How Much Do SEO and GSO (Generative Search Optimization) Cost in 2026?

The search landscape looks radically different from what it did just two years ago.  Generative AI Overviews are everywhere you look, and AI search platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT are becoming the norm for many users.  At the same time, classic SEO is still in play for some, especially for local businesses and e-commerce stores.  Moving into 2026, most businesses will need to incorporate at least some elements of GSO (generative search optimization) into their SEO strategies in order to stay visible online.  This begs the question: how much should SEO cost in 2026? Since most campaigns will entail a hybrid approach (SEO plus GSO), does this mean costs will increase?  It could potentially mean an increase in spending, but it doesn’t always have to.  As we’ll explore in this article, investing in the right services for your needs is the best way to save money on SEO services.  For example, if your website has abysmal loading speeds, all the high-authority backlinks in the world won’t help you. Instead of wasting thousands on content or backlinks, a simple technical audit is all you need to start ranking well again.  In this post, we’ll reveal how much SEO costs in 2026, including tips for finding the right services for your business so that you don’t blow your budget.   

How Much Does SEO Cost On Average?

The price of SEO services varies depending on the size and scope of your business, as well as the competition in your industry.  Most businesses choose the monthly pricing model for SEO services.  In fact, according to a survey from our friends at Ahrefs, the most common monthly rate from SEO professionals is $500 to $1000. However, instead of focusing on how much SEO costs on average, a better question to ask yourself is: How much will it cost to meet your specific search visibility goals? After all, your exact search marketing needs will vary from industry to industry (and business to business).  That means there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for SEO pricing. Rather, your best bet is to learn which SEO services your website needs the most first before committing to a specific budget limit.  Also, there are some general trends that will give you an idea of how much you can expect to pay for SEO services in 2026. For instance, here are some broad rules of thumb based on company size. 

Small business SEO

Most small businesses can expect to pay approximately $750 to $2,000 per month.  This price encompasses:

1. Basic keyword research and optimization 
2. Link-building 
3. Other essential tasks (technical SEO, reputation management) 

High–quality managed SEO packages tend to run at least $500 per month. Anything lower than that should raise a red flag due to quality and credibility concerns (i.e., good SEO doesn’t come cheap).  Also, the more competitive the industry, the higher the cost of SEO will be. This is because it will take more work to outrank established competitors.  For this reason, most local SEO campaigns see better results at $1,000 per month due to the competitiveness of local search rankings.  Just look at the massive amount of competition that exists on this local SERP for the keyword ‘best plumber St. Petersburg.’ Besides the top-rated plumbers in the area, there are also sponsored ads that other brands must overcome. Making headway here would take a sizable investment into local SEO (in the $1000 - $2,000 per month range).  As another example, imagine you’re trying to rank for a common keyword like ‘CBD oil.’  Here’s a quick look at its metrics: As you can see, it has a sky-high keyword difficulty score of 94 (which qualifies as ‘super hard’ to rank for).  This ‘score’ represents the sheer amount of competition that exists online for the term ‘CBD oil.’  Because of this, it could take literal years to establish the kind of authority you need to rank in the top results and receive AI citations (like in Google’s AI Overviews).  In other words, you definitely aren’t going to achieve your goal on just $500 a month. 

Medium-sized business SEO 

Medium-sized businesses can expect to pay at least $2,000 per month on SEO and GSO services.  This price includes:

• More comprehensive keyword research/prompt research 
• Content marketing to improve topical depth and authority 
• On-page optimization, including keywords, structured data, and proper formatting 
• More aggressive link building (digital PR for brand mentions, editorial guest posts, etc.) 

Bear in mind, this is for SEO campaigns with a national/local focus.  If you’re engaging in SEO for a competitive international campaign, you’ll need to spend anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 a month.  Ultimately, it depends on where you’re standing in your industry. If you’re a total newcomer, you can expect to spend more.  If you’re already established online and have a solid reputation, you won’t have to spend as much. 

Large business SEO 

Larger businesses tend to allocate approximately $5,000 per month toward SEO/GSO.  This price covers all aspects of SEO, including:

1. Advanced keyword analysis and prompt research 
2. Competitor analysis on the SERPs and for generative AI citations 
3. Website architecture optimization (technical SEO, web copy, etc.) 
4. Top-tier link-building strategies (backlinks and brand mentions from major publications and niche-relevant sites) 

Once again, SEO pricing for large businesses can vary drastically due to industry, notoriety, and competition. 

Enterprise-level SEO services 

Lastly, enterprise SEO pricing depends on the size and scope of the project.  Bearing that in mind, the majority of enterprise-level projects start at $10,000 per month, but this is rarely the final amount.  Most projects will have to amplify certain areas in order to find true success, like focusing on aggressive link-building campaigns to outrank a stubborn competitor (or to earn more AI citations).  Also, not all SEO costs come in the form of monthly retainers.  As we’ll soon explore, it’s also possible to pay per task or utilize an hourly rate for the services provided. 

What About GSO for AI Search Visibility? How Much Does it Cost?

Next, let’s address GSO specifically. What can brands expect to pay for AI search optimization? Is it more or less expensive than traditional SEO? First, we should clarify that SEO is slowly transforming into GSO.  After a while, every SEO campaign will have to incorporate GSO best practices in order to remain relevant and successful.  This is because:

• Google’s classic algorithm continues to incorporate AI and machine learning elements 
• LLM-powered search systems are becoming the norm
• Even Google is beginning to resemble more of an ‘answer engine’ than a true search engine (because of AI Mode and AI Overviews)

Also, many of the tasks involved in AI search optimization mirror and enhance classic SEO, too.  An example would be building editorial backlinks on news and media outlets. These types of backlinks are extremely important for AI search, but they’re also enormously impactful on organic search results, too.  Therefore, if you’re smart about the services you select, you can effectively engage in a double-duty campaign that entails SEO and GSO.  However, this isn’t always possible.  There are times when a brand may need to invest in SEO and GSO services in order to remain relevant.  For instance, imagine a business with a strong local presence AND online retail sales. They would need to:

1. Build more AI citations to start building leads online 
2. Retain top local search rankings to keep generating local leads and sales

That would mean allocating a monthly budget for things like GBP management as well as AI search optimization tasks like building brand mentions and using structured data. 

Common SEO and GSO Pricing Models

There are a few ways that SEO agencies and professionals structure their pricing.  As a result, your overall SEO cost will vary depending on which pricing model works best for your needs. The main pricing models for SEO are:

• Monthly retainer based on deliverables
• Monthly retainer without deliverables (major red flag, avoid at all costs) 
• Hourly rates 
• Project based 

Monthly retainer based on deliverables

We focus on itemized deliverables for all SEO campaigns, including our white-label campaigns (reseller services).  That means, even if you use us to outsource your clients’ SEO, you’ll still be able to provide them with itemized deliverables branded as your own.  Reputable SEO agencies follow this model since it provides evidence for your ROI. Without deliverables, you’ll have no way of knowing if the agency is actually improving your online visibility or not.  What are our deliverables? Primarily, we provide:

1. Content 
2. Backlinks
3. Rankings
4. AI citations 
5. Audit reports 

Other full-service agencies have the habit of lumping SEO pricing in with other services, like web design or ‘maintenance.’  This is often a tricky way to avoid reporting on true SEO deliverables, or not actually doing any optimization work.  At The HOTH, we emphasize the fact that we present itemized SEO deliverables so that you can see exactly where your SEO budget is going and the returns it’s providing. 

Cost of Keyword Research and SEO audits

Let’s dive into some specific SEO services, like keyword research and SEO audits.  Since most campaigns begin with a site audit and keyword discovery, it’s the perfect starting point for analyzing pricing.  For standalone services, keyword research and site audits range from $500 - $2,000.  Important note: If you pay for a standalone site audit or keyword research project, they will not include any content creation or backlinks.  If your goals are to actually generate organic traffic, rank higher, and earn more citations, you’ll also need content and links. 

Cost of content Creation for SEO

The first major goal of most SEO campaigns is to get your site ranking for specific keywords.  To make this happen, you need to produce helpful content that:

1. Aligns with the search intent behind each keyword (i.e., to inform, to educate, to buy, etc.) 
2. Answers common audience questions 
3. Fleshes out your area of expertise in as much detail as possible 

Pricing for content creation is actually pretty tricky. It depends on numerous factors, such as:

1. How in-depth the content is (original insights from subject matter experts cost more) 
2. The overall word count (longer pieces cost more) 
3. The quality and expertise of the writer (top writers charge higher rates) 

Despite the popularity of AI search tools, content marketing is still alive and well. It’s simply moving from ‘rank and click’ to ‘get cited and remembered for later.’   To get a feel for average content prices, here is a great graphic from PeakFreelance.com: According to the survey, the average freelance copywriter charges $350 -$399 for a 1,500 word blog post.  You could pay thousands of dollars for peer-reviewed content from a seasoned expert in your field, or you could write content yourself. Both strategies work well when done correctly.  At the end of the day, optimized content costs are a big part of SEO pricing.

Cost of link-building services

Link-building services are still essential to search marketing success, regardless if your focus is on classic search or generative AI.  However, it is true that certain techniques have become less popular and less effective at gaining visibility.  An example is tiered link-building, which involves building hundreds (and even thousands) of sub-quality backlinks in ‘tiers’ to pump up your high-quality backlinks.  Now, tactics like creating original research, media outreach, and digital PR-esque tactics have become the cream of the crop.  Guest posts and link insertions also remain valuable and yield great results.  Also, the average price of a link by doing blogger outreach can range from as little as $100 to over $4000.  It all depends on the website you’re getting a link from and your industry.  Here is a great graph from Ahrefs: Once you’ve got the initial costs out of the way, the majority of your monthly SEO spend typically goes toward link-building. 

Cost of on-page SEO and technical SEO

On-page SEO involves making sure that your content is easily understood by search engines, LLMs (large language models), and your target audience. Some on-page SEO services include:

• Heading optimization (H1, H2, H3) and Title tags
• Adding structured data like semantic HTML and schema markup (crucial for making your pages easy to parse by AI systems) 
• Meta descriptions
• Chunking (ensuring content is sorted into self-contained ‘chunks’) 
• Image alt tags
• Internal links for topic clusters and a better user experience 

Technical SEO involves optimizing your website and pages so that Google can crawl, index, and understand the purpose of your pages. Common technical SEO tasks include:

• XML sitemap audits in Google Search Console
• Making sure Robots.txt isn't blocking important pages
• Checking error status codes
• Making sure the site uses HTTPS
• Other tasks to improve the site speed

Our SEO experts always check for technical and on-page red flags before kicking off a managed SEO plan for our clients.

Monthly retainer without deliverables

As we’ve said, SEO agencies that don’t provide monthly deliverables are often untrustworthy.  Transparency is key when ordering SEO services, and you can’t afford to waste your budget on false promises.  Personally, we’ve seen far too many business owners who were investing in their SEO for years but weren’t aware of the actual work being done to improve their rankings. This creates distrust and doubt in the service provider, and often results in cancellation.  While some agencies may use this model and do honest work, it’s too much of a gamble on your behalf. Instead, stick with SEO agencies that are transparent about the work they do. 

SEO hourly rates/consulting

Another option is to charge by the hour, but this is typically reserved for solo SEO gurus.  We don’t charge by the hour because we focus on off-page SEO (link-building and reputation management) and content creation.  Therefore, an hourly structure doesn’t make much sense because it would be difficult to track.  However, lots of small SEO agencies and individual SEO specialists use the hourly pricing model. The consultants who truly know what they’re doing typically charge $75 - $150 an hour. 

Project-based SEO services pricing

Other SEO companies choose to charge by the project. For example, they may only charge for redesigning your site structure in an SEO-friendly way.  Other examples of SEO projects include:

• Handling Google Business Profile Optimization 
• Managing a brand’s reviews and reputation 
• Technical SEO audits and overhauls 
• Launching a blog section (but not continuing to create regular content)
• Optimizing product descriptions 

While this model can be advantageous, especially if you only need one aspect of your SEO tightened, there is one issue with it.  Project-based SEO doesn’t provide any ongoing support.  Once the project is complete, you’re on your own again. If you don’t have an in-house team to help you with your day-to-day SEO needs, you’re better off going with a managed campaign (which provides ongoing support for as long as you continue to invest). 

Final Thoughts: SEO and GSO Pricing in 2026 

As a final note, knowledge is power when determining your SEO budget.  The worst thing you can do is blindly invest in the first SEO services you come across in hopes of outranking competitors and raking in leads and sales.  The best thing you can do is educate yourself on:

1. Common SEO pricing models (and average prices) 
2. How each SEO service contributes to your site’s visibility 
3. How GSO is becoming the norm 
4. How AI visibility can benefit your brand 

Are you still unsure which SEO services you need to invest in to find success? Book a free strategy call with our team of seasoned experts to discover the perfect SEO recipe for your brand’s needs.