SEO Cost in Australia: 11 Agencies' Published Prices (2026)

Australian SEO agencies that publish their prices charge between A$499 and A$5,000 a month for their entry retainer, with a median entry price of about A$1,050 a month (mostly excluding GST) across the 10 retainer sellers we checked on 2 November 2026. Their growth tiers cluster between A$1,500 and A$4,400 a month, and top tiers run from about A$6,000 to A$10,000 or more.

Most "SEO cost Australia" pages give a range with no source. This one is built only from prices that 11 Australian agencies publish on their own websites, with the URL, the GST treatment and the contract term for each. You also get what each budget level realistically buys in hours, what the pricing models cost, how to budget for AI search work (AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT), the contract red flags under Australian Consumer Law, a DIY cost comparison and a GA4 and Search Console ROI method. All prices were checked on 2 November 2026.

How much does SEO cost in Australia per month?

Based on published prices, a small Australian business should expect to pay about A$500 to A$1,100 a month for an entry-level local package, A$1,500 to A$4,400 for a growth retainer, and A$5,000 to A$10,000+ for national, ecommerce or enterprise campaigns. Those figures are mostly ex GST, so the invoice will be 10% higher.

To get there we opened the pricing pages, package pages and pricing guides of Australian agencies and kept only prices that each agency states as its own. Market "averages" quoted without a source were left out. Where an agency gives a range for its own tier, we record the range. The table below is the full data set.

Agency	Based in	Model	Published price (A$)	GST	Term	What the page says is included
Localsearch	National	Monthly local SEO	From 499/month, plus a one-off setup fee (amount not published)	Excluded	6-month minimum	Keyword strategy, on-page and technical fixes, content, backlinks, live dashboard. AI Optimisation add-on listed as "coming soon", sold separately, no price.
SEO Agency Perth WA	Perth	Four monthly plans	595 / 895 / 1,495 / 1,995 per month	Excluded	3-month minimum, no setup fee	Inclusions not itemised on the page.
Websites That Sell	Multi-city	Retainer, hourly, one-off	Local from 595/month; national or major-city 3,000 to 10,000+/month; Google Business Profile from 665/month; technical work 150/hour; strategy from 5,000 one-off	Excluded	Not stated	Also states a 2026 minimum engagement of 3,000 + GST, which conflicts with the local "from" price. Inclusions not itemised.
StudioHawk	Melbourne, Sydney	Three tiers (ranges)	Entry 500 to 1,000; Growth 1,500 to 3,000; Authority 5,000+ per month	Not stated	Not stated	Says most of its campaigns sit in Growth: keyword research, content, digital PR or links, reporting.
Digital8	Brisbane	Three tiers	Basic 1,000; Standard 1,000 to 2,500; Advanced 3,000 to 6,000+ per month	Not stated	"We don't do concrete contracts"	Basic: Google Business Profile setup, 5 to 10 local keywords, basic on-page edits, rank tracking, limited content.
iOnline	Gold Coast	Three tiers	1,100 / 1,600 / 2,100 per month (3-month term); 1,450 / 1,600 / 2,100 on a 12-month term that includes a website build	Excluded	3 or 12 months	Up to 5, 10 or 15 focus pages; technical SEO, local citations, monthly reporting. Google Business Profile is an add-on at 395/month per location. Audit from 1,500.
Redsearch	Sydney	Retainer	From 2,000/month; 5,000 to 10,000+ for competitive or national campaigns	Not stated	No lock-in	Strategy, technical audits, on-page, content, links or digital PR. Lists AI Overview and citation tracking as a service component.
Australian Internet Advertising	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane	Credit tiers	2,000 / 4,000 / 6,000 / 8,000 per month (10 / 25 / 38 / 60 credits)	Excluded	No lock-in, month to month	A credit covers one onsite hour, one piece of content or one backlink. Schema from the 4,000 tier; Google Business Profile posting from 6,000.
Spicy Web	Melbourne	Three tiers	Bronze 2,200 / Silver 4,400 / Gold 6,600 per month	Excluded (stated for Bronze and Gold)	Not stated	Inclusions not itemised per tier. Enterprise is scoped on request.
Prosperity Media	Sydney, Melbourne	Retainer	From 5,000/month	Not stated	Not stated	Not itemised.
Brafton Australia	Sydney	Units (A$135 each)	Consulting 270/hour; content 1.35/word; search performance brief 540; audits 6 to 80 units (about 810 to 10,800)	Not stated	Not stated	No monthly SEO retainer price published; reporting free for enrolled clients.

Prices as published on each agency's own page, checked 2 November 2026. Inclusion of an agency is not a recommendation. If you want help shortlisting agencies, our guide to AI SEO agencies in Australia covers that separately.

Low, median and high: what the published prices add up to

Ten of the 11 agencies publish a monthly retainer. Their entry prices, sorted, are A$499, A$500, A$595, A$595, A$1,000, A$1,100, A$2,000, A$2,000, A$2,200 and A$5,000. That gives a median entry price of about A$1,050 and a mean of about A$1,550, because one premium agency pulls the average up. Half of the agencies will start work for A$1,100 a month or less.

Price point	Agencies publishing it	Low	Median	High
Entry monthly retainer	10	A$499	about A$1,050	A$5,000
Highest fixed monthly tier shown	7	A$1,995	A$6,600	A$10,000+
Hourly rate	2	A$150 + GST	-	A$270
One-off audit	3	about A$810 (smallest Brafton audit)	-	about A$10,800
Google Business Profile add-on	2	A$395/month per location	-	from A$665 + GST/month

Two patterns stand out. First, there is a clear split between local-package sellers (A$499 to A$1,100) and full-service agencies (A$2,000 and up), with little published in between apart from Digital8 and StudioHawk's ranges. Second, larger tiers get cheaper per unit of work: Australian Internet Advertising's A$2,000 tier works out to A$200 per credit, its A$8,000 tier to about A$133 per credit; iOnline's price per focus page falls from A$220 to A$140 as the tiers rise.

Method and limitations

• Sample: 11 Australian agencies whose own pages state a price, found through Google searches for "seo cost australia", "seo pricing australia" and "seo packages australia" and through the agency sites that rank for them. Most agencies do not publish prices, so this sample leans towards agencies that sell on transparency.
• Excluded: market ranges an agency gives without saying they are its own, third-party directory listings, overseas suppliers and multi-channel packages that bundle SEO with ads and social.
• "From" prices are floors. Agencies quote after an audit, and a business in a competitive niche or with several locations will pay more than the starting price.
• Not a survey of what clients pay. These are advertised prices. Websites That Sell is the only agency that also publishes averages from its own client base.

Do Australian SEO prices include GST?

Usually not. Six of the 11 agencies say their prices exclude GST, none say prices include it, and five do not mention GST at all. GST is 10% (see the ATO's GST guidance), so a A$2,000 + GST retainer is a A$2,200 invoice. If your business is registered for GST you can generally claim that back as a GST credit, so the ex-GST figure is your real cost. If you are not registered, budget on the GST-inclusive number. When a quote does not say, ask in writing.

Retainer, project, hourly or performance-based: which pricing model is better?

For most Australian businesses a monthly retainer is the practical default, because SEO work is ongoing and every agency in our sample sells one. Project pricing suits a defined job such as an audit or migration, hourly suits advice and training, and performance-based pricing is rare and needs very careful contract wording.

Model	Published examples (A$)	Best for	Watch out for
Monthly retainer	499 to 8,000 fixed tiers; 10,000+ on request	Ongoing content, technical fixes, links and reporting	Paying for reporting and "monitoring" with little new work. Ask how many hours or deliverables the fee buys.
Project / one-off	Audit from about 810 (Brafton) or 1,500 (iOnline); strategy from 5,000 + GST (Websites That Sell); 5 local landing pages for 1,500 (iOnline)	Audits, migrations, site rebuilds, a fixed batch of pages	An audit with no implementation budget. Ask who will do the fixes and at what cost.
Hourly	150 + GST (Websites That Sell); 270 (Brafton)	Consulting, training an in-house person, small fixes	Open-ended hours. Set a monthly cap.
Performance-based	None of the 11 publishes a fee	Rarely a good fit; results depend on factors outside the agency's control	Payment tied to rankings for vague keywords, which encourages risky tactics.

What do SEO agencies charge per hour in Australia?

The two agencies that publish an hourly rate charge A$150 + GST (Websites That Sell, for technical execution) and A$270 (Brafton Australia, for on-page and technical consulting). Several agency guides put "typical" rates at roughly A$140 to A$300 an hour, but none of them shows where that range comes from, so treat it as an estimate rather than data.

What does a one-off SEO audit cost?

Published audit prices start at about A$810 for a basic crawl from Brafton and A$1,500 for iOnline's basic audit. StudioHawk lists site audits at A$2,000 to A$5,000, and Brafton's deepest audit with competitor analysis comes to about A$10,800. A useful audit ends with a prioritised fix list that someone can implement. If the agency will not tell you what it costs to implement the findings, the audit price is only half the budget.

What A$500, A$1,500 and A$3,000+ a month realistically buys

The simplest way to judge any retainer is to convert it into hours. At the published rates of A$150 to A$270 an hour, A$500 buys about 2 to 3 hours of work a month, A$1,500 about 6 to 10 hours, and A$3,000 about 11 to 20 hours. Tools, reporting and account management come out of the same hours.

Monthly budget (ex GST)	Hours at A$150 to A$270	Published examples at this level	What you should expect	What you should not expect
About A$500	2 to 3	Localsearch from A$499; StudioHawk Entry A$500 to A$1,000; Perth WA Entry A$595	Google Business Profile upkeep, a few local keywords, basic on-page fixes, citations, a monthly report	New content every month, link building, or ranking in a competitive city market
About A$1,500	6 to 10	Perth WA Essential A$1,495; iOnline A$1,100 to A$1,600; Digital8 Standard A$1,000 to A$2,500	Technical fixes, on-page work on 5 to 10 priority pages, 1 to 2 pieces of content, local citations, keyword tracking	Digital PR, national campaigns or large ecommerce catalogues
A$3,000+	11 to 20+	Digital8 Advanced from A$3,000; AIAD A$4,000 (25 credits); Spicy Web Silver A$4,400	A content plan with several pieces a month, link acquisition or digital PR, ongoing technical work, conversion tracking, strategy meetings, and room for AI search work	Guaranteed rankings or results in the first month

Is a cheap SEO package worth it?

A package around A$500 a month can be worth it for a single-location business in a low-competition area, where a well-kept Google Business Profile and clean local pages do most of the work. It is not enough for a competitive trade in a capital city, an ecommerce store or a national brand. The danger at the bottom of the market is not the price itself but what fills the hours: automated reports, mass directory submissions and bought links. Google's own advice warns against SEOs who talk about "submitting your site to thousands of search engines" or ask you to link to them.

How much does local SEO and Google Business Profile management cost?

Published local SEO packages start at A$499 to A$595 a month plus GST. Google Business Profile management, priced separately, runs from A$395 a month per location (iOnline add-on) to A$665 + GST a month (Websites That Sell). Multi-location businesses should ask whether the fee is per location, because that is how most local packages scale. Our post on getting into "near me" AI answers covers what local work now needs to include for AI search.

How much does AI search optimisation cost in Australia?

There is no published market price yet. None of the 11 agencies lists AI search optimisation (also sold as GEO, AEO or "AI SEO") as a priced line item. Localsearch lists an AI Optimisation add-on as "coming soon" with no price, StudioHawk says AI visibility tracking is included in every campaign, and Redsearch lists AI Overview and citation tracking as part of its service. The only Australian dollar figures we found are estimates: Shout Digital's 2026 guide puts a dedicated AEO/GEO retainer at A$2,500 to A$8,000+ a month and a one-off AEO/GEO audit at A$3,000 to A$8,000, without stating a method.

The demand is real even if the pricing is not settled. Google began rolling out AI Mode to Australians on 8 October 2025, and in our Australian keyword research AI Overviews already appeared on several SEO-buying searches, including "seo brisbane" and "local seo australia". In AI Rank Lab's own keyword research for Australia (2 November 2026), "ai search optimisation" had about 110 searches a month with a cost per click of about A$59, the highest in our SEO-buying keyword set, which suggests advertisers value those buyers.

What to ask for when AI search is in the quote

Because Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and snippet-eligible, most AI search work is good SEO done with AI answers in mind. Its guide to optimising for generative AI features also says Google Search does not use llms.txt files. Be cautious of a quote whose AI line item is mostly special files or markup. Ask instead for:

1. A baseline before work starts. A list of 20 to 50 questions your buyers ask, checked in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode with the location set to Australia, plus ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Record whether you are mentioned and which pages are cited.
2. Named deliverables. For example: rewrite 5 service pages to answer the top questions directly, fix crawler access for AI search bots, clean up business listings and reviews on the Australian directories that get cited.
3. The same check repeated at 3 and 6 months, using the same questions, so the change is measurable.
4. Search Console and GA4 evidence, not only screenshots of a single AI answer, which vary between runs and users.

What can actually be measured?

AI surface	What you can measure	Free way to check	Paid tracking
Google AI Overviews	Whether an AI Overview appears for a query in Australia, and which URLs it cites	Search Console's Generative AI performance report (impressions by page and country); manual searches	AI Rank Lab AI Overview tracker with location Australia
Google AI Mode	Same as above, for AI Mode answers	Same report (it covers AI Mode too)	AI Rank Lab AI Mode tracker
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude	Whether your brand is mentioned for a prompt, its position, and the URLs cited	Run the prompts by hand and log them	AI Rank Lab brand visibility runs the prompts you choose and stores each run (these runs do not emulate an Australian location)
Traffic from AI assistants	Sessions and conversions referred by chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and similar	GA4 session source report	AI Rank Lab GA4 integration

Red flags in Australian SEO contracts

The biggest red flags are guaranteed rankings, long lock-ins with exit fees, secrecy about the work, and contracts that leave the agency owning your content or accounts. Read the agreement before the proposal, because the proposal is marketing and the agreement is what you can enforce.

• Guaranteed rankings. Google's advice on hiring an SEO is blunt: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010), section 18 prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct, and section 4 treats a representation about a future matter as misleading if the business had no reasonable grounds for it. A guarantee of page-one rankings is exactly that kind of promise. Agencies in our sample that address this, such as iOnline and Redsearch, say plainly that rankings cannot be guaranteed.
• Long lock-ins and exit fees. Published minimum terms in our sample range from none (Australian Internet Advertising, Redsearch) to 3 months (iOnline, SEO Agency Perth WA), 6 months (Localsearch) and 12 months when a website build is bundled (iOnline). A minimum term is not unfair in itself, since early months are mostly setup. Be wary of automatic renewal, large early-exit fees and terms the agency can change on its own. The ACL's unfair contract terms rules cover standard-form small business contracts, and since November 2023 unfair terms can attract penalties.
• Who owns what. Your Google Business Profile, Search Console, GA4 property, domain and the content you paid for should be in your name, with the agency added as a user.
• Secrecy. Google advises caution if a company "won't clearly explain what they intend to do". You should get a log of changes made to your site.
• Link schemes and unsolicited offers. Google warns against SEOs who email out of the blue, claim a "special relationship" with Google, or require you to link to them.
• Unpriced extras. Setup fees, content, Google Business Profile management and AI search work are often sold separately. Localsearch, for example, charges a setup fee it does not publish, and iOnline prices Google Business Profile as an add-on.

Before you sign, our agency hiring guide has a fuller list of questions to ask in the pitch meeting.

Is it cheaper to do SEO yourself than hire an agency?

In cash terms, yes: a capable DIY setup costs from nothing to a few hundred US dollars a month in software, against A$1,000 to A$5,000 a month for most agencies. The real cost is your time. If the 6 to 10 hours of work a A$1,500 retainer buys would otherwise come out of your own week, compare it with what those hours are worth to your business.

Disclosure: AI Rank Lab is our product. We list it first because this is our site, and we've kept the same criteria for every tool below. Most SEO software is billed in US dollars, so your A$ cost moves with the exchange rate. Prices checked 2 November 2026.

Tool	Published price (USD per month)	What it covers for DIY SEO	Where it is the better choice
AI Rank Lab	Starter $69, Professional $149, Enterprise $499; 100 free credits at signup, no card	AI visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode (Google checks by country, including Australia), SEO, AEO and GEO audits, keyword planner, content writing and publishing	You want to track and fix AI search visibility as well as classic SEO in one place
Google Search Console	Free	Clicks, impressions and queries from Google, indexing problems, the Generative AI performance report	Everyone should have it, whatever else they buy
Google Analytics 4	Free	Organic and AI referral sessions, leads and sales as key events	Measuring whether SEO turns into revenue
Semrush	From $139 on monthly billing ($199 and $299 tiers; custom above)	Keyword research, site audit, rank tracking, backlink data, AI visibility prompts on paid tiers	Deep keyword and competitor research across many markets
Ahrefs	Starter $29; Lite $129; Standard $249; Advanced $449; Brand Radar AI from $199	Backlink index, keyword research, site audit, rank tracking; AI brand monitoring as an add-on	Backlink analysis and link-building research

An agency is the better choice when you need skills you do not have (technical fixes on a complex site, digital PR), when your time is worth more than the retainer, or when you operate in a competitive market where several hours a week of skilled work are needed. A common middle path for small businesses is a one-off audit from an agency, then DIY implementation with a tool and Search Console. To automate the audit step, AI Rank Lab's audit crawls the site and lists SEO, answer-engine and generative-engine fixes in priority order.

How do I measure SEO ROI in GA4 and Search Console?

Measure SEO return as the gross profit from leads and sales that organic search and AI answers produce, minus what you pay for SEO, divided by what you pay. Set this up before the agency starts, or you will have nothing to compare against.

1. Record a baseline. Export three to six months of Search Console clicks and impressions, plus GA4 organic sessions and leads, before work begins.
2. Set up key events in GA4. Mark form submissions, phone-number clicks, bookings and purchases as key events so results are counted as leads, not visits.
3. Split branded from non-branded queries. In Search Console, filter out queries containing your brand name. Growth in non-branded clicks is the clearest sign the SEO work is reaching new customers.
4. Track AI referrals. In GA4, look for sessions from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com. Our guide to tracking AI referral traffic in GA4 has the step-by-step setup.
5. Check the Generative AI performance report. Google added it to Search Console in June 2026. It reports impressions only, by page and country, so use it to see which pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, not to count clicks.
6. Calculate the return quarterly. Illustrative example only: on a A$2,000 + GST retainer (A$2,000 real cost if you claim the GST credit), 6 extra organic leads a month at a 25% close rate and A$4,000 gross profit per job is A$6,000 in gross profit, a 200% return. Plug in your own numbers.
7. Judge at six months, not monthly. Rankings and leads move unevenly from month to month. Agree on the measures and the review date in the contract.

For the bigger picture of how AI answers are changing search in Australia, see our AI SEO trends for Australia.

The bottom line on SEO pricing in Australia

Budget around A$500 to A$1,100 a month plus GST for basic local SEO, A$1,500 to A$4,400 for a growth campaign, and A$5,000+ for national or ecommerce work. Whatever the number, convert it into hours and named deliverables, insist on a baseline that includes AI answers, keep your accounts in your own name, and walk away from anyone who guarantees rankings.

If you would rather see where you stand in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT before you talk to an agency, you can run an audit and a first visibility check with AI Rank Lab's 100 free signup credits, no card needed.