
Suitable for	budgets of 5,000 to 60,000 CZK (about 210 to 2,500 EUR) a month	budgets of 40,000+ CZK a month, corporations that buy it as part of a package

This is how I put it to clients: up to 30,000 CZK (about 1,200 EUR) a month, you are almost always better off with a freelance consultant. The reason is simple: of those 30 thousand at an agency, half goes on overheads and only 1/5 on the hours of a junior who actually does what a senior freelancer would do in a third of the time. On top of that, a junior does not have a freelancer’s ownership. In some agencies, good ideas can come from other directions too. That is rare, but I have seen it.

Above 40,000 CZK (about 1,600 EUR) a month, the logic reverses. One consultant can no longer handle that volume of work and you need a team. I have 2 to 3 people working with me, so I can handle some larger clients. But of course I cannot have 3 clients like that, which an agency may be better prepared for.

Third option, an in-house SEO specialist

Rough numbers: a full-time SEO specialist in the Czech Republic costs you 60,000 to 110,000 CZK (about 2,500 to 4,500 EUR) a month in total employer costs. Plus tools (Ahrefs, Collabim, Screaming Frog, together roughly 8,000 to 15,000 CZK (about 330 to 620 EUR) a month). Plus you need someone to manage and check their work. Here you need to find a person who goes for goal rather than drifting around the centre circle.

An in-house specialist makes sense when SEO is a strategic activity for the company with enough work to fill a full-time role, typically large e-shops, media websites or companies where content is at the core of the product. For most SMEs, it is more than they need.

The hybrid model I recommend most often: an external senior consultant for strategy (4 to 8 hours a month) plus an in-house mid-level specialist or content manager for implementation. The cost is similar to a solid agency retainer, but you get more senior thinking and more delivered content. Or you can have one senior working as a contractor on two large products and nothing else.

What individual SEO services cost on their own

Some things are bought as a one-off or per project. Here are indicative prices:

SEO audit

15,000 to 60,000 CZK (about 620 to 2,500 EUR) depending on the size of the website and the depth. An audit for 5,000 CZK (about 210 EUR) is almost certainly the output of an online tool with a few comments. An audit for 60,000 CZK (about 2,500 EUR) is 40+ pages, a prioritised roadmap and a workshop with the client’s team.

A realistic budget for a small website: 15,000 to 25,000 CZK (about 620 to 1,000 EUR). For a medium-sized e-shop: 25,000 to 40,000 CZK (about 1,000 to 1,600 EUR). For a large project or migration: 40,000+ CZK. I describe what a sensible audit looks like and what it should include in detail on the page about the SEO audit. I prefer ongoing cooperation and only do audits very rarely. Large companies often leave them in a drawer and small ones cannot handle the execution.

GEO

GEO, or optimisation for AI models, is really SEO in disguise with a dash of branding. Optimisation techniques have not changed much and the fundamentals remain similar. What is new is that an SEO consultant needs to understand how branding and entities work. The slightly problematic thing about GEO is that results cannot be measured as well as organic traffic, where with Google you could simply look in GSC.

Keyword research

8,000 to 50,000 CZK (about 330 to 2,100 EUR). The lower end of the range is research for a single category. The upper end is comprehensive keyword research for an entire e-shop, including mapping to URLs, a proposal for filter pages and a content roadmap. A realistic “good” budget for a medium-sized project: 15,000 to 25,000 CZK (about 620 to 1,000 EUR). You can find how I approach keyword research in the separate service description. With the arrival of AI and Claude Code, I have changed my methods, and you do not always need to fiddle with perfect keyword research at the start when you know which area brings you the most money.

Link building

Here, prices split into two models:

• Price per link: from 1,500 CZK (about 62 EUR) for an average link up to 15,000+ CZK for a PR link from a major magazine (iDnes, Seznam Zprávy, a top industry outlet) that does not just end up in the archive. A realistic average for a solid topical link in the Czech Republic in 2026 is 3,000 CZK (about 120 EUR). I can get slightly better prices, as I have 15 websites for link exchanges and ten years of experience in the field. 
• Monthly link building retainer: 8,000 to 50,000 CZK (about 330 to 2,100 EUR) a month depending on volume and quality. I have done monthly link building with a budget of over 100,000 CZK (about 4,100 EUR) as well as standard collaborations, where I most often work with a monthly budget of 12,000 CZK (about 490 EUR).

Link building is an area I have worked in for a very long time (for client projects and for my own portfolio), and it is a discipline where the difference between “just a link” and “a link that really moves rankings” is huge. 

Content creation

The price of an article or content. AI can churn out tonnes of content, and fairly good content at that. The ideal approach is a combination of AI and the human factor. If you are considering your own copywriter vs. a hired SEO copywriter, the main difference is who will write you text that actually ranks.

Local SEO and Google Business Profile management

1,000 to 10,000 CZK (about 41 to 410 EUR) a month. This includes profile optimisation, review monitoring, local citations, sentiment, local link building and optimisation of local landing pages. For local services (tradespeople, restaurants, clinics), local SEO is often the best value for money of all SEO investments.

How to read SEO proposals?

This section deserves an article of its own, but here is at least a short summary. When you receive an SEO proposal, ask the following questions. If the supplier cannot answer them or avoids answering, you have a problem.

Why the cheapest SEO ends up the most expensive

I understand that when it comes to the price of SEO, it is tempting to go for the lowest number. But here this applies doubly: cheap SEO can end up being the most expensive item in your budget. Not because it costs a lot, but because it delivers nothing and quietly eats money for a year. For a few thousand a month you get a rankings report and a few hours of work, not progress. You can tell by whether the supplier can tell you specifically what they will do and why. Above all, it is about who you hire, which I write more about on the page about the SEO specialist. The difference between a senior and a junior is not in the hourly rate, but in which 20% of the work they choose in the first place. And the difference between a freelancer and most agencies is, in my view, huge. On the other hand, I am personally very glad that marketing and SEO agencies exist, because clients get used to certain standards with them, and when they then start working with a freelancer, they are pleasantly surprised by the care and output they receive. I have always made the biggest impact on clients who had previously worked with an agency.

1. Who will own access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4? The right answer: you. If the supplier tells you they will keep the access themselves, that is not a good sign.
2. What exactly will happen for that monthly retainer, in hours? A reliable supplier will give you at least a rough breakdown (e.g. 4 h strategy + 6 h content + 3 h technical + 2 h reporting). An unreliable one will offer you “comprehensive care” and bill you for a nice report. What matters is that the cooperation is aimed at added value.
3. What happens if we stop working together after 6 months? The correct answer: you get complete documentation, an audit of what was done and a handover protocol. The incorrect answer: “it depends on the specific situation.”
4. When will I see the first results? The realistic answer: technical fixes and indexing changes in 4 to 8 weeks, content results in 3 to 6 months, traffic growth in 3 to 10 months. If someone guarantees you the number one position, or gives you no forecast at all, that is not a good sign.
5. Show me three case studies. Without specific reference projects backed by numbers, every SEO proposal is just marketing.
6. What do your own website and your own Google rankings look like? An SEO firm with a broken website and no ranking for its own keyword is like a fitness trainer with a beer belly. It is not an absolute deal-breaker, but it is a clear signal.

When SEO pays off, a simple ROI calculation

This section matters more than the whole price table above. There is no point judging the cost of SEO in absolute terms. It only makes sense to judge it against what SEO brings you.

The basic break-even formula:

Monthly SEO cost ÷ average order value ÷ website conversion rate = the number of additional organic visits you need.

A real-world example. An online shop with an average order value of 1,800 CZK (about 74 EUR), a conversion rate of 2% and a margin of 35%.

• SEO cost: 25,000 CZK (about 1,000 EUR)/month
• Margin per average order: 630 CZK (about 26 EUR)
• Additional orders needed: 25,000 ÷ 630 ≈ 40 orders/month
• Additional organic visits needed: 40 ÷ 0.02 = 2,000 visits/month

If your website currently gets 5,000 organic visits and you can imagine it getting 7,000 in 12 months, the project pays for itself. If you can imagine it getting 15,000, the project is a no-brainer.

The second layer of the calculation, which most people overlook: an SEO investment does not disappear the moment you stop paying. Unlike PPC, where you have zero traffic the day after you switch off a campaign, organic rankings (unless they are built on some kind of hack) hold for 6 to 18 months after the engagement ends. Sometimes even longer. Seen this way, SEO is a capital investment.

What the return looks like in practice

These numbers are not theory. For Erika Fashion, I multiplied organic traffic to the point where the SEO investment paid for itself several times over, and I have a similar story with other online shops and B2B clients. I described one of them in detail in a case study. The key is always the same: do not look only at the number of visits, but at how many of them turn into orders.

Another important aspect is that SEO, combined with a bit of UX, improves the results of all other marketing channels, from the dominant PPC to direct.

When I will not recommend SEO

You will not find this section in any other SEO article, but it should be there. SEO is not for everyone, and in some situations I will talk you out of it straight away.

• A short-term campaign or promotion. If you need to sell 200 units of a product within three months, do not invest in SEO. Put the money into PPC and influencers.
• A seasonal business with an extreme seasonal peak. Christmas gifts, Halloween costumes, spring garden equipment. SEO will help here too, but the ROI horizon is three times longer.
• You lack the content capacity or are not willing to invest enough. SEO without new content = ongoing SEO management = maintenance mode. If you cannot deliver 4 to 8 articles a month (written in-house or bought in), a growth strategy will not happen.
• A cash flow runway of less than 12 months. SEO is not a tool for companies fighting for survival. If you cannot fund a year of investment, buy PPC and sort out your cash flow.
• B2B with 20 potential customers in the Czech Republic. If your market is so narrow that you remember the names of all relevant leads, SEO is not the right channel. Use cold outbound, networking and referral marketing. However, if you are in B2B and have 4,000+ potential customers, SEO is an even more dominant channel than in e-commerce. I have proven this myself several times.

Both SEO and PPC are a must

You need both, but in different proportions depending on the stage. Very simply put:

• Launching a new online shop or website: PPC 80%, SEO 30%. SEO has no room to grow yet, and PPC quickly gives you data on what converts. In SEO, you are still building landing pages and the site architecture.
• A mature project running for 2+ years: SEO 30 to 50%, PPC 50 to 70%. Today, PPC is the dominant channel for most e-commerce projects.

It is important to understand that SEO supports PPC performance.

Frequently asked questions about SEO pricing

How much does an SEO consultant charge per hour in the Czech Republic?

In 2026, hourly rates for SEO consultants in the Czech Republic range from 800 to 3,000 CZK (about 33 to 120 EUR). The typical rate for a freelance consultant is 1,500 CZK (about 62 EUR)/hour.

Is SEO for 2,990 CZK (about 120 EUR) a month worth it?

Usually not. Realistically, that price only covers an automated ranking report and 1 to 2 hours of human work. That is not SEO, it is monitoring. The lower end of the range where real work can be done is 5,000 to 10,000 CZK (about 210 to 410 EUR)/month, and even that is only maintenance mode. For real growth, budget from 15,000 CZK (about 620 EUR)/month. If the client has some expertise, it is better to pay only for SEO consulting from time to time.

How long does it take for SEO to start working?

Technical and indexing changes show up within 4 to 8 weeks. Content changes within 3 to 6 months. Real growth in organic traffic usually comes 6 to 12 months after the start of the engagement. In competitive niches (finance, e-commerce with big players), it can easily take 12 to 18 months.

How much does an SEO audit cost?

In the Czech Republic in 2026, a solid SEO audit costs 15,000 to 60,000 CZK (about 620 to 2,500 EUR) depending on the size of the website. An audit for 3,000 to 5,000 CZK (about 120 to 210 EUR) is typically the output of an online tool with a few comments, not a full analysis. For a mid-sized online shop, budget 25,000 to 40,000 CZK (about 1,000 to 1,600 EUR).

Is a freelance consultant or an agency better?

For budgets up to 40,000 CZK (about 1,600 EUR)/month, a freelance consultant is almost always the better choice: more real work, less overhead. For corporate budgets above 50,000 CZK (about 2,100 EUR)/month, an agency may also make sense.

Is SEO more expensive than PPC?

In the short term, usually not; in the long term, it is significantly cheaper. With PPC, you pay again for every visit, plus for the specialist. An SEO investment compounds: organic rankings keep bringing you traffic long after you have stopped paying. After 18 to 24 months, the cost per organic visit is usually an order of magnitude lower than the cost per PPC visit in the same niche.

Do I own the data and content after the engagement ends?

That should always be the case. You own the access to Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, the hosting and the article content. I also give my clients a comprehensive spreadsheet with all the exports and deliverables. 

Let’s sum it up

The price of SEO is not an hourly rate. It is the price of the decisions made on your behalf. What to optimise first, what to postpone, what to ignore. What to write and what not to write. Which links are worth 5,000 CZK (about 210 EUR) and which are not. Which technical error to fix next week and which can safely wait six months. Beyond all the prices, what matters is how well the SEO consultant fits into the project. Personally, I avoid large corporations where the work is just reports and spreadsheets. I want to implement, test and move things forward. There are certainly colleagues and agencies who work better with corporations and enjoy it. I focus mainly on online shops with a turnover of 70 to 250 million CZK (about 2.9 million to 10 million EUR) and on B2B.

If you are considering SEO for your project and want to talk about pricing in specific terms, take a look at my SEO consulting offer or get in touch via the contact form or on LinkedIn. The first introductory call is free. I will tell you whether SEO makes sense in your situation and, if so, in which budget range.

Euro amounts are approximate, converted at the Czech National Bank rate of 24.34 CZK per EUR on 29 October 2026.