SEO quotes for the same brief routinely differ by a factor of ten. That is not because some agencies are greedy. It is because "SEO" describes anything from a monthly report nobody reads to a team rebuilding your site architecture.
What drives the price
Starting condition. A site with sound technical foundations needs less remedial work than one requiring a rebuild before anything can rank.
Competition. Ranking for a niche B2B term in a small market is a fraction of the work of competing in consumer finance or insurance.
Site size. Fifteen pages versus fifteen thousand is a different discipline. Large stores bring crawl budget, faceted navigation and templating issues that small sites never encounter.
Content requirements. If content must be created rather than optimised, that is the largest single cost.
Who does the implementation. An audit is cheap. Implementing its findings is where the effort sits. Quotes that assume your developers will do it are cheaper and often unrealistic.
Common engagement models
One-off audit. A diagnosis with a prioritised plan. Useful if you have capacity to act on it. Worthless if the report goes in a drawer.
Project-based setup. A defined scope with a defined end: technical fixes, structure, a set of pages. Predictable, and it suits businesses that want a foundation rather than an open-ended commitment.
Monthly retainer. Ongoing work. Appropriate for competitive markets or continuous content programmes. Ask precisely what hours buy, because this model hides the most.
Performance-based. Payment tied to rankings. Sounds attractive and creates poor incentives — the provider chases easy terms and often uses risky tactics, because the risk is yours.
How WebAktive structures it
We begin with a defined setup project or clearly scoped piece of work. If you want to keep improving afterwards, a monthly arrangement can follow.
Our minimum project size is around €2,000. That is a deliberate floor: below it, we cannot do work that would actually change anything, and taking the money would be dishonest.
What very cheap SEO buys
A few hundred euros a month typically buys an automated report, some keyword insertion, and directory links of no value. Occasionally it buys purchased links, which carry risk that materialises later and lands on you.
If a price seems impossible for the work described, the work described is not what is happening.
What to ask before signing
- What specifically will be done in the first three months?
- Who implements the changes, you or us?
- What does reporting show beyond rankings?
- What happens if results do not come?
- Do we own everything produced?
Vagueness on any of these is informative.
How long before we see results?
Technical improvements can show in weeks. Competitive terms take months. Anyone giving a guaranteed timeline does not control what they are promising.
Is SEO cheaper than Google Ads?
Over a few months, no. Over years, usually by a wide margin, because the asset keeps working.
Can we stop once we rank?
Rankings decay as competitors improve and content ages. Maintenance costs less than the original push, but it is not nothing.