SEO Pricing: $349 to $1,390 a Month, Published Upfront | Webics

One of the most common questions we get from business owners on the NSW South Coast is simple: “How much should I be paying for SEO?”

Here is our answer, upfront, before anything else on this page.

What SEO Costs at Webics

Three packages. All prices exclude GST, on a 12 month minimum term and then month to month, with no cancellation fees. Every one of them includes the website itself, the hosting and the ongoing support, not just the SEO work.

Essential, $349 per month. Up to 10 pages, 5 performing keyphrases, one geographical area, Google Business Profile set up and updated monthly, a blog post each quarter, directory submissions, website audits, monthly analytics reporting, and 15 minutes with your account manager.

Advanced, $779 per month. Up to 20 pages, 15 keyphrases, three geographical areas, weekly Google Business Profile updates, a blog post every month, conversion tracking on calls and forms, priority support, and half an hour with your account manager.

Complete, $1,390 per month. Up to 40 pages, 30 keyphrases, six geographical areas, Google Business Profile updates twice a week, monthly content optimisation, Search Console and Analytics managed for you, your Google Ads account built and managed, and up to an hour with your account manager plus a quarterly strategy review. Your ad budget is paid to Google separately.

If you want a one-off piece of work rather than a monthly plan, a comprehensive website audit is $875, or $1,375 with a UX review, and a Google Business Profile setup on its own is $250. Our general hourly rate is $155. You can see what each SEO package includes in full on our services page.

Why That Is Less Than You Expected

Most Australian agencies quote somewhere between $1,200 and $3,500 a month for ongoing SEO, climbing well past that for competitive industries and national campaigns. Those are their rates, not ours. Our top package costs less per month than the middle of that range, and it already covers the website and the hosting as well.

We can do that because we only do SEO on websites we built.

Too much of what decides a ranking is the build itself. Most agencies inherit a site they cannot change, then spend half the retainer fighting slow hosting, bloated code and broken structure. We do not have that problem. We built the site, we host it, and we can change anything the same day, so a recommendation gets implemented instead of sitting in a report. Bundling the SEO into a plan that already covers the website and its hosting removes the duplication, and that saving goes into the monthly figure.

It also means we cannot help with SEO on a site somebody else built. That is a real limit, and we would rather say so upfront than take the money and fight the build.

What’s Usually Included?

A reputable SEO package should always include:

• Keyword research tied to what your customers are actually searching for
• Technical SEO (site speed, mobile performance, crawlability, structured data)
• On-page optimisation (titles, meta descriptions, headings, content quality)
• Google Business Profile management for local businesses
• Monthly reporting on rankings, traffic, and results
• Some form of content, whether that’s blog posts, landing pages, or both

What separates a good package from a mediocre one isn’t just the list of inclusions. It’s whether the agency is doing those things with genuine strategy behind them, or just ticking boxes.

Local SEO vs National SEO

If your business serves customers in a specific area, like Nowra, Shoalhaven, Wollongong or the South Coast generally, local SEO is where you should start. It’s more targeted, often shows results faster, and costs less than broader national campaigns.

Local SEO focuses on ranking in the Google Maps pack, local search results, and searches with geographic intent like “electrician Nowra” or “web design South Coast.” The Google Business Profile is central to this, and keeping it optimised and active makes a real difference.

National SEO is a different scope of work. If you’re targeting customers across multiple states or selling online without a geographic limit, you need a broader strategy, more content, and a stronger backlink profile. That takes more time and more budget.

Hourly and Project-Based Pricing

Not all SEO work is done on a monthly plan. Our general hourly rate is $155 for one-off work like a specific technical fix or a migration, and our audits are $875, or $1,375 with a UX review. All exclude GST.

For comparison, agencies around the country commonly charge $150 to $300 an hour, and quote $2,000 to $5,000 for a comprehensive audit as a project fee.

A one-off audit is a sensible starting point if you want to understand where your site stands before committing to anything ongoing.

What to Watch Out For

Price alone tells you very little. What matters is whether the agency can show you the substance behind the number. These are the things worth walking away from:

• No clear monthly deliverables. If nobody can tell you what will actually be done each month, nothing will be.
• No reporting, or reporting that only shows rankings. A ranking is not a result. You want traffic and enquiries.
• Promises of page one in a fortnight. SEO does not work that way, and anyone saying otherwise is either guessing or gaming something that will be reversed.
• Bought links. Paid link schemes are against Google’s guidelines and the penalty lands on your site, not theirs.
• Lock-in contracts with no exit. A contract should keep you because the work is good, not because you cannot leave. We ask for 12 months to give the work time to compound, then it is month to month with no cancellation fees.
• No explanation of method. If they cannot explain how they get results in plain English, that is the answer.

Ask any agency you’re considering:

• What specifically will be done each month?
• How do you measure success, and what does reporting look like?
• How long before we’d expect to see results?
• Can you explain your link building approach?

A good agency will answer these clearly. If you get vague responses, keep looking.

Is SEO Worth It?

For most businesses, yes, but only if you’re working with someone who understands your market and takes a considered approach. SEO is a long game. Results usually start becoming visible at the three to six month mark, with stronger compounding growth beyond that.

If you’re a local business on the NSW South Coast and want to understand what an SEO campaign would look like for your specific situation, get in touch with the team at Webics. We’re based in Nowra and have been helping regional businesses grow online since 2008.