B2B SEO pricing ranges from $500/month to $20,000+. Here's what drives that range, what you actually get at each level, and how to know what's right for your stage.
The most common question we get from B2B founders and marketing leaders: 'How much should we be spending on SEO?' The honest answer: it depends on your current organic baseline, your competitive landscape, your growth targets and your time horizon. But that's not useful without context. Here's the context.
B2B SEO pricing runs from about $500/month (a solo freelancer running basic optimizations) to $25,000+/month (a full-service agency managing content, links, technical and GEO for an enterprise brand). The right number for your business sits somewhere in this range — but it's not determined by what you can afford. It's determined by what competitive level of investment your market requires to win.
In-house SEO makes sense when you have enough content production volume to justify a full-time content lead, when your technical complexity requires daily attention, and when you're spending $15,000+/month on the function total (salary + tools + link building budget). Below that threshold, an agency or senior freelancer typically provides better ROI.
Start with your organic traffic value: what would you pay in PPC to get the same traffic your organic channel delivers? If you're getting 5,000 organic sessions/month with an average CPC of $8 for your keywords, your organic channel is worth $40,000/month in paid equivalent. If you're spending $3,000/month on SEO to generate that value, you have a 13× return. Most B2B SEO programs with proper execution deliver 5–15× over 12–24 months. The challenge is the time lag — SEO doesn't pay in month 1. Set expectations accordingly.