What does an SEO agency cost? And what does GEO cost?

01

What drives the price

Two offers for “SEO” can mean very different things. The price follows the effort. These six factors drive it the most:

• Size of the website: A shop with thousands of products needs more work than a site with twenty pages.
• Technical state: If crawling, load time or structure have problems, those get fixed first. That takes time before content can start to work.
• Competition: Competitive industries need more content, more depth and more external signals.
• Markets and languages: Every extra market brings its own search queries, its own competitors and often its own pages.
• Content needs: If you supply the texts yourself, you pay less than someone who has everything written.
• Implementation: Some agencies only advise. Others also make the changes on your website. That makes a big difference to the price.

Coordination and reporting come on top. A weekly call takes more time than one report a month.

02

The usual pricing models

Many agencies combine these models. Often an audit comes first, as a project. A monthly retainer follows.

03

Agency, freelancer or in-house team?

Not every company needs an agency. The choice depends on how much work there is and how much know-how you already have in-house.

• Freelancer: fits clearly defined tasks. When they are on holiday or ill, the work often stops.
• Agency: brings several disciplines together, such as technical SEO, content and link building. The trade-off is more coordination.
• In-house team: worth it if search is a core channel. But it takes time, know-how and the right tools.

A mix often works well. The agency lays the foundation, and your team carries it on.

04

How much does SEO cost per month?

A monthly fee on its own says little. What matters is what you get for it. So ask for a list of what happens each month: how many pages get reworked, how much new content is created and which technical tasks are planned.

Reliable, current market figures for Germany are hard to find. An international Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers found that agencies charge 3,209 US dollars per month on average. Freelancers averaged 1,348 US dollars (Ahrefs, as of August 2024). For the German market, treat this as a rough guide only.

Don't plan SEO for a single month. Search engines need time to pick up and assess changes. That is why Google recommends asking every provider up front what results they expect, and in what time frame.

05

What GEO adds to the cost

GEO builds on SEO. A lot of the work overlaps: a clean technical setup, clear content, a recognizable brand. You don't pay for that twice. Three tasks are new:

• Prompt set: a fixed list of the questions your customers ask before they buy
• Measurement: repeated checks in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
• Third-party sources: work on trade media, directories and comparison sites that write about you

How much this adds depends on how many systems and questions are tracked. If an agency bills SEO and GEO separately, it should explain where the two overlap.

One more thing: in its guide, Google advises you to check whether advice from “AEO” or “GEO” services matches the official Google Search guidelines. A good GEO agency can answer that.

06

When an agency pays off

The price alone doesn't tell you whether an agency is worth it. Compare it with what a new customer is worth to you. A simple calculation helps:

• How much does a new customer bring in on average?
• How many inquiries do you need to close one deal?
• So how many extra inquiries per month would you need to cover the cost?

If that number is realistic, take a closer look. If it isn't, start smaller, for example with an audit. Either way, plan for a longer time frame. Search rarely pays off in the first month.

07

What a good proposal contains

A good proposal can be compared with another one. For that, these points should be in writing:

• Starting analysis: what was checked and what it showed
• Goals: how success is measured, for example inquiries, visibility or mentions in AI answers
• Monthly services: concrete tasks, no catch-all words like “optimization”
• Responsibilities: what the agency implements and what your team has to deliver
• Reporting: how often you get updates, and on what
• Term and cancellation: how long you are tied in and how you can get out
• Extra costs: whether texts, tools or links are billed separately

08

Warning signs: when an offer sounds too good

• Number-one guarantees. Google is clear about this: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”
• Guaranteed mentions in ChatGPT. No provider controls what an AI system answers. Anyone who promises this is selling something they can't control.
• Lots of links with no clear quality criteria. Volume without review does little and raises the risk.
• No insight into the work. You should be able to see what was changed on your website, and why.
• Long lock-in with no way out. A minimum term is normal. Without a way to cancel, though, you carry all the risk.

09

Questions to ask every agency

Google has published its own list of questions for hiring an SEO. The first six questions below are based on it. We added the last two for GEO:

• Can you show me references, with source and time frame?
• Do you follow Google Search Essentials?
• What results do you expect in what time frame, and how do you measure success?
• What experience do you have in my industry and my market?
• What exactly happens each month, and who does the work?
• How will I find out what was changed on my website, and why?
• GEO: Which prompt set do you use to measure visibility in AI answers?
• GEO: Where do links and mentions come from, and how are they checked?

Good agencies answer these questions directly. If the answers stay vague, that is an answer too.

10

How SEESZN prices it

Depending on how much you want to do yourself, you can work with us in these ways:

You can see all prices at a glance on our pricing page.