Nobody publishes real numbers, so here are ours and the market's. All figures are Canadian dollars per month, excluding tax.
The typical ranges
| Investment level | Typical monthly | What it realistically buys |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer / very small | $400 – $900 | Basic on-page work, a few hours a month. Fine for a single-location business in a small market. |
| Small agency retainer | $1,000 – $2,500 | Technical fixes, 2–6 content pieces, some link building, real reporting. Where most Canadian SMBs sit. |
| Competitive market | $2,500 – $6,000 | Multi-city or multi-service campaigns in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary. Serious content and digital PR. |
| Enterprise / national | $6,000 – $20,000+ | Large sites, multiple languages, dedicated teams, in-house coordination. |
One-off projects
Technical audits typically run $1,500–$5,000 depending on site size. A migration or replatform SEO plan is usually $2,500–$8,000 — and skipping it is the most expensive saving in this industry, because a botched migration can erase years of rankings overnight.
Why the range is so wide
Three factors move the number more than anything else. Competition: a Regina accountant and a Toronto personal injury firm are not doing the same job. Geography: covering one city is a fraction of the work of covering twelve. Site condition: a well-built site needs optimisation; a broken one needs rescue first.
Pricing models — and the one to avoid
Flat monthly retainer is the norm and generally the fairest. Project pricing works for audits and migrations. Hourly ($100–$250 in Canada) suits consulting or working alongside an in-house team.
Be wary of percentage-of-ad-spend pricing on the paid side — it rewards your agency for spending more of your money — and be very wary of anyone selling guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google's index, and the guarantee is almost always for terms nobody searches.
What you should be getting at any price
- A written scope: what's delivered each month, not "ongoing optimisation"
- Access to your own accounts — Search Console, Analytics, and the site itself
- A monthly change log alongside the numbers
- An exit without penalty after a reasonable minimum term
How to sanity-check a quote
Ask two questions. First: "What would you do in month one, specifically?" A good answer is concrete — a technical audit, these three page rebuilds, tracking fixes. A bad answer is a list of nouns. Second: "What's your minimum term and why?" Ninety days is honest. Twelve months with a cancellation penalty is a business model, not a strategy.
Our own packages start at $690 and run to $2990 CAD — the full breakdown is here, including per-service pricing if you'd rather buy one thing at a time.
Quick answers
Is cheap SEO ever worth it?
Under about $500 a month you're buying a few hours of someone's time. That can be enough for a single-location business in an uncompetitive town, and it's nowhere near enough in a major market.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
For most Canadian SMBs, 6–12 months to break even and strong returns from year two, because the traffic keeps arriving after you stop paying for the work that earned it.