7 SEO Pricing Models for Agencies and Consultants

Most SEO agencies — especially smaller ones (less than $1M ARR) — have a pricing problem.

Poorly priced SEO services are a silent killer. In fact, you might not realize that it’s an issue if you’re adding revenue each month.

However, pricing symptoms often show up in other ways causing bigger problems for your SEO agency…

• Poor margins due to undercharging for work
• Poor margins due to improperly scoped work, which causes you to do additional [unpaid] work
• Inability to hire the right team to deliver services
• Inability for the founder to pull themselves out of service delivery

Broken pricing is generally consequence of spending too much time looking outside (at competitor pricing) and not enough time looking at your own numbers.

Check out out guide on how to RAISE your prices

This article will review every SEO pricing method available to you, and the pros and cons of each.

At the end, I’ll detail the best SEO pricing model based on by 10+ years of building, scaling and selling SEO agencies.

1. Fixed fee pricing model

What is fixed fee agency pricing?

Flat fee pricing charges a flat amount for your SEO service. I generally look at this as an ongoing scope / engagement (i.e. monthly fee), not a one-off engagement.

I remember when I was just getting started and I was just throwing out numbers – $500, $300, $1,000 per month – based on what I thought our services were worth.

A lot of agencies start here because it’s simple to quantify, both from an agency management and client understanding perspective.

Examples of fixed fee pricing

• $500 / month for SEO
• $300 / per piece of content published
• $1,000 / month for link building services

How is fixed fee pricing calculated?

I’ve seen a lot of young agencies calculate this based on what they believe their service is worth market pricing or competitors – just like I did.

What’s so wrong with that? It should be built based on projected number of hours to complete a given task. If it’s not, it exposes you to scope creep.

2. Project based pricing model

What is project based pricing?

Similar to flat fee pricing, but focused on short term campaigns or deliverables.

Examples of project based pricing

• $5,000 for a technical SEO audit
• $2,000 for a set of blog posts
• $500 / page for web design

How is project based pricing calculated?

Similar to fixed free pricing, with the assumption that it will be a one time scope of work.

3. Value based pricing model

What is value based pricing?

Where work is priced based on the “value” (or outcome) it delivers to the client as opposed to the agency’s time, costs, margins, etc.

It can be viewed as the price clients are willing to pay for your services based on the value brought.

You must be able to impact results or desired outcomes if you choose this pricing model.

This is an unpopular point of view – mainly because people confuse Value Pricing with Performance Pricing.

Value Based pricing does NOT mean you get paid based on the “value driven by your services”, that would be Performance Pricing. Value pricing is based on the PERCEIVED VALUE that your services can add, not the ACTUAL RESULTS VALUE of your services.

If you’re really interested in this one, I strongly recommend watching the video at the top of this page. I breakdown Gary Vee and his Value Based pricing model at about the 6-minute mark.

Examples of value based pricing

• Additional value brought from having someone like Gary Vee (or relevant influencer) on staff. Having that level of intellect in house will command additional value in engaging with your agency.
• Additional value brought from having proprietary software in house that the market can only get access to if they become an agency client. Having this software ONLY available to clients commands additional market value for that client.

How is value based pricing calculated?

Pricing is calculated based on the customer’s perception of value AND the value you determine you can bring to a client campaign. They need to align to strike a deal.

4. Performance based pricing model

What is performance based pricing?

When your SEO agency is compensated based on the output of your work. For example, if you’re working with an attorney managing their SEO, you will be get paid each time you drive a conversion from SEO.

Examples of performance based pricing

• $500 each phone call driven
• 15% of each sale made as a result of services
• 5% equity stake in the business based on X milestones hit
• Free until you rank for “boner pills KW”

How is performance based pricing calculated?

You need to make sure you’re tracking the right things in Analytics / CRM closely, as you’ll be compensated based on the results you drive.

5. Retainer based pricing model

What is retainer based pricing?

When a client agree to a pre-negotiated and pre-paid fee for either a set amount of time, or a set number of deliverables.

Examples of retainer based pricing

• $5k/month for 50 hours of SEO work
• $5k/month for 4 posts a day on each social platform, create 20 images, respond to 100 comments, etc

How is retainer based pricing calculated?

You need to forecast the number of hours it will take to deliver work across the entire agreement. You can do this by building detailed hourly forecasts during the proposal phase and sum / amortize these into monthly retainers.

6. Points based pricing model

What is points based pricing?

Each project within a campaign is assigned a fixed-point total based on value creation rather than hourly estimates.

Point allocations are defined at the start of every month, and are based on an agreed-upon scope. This allows for more efficient and accurate forecasting and planning.

Examples of points based pricing

• 20 points of work each month = 3 points for a blog post (4/month) and 4 points for email blast

How is points based priicing calculated?

Point allocations are defined at the start of every month, and are based on an agreed-upon scope.

Points are roughly based on hours to complete work x desired margin. You need to create an entire scale of this to pitch to clients.

7. Hourly pricing model

What is hourly pricing?

The client pays for your staff’s time, by the hour. Generally speaking, hours are sold with minimums or in monthly retainers.

Examples of hourly pricing

• 10 hours of on page work month 1, 10 hours of keyword research month 1 and 2

How is hourly pricing calculated?

Hourly (aka billable rates) are assigned to each employee.

The BEST Pricing Model for SEO Agencies…

The truth is, your SEO pricing should be fluid. Meaning, you’re always looking to improve it as your agency grows.

We’ve outlined 3 pricing models that we recommend based on your agency’s revenue path.

1. Hours-based, Value-influenced Pricing (HBVI)

HBVI pricing is based on 2 inputs:

1. Your internal costs to deliver the service
2. Desired profit margin based on the impact of your services (i.e. doubling traffic will amount to $x in sales)

Let’s use a non-agency example, as it’s easier to understand this pricing model.

Imagine you’re a business that makes computer mouses. You’d likely price your mouse based on the cost to make the mouses (materials, labor, etc). 

Once they know their costs, they add a markup depending on:

• How much profit they want to make (factoring in the volume you need to sell to break even)?;
• Whether they can sell the added value/features-based benefits (such as whether it’s wireless, etc.);
• How much are customers willing to pay.

In the retail world, this is called cost plus pricing.

HBVI pricing is the same as cost plus pricing, just applied to agencies.

HBVI forces you to understand your numbers and think through your impact with clients. What you end up with is a pricing model that guarantees a certain level of profitability.

Let’s quickly walk through how to calculate HBVI pricing.

Step 1: Find your hourly rate

The only way this truly works is by tracking your team’s time. You have to understand how much it costs the business to deliver your services.

Don’t limit costs to staffing/freelancers. Take every cost into account, everything that goes into delivering your service.

• Software costs
• Office costs, if you have one
• Travel (if applicable)
• Cost of labor

Divide this new total by the number of working hours in the year (12 working months / weeks / days – time for annualized employee holidays, fixed holidays, e.g. Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc).

Now you know the actual cost of delivering client work, with an accurate hourly rate.

Step 2: Project the number of hours

With this more accurate hourly rate — and time tracking — you will finally know what it costs to deliver client work.

It doesn’t matter whether a project is 10 or 100 hours. This cost is now fixed.

Once this is clear, load the minimum profits you want/need to make — as a founder, or team of co-founders/directors — into the hourly rate.

Step 3: Tack on desired margin

Now you can front-load higher margins based on the value-based impact of your agency’s work. Here’s how you do this:

• Let’s assume the actual cost of delivering client work is $3k for 30 hours. As a founder, you want to make $500 profit on this project.
• Now factor in the value-influenced impact. If the revenue increase is 10%, you could charge 10% of the ROI, and bake that into the project/monthly price.
• With a 10% increase on $500k revenue, a client will generate an extra $50k because of your work.
• Charge $5000 more and divide that by the number of months a project runs.

Most founders worry about whether clients can afford higher prices. You solve that problem by knowing your clients inside and out, particularly pain points, revenue models, and budgets.

Charging more is also easier to justify when the impact outweighs the costs.

2. Project-based, Tripwire Pricing (Small ticket, Big upsell)

Project-based, Tripwire Pricing (PBTW) is a great way to sell something small, low value, to upsell bigger ticket services.

Factor in everything I talked about above. Have a clear handle on your costs and value-influenced impact, to price bigger ticket retainer or project-based services.

That’s your goal. Use a small ticket offering to upsell services that make real money. 

You see this a lot in the “internet marketing” world. A low cost offer that establishes a relationship with the customer, making it easier to sell higher ticket offers down the line.

Most agencies can spinoff smaller products/services that generate enormous value for clients. Services such as:

• SEO agencies can sell Website Quality Audits (WQA)
• Content marketing playbooks
• SEO and keyword competitor analysis
• Template-based eCommerce sites (on Shopify)
• Low-cost, template-based websites/micro sites

Sell these at-cost, or only making a marginal profit. Make them easy to sell, compelling, and affordable. So affordable that you can take card details/payment on a single call.

Then deliver enormous value in a short timescale. Impress the client. Do another call, and use this to upsell ongoing, bigger ticket services.

We do this at WEBRIS, with SEO Sprints™, to upsell Content and Link Sprints. 60% of clients buy ongoing services, and 80% come back after one sprint. Even though we aren’t selling retainers, clients value the impact of our work and keep coming back.

You can do the same. Low-ticket services are a very effective way to make an impact quickly. Give clients a compelling reason to keep working with you long-term.

3. Impact/Value-based Pricing (IVB)

Impact/Value-based Pricing (IVB) is more effective for agencies that generate outsized proven impact. Generally, this works for larger agencies, coaches and consultants that add enormous value for enterprise clients, or high-net worth individuals.

Examples of this are:

• Agencies that generate at least $10M+ revenue upticks for clients
• Consultants that increase clients’ revenue $1M+
• Training — such as  The Blueprint Training program — that increase revenue anywhere between $20k and $100k+

When you are making that kind of impact for clients with decent budgets, you can charge anywhere between $100,000 and $1 million for your services.

IVB pricing allows you to charge the maximum amount without increasing workloads. It completely removes the “hours for work” model from your prices.

IVB pricing works for agencies, coaches and consultants who are making a massive impact and want to take the leap to higher revenue and profits.

Test the market with one or two new clients. Charge what you think is justifiable in the context of your impact, and the clients budget. Keep doing that until you finally get market pushback.

There’s a good chance you’ve been undercharging for a while now.

Key Takeaways: How to fix your agency’s pricing?

Agency pricing is broken. It keeps your margins and profits low. Most agencies have this problem. And in most cases — even if you don’t fix anything else — it’s fixable.

Here’s the 3 pricing models you could implement instead:

• Hours-based, Value-influenced Pricing (HBVI). Factor in the total actual cost of delivering services, plus the profits you want to make, and add the value-impact of your agency’s work.
• Project-based, Tripwire Pricing (PBTW) is a small ticket, big upsell model. Offer a low-cost, small ticket deliverable as a psychological gateway offering to bigger ticket, ongoing services.
• Impact/Value-based Pricing (IVB). For agencies and consultants that make a huge impact, you can start pricing accordingly.

Are you ready to fix your pricing, positioning, and service delivery? 

We can help you do that. Book a time to talk to a growth advisor about how we can work 1 on 1 to grow your agency.