How much does a SEO audit cost?
SEO audits are often priced by scope, but value is determined by execution. Learn how different audit tiers affect speed, ROI, and long-term search equity.
SEO audit pricing explained by outcomes, not page counts
Teams rarely fail because they cannot find SEO issues. They fail because recommendations never turn into real work.
The true cost of an SEO audit is not the invoice. It is the effort required to translate findings into tasks that developers, writers, and marketers can actually ship. An inexpensive audit that creates ambiguity slows execution. A higher-priced audit that produces clear, implementable direction often recovers its cost quickly.
That distinction matters more than scope or page count.
How SEO audits are commonly priced
SEO audits are typically priced by site size or by the perceived complexity of the organization. Standard ranges usually look like this:
- $0 to $500 for automated scans
- $500 to $2,500 for basic technical audits
- $5,000 to $20,000 for forensic audits
- $5,000 to $50,000 growth strategy audits
All prices in USD.
These ranges explain what you pay, not what you gain. Audits priced identically can produce very different outcomes depending on how directly the recommendations translate into execution.
A $1,000 audit that becomes real tickets can outperform a $5,000 audit that remains theoretical.
Below is a more practical way to evaluate SEO audit pricing, based on friction, clarity, and readiness to execute.
| Audit type | Typical output | Execution friction | Best use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales artifact | Automated scan, error lists | Very high | Initial visibility, tooling checks |
| Punch list | Technical fixes, cleanup tasks | High | Baseline hygiene |
| Forensic | Root cause analysis, recovery plan | Medium | Traffic or revenue decline |
| Growth roadmap | Tickets, briefs, roadmap | Low | Sustained growth and scale |
The sales artifact SEO audit
Market rate: $0 to $500
This audit category is designed to attract interest rather than drive change. It relies heavily on automated tooling and surface-level checks.
What you receive
- Extensive lists of critical errors
- Generic recommendations
- Frequent false positives
Who it helps
Teams exploring raw technical signals without immediate plans to act.
Who does it not help?
Teams seeking prioritization, context, or strategic direction.
Search engines tolerate far more technical imperfection than automated tools imply. Sites regularly surface warnings without experiencing ranking or revenue impact. Without interpretation, this tier often diverts attention away from work that actually compounds value.
The punch list SEO audit
Market rate: $500 to $2,500
This audit identifies issues but stops short of explaining their business relevance.
What you receive
- 404 remediation
- Image optimization findings
- Metadata cleanup
- Redirect and performance adjustments
What is missing
- Priority ordering
- Revenue impact modeling
- Competitive insight
- Structural decision making
This tier can establish baseline awareness before a deeper engagement. The limitation is depth. Fixes tend to address symptoms rather than causes.
When analysis is shallow, so are the outcomes. Teams often leave this phase believing that SEO is unreliable, when in reality, meaningful impact requires a more rigorous diagnostic layer.
The forensic SEO audit
Market rate: $5,000 to $20,000
This audit is appropriate when organic performance declines and the financial impact is measurable.
Common triggers
- Traffic loss following a migration
- Declines after a Core Update
- JavaScript rendering failures
- Conversion path disruption
What you receive
- Log file analysis
- Render diagnostics
- Historical comparisons
- Internal link graph modeling
- Recovery scenarios
Even partial recovery frequently offsets the audit cost.
This tier delivers clarity. It isolates the specific factors responsible for underperformance and defines the corrective actions required to stabilize results before growth resumes.
The growth roadmap SEO audit
Market rate: $5,000 to $50,000 or more
This audit is built for execution and expansion.
What you receive
- Competitive content mapping
- Topic clusters and entity coverage
- Developer specifications written as user stories
- Writer-ready content briefs
- Prioritization frameworks
- A six to twelve-month roadmap
Required conditions
Access to marketing, content, design, and engineering resources.
This tier consistently produces durable gains because it treats organic search as an asset, not a channel. Content maps directly to product value. Architecture supports long-term discoverability. Teams operate from a shared plan instead of reacting to isolated issues.
What a complete SEO audit should include
A complete audit also covers authority and trust, not just on page fixes. That means backlink profile quality, link earning opportunities, brand mentions, local citations, and reputation signals that influence clicks and confidence.
It should review conversion performance and measurement. That includes CRO issues on organic landing pages, intent mismatch, forms and funnel drop-offs, and analytics integrity (GA4, events, conversions, attribution, Search Console alignment).
It should also include risk planning for change. Site moves, redesigns, CMS changes, international expansion, and URL migrations need a transition plan: redirect strategy, staging checks, launch QA, monitoring, and rollback criteria.
Where AI fits and where it does not
AI accelerates execution when direction is clear. It supports content brief creation, internal linking suggestions, pattern detection, and technical ticket drafting.
It does not create a strategy.
Without a defined plan, AI increases output without increasing impact. With a strong foundation, it dramatically compresses timelines.
The real pricing driver: integration cost
Two audits can cost the same and deliver very different results. The difference lies in the cost of integration.
- How much interpretation is required?
- How directly do recommendations map to real teams?
- How easily does work fit into existing workflows?
Integration cost determines whether an audit creates momentum or stalls progress.
How eHook approaches audits through owned media systems
At this stage, the audit becomes part of a long-term owned media system rather than a one-time report.
What changes:
- Technical recommendations connect to the content opportunity
- Topic clusters align with product value and intent
- Engineering tickets reinforce long-term architecture
- Content briefs feed a compounding information ecosystem
The result is durable search equity that continues to grow long after the audit concludes.
The litmus test for any SEO proposal
Ask these simple questions to the provider of your SEO audit proposal:
- Will your final deliverable include a prioritized impact vs. effort matrix?
- Will you assist my developers in resolving the technical issues quickly?
- Are we fixing only the technical items that will make a difference?
- Will my content team have a clear understanding of what they should consistently create to get results?
If the answers are Yes, the audit is likely to provide results assuming the changes made are aligned with creating more value for your customers.
If the answers are No, the audit might not be an activity you should engage in at all.
SEO audits should accelerate execution, not sit unused.
A low-cost audit with high friction becomes expensive when internal time is added. A high-cost audit with low friction becomes an efficient multiplier for your team.
Choose the audit that moves your business forward, not the one that lists what is wrong.