8 strategic steps for setting and overseeing your SEO budget

Are you struggling with your SEO budget? You aren’t alone.

Many businesses either overspend or underspend – and the results are subpar. 

Because SEO is a long-term investment, it can be difficult to determine the budget you’ll need and how to allocate resources over time to achieve the best results. 

This article will show you how to approach your SEO budget by covering everything from assessing your business needs to managing your SEO budget:

• Know what goes into an SEO program.
• Figure out the costs of SEO in-house vs. agency vs. consultancy.
• Understand the factors that impact an SEO budget.
• Establish what stakeholders want and report your wins.
• Map your priorities.
• Adjust the budget based on performance.
• Be flexible with unforeseen costs.
• Assess the ROI of your SEO investment.

1. Know what goes into an SEO program 

While you can pick and choose what you divert your SEO budget to based on priority, a good program will ensure it contains the right mix of SEO strategies.

So, the first step to creating an SEO budget is understanding what’s in a good SEO program. 

Here are the primary activities in a holistic SEO program: 

Technical SEO

A good SEO program will start with a technical SEO audit to uncover the issues hindering a website’s ability to rank or provide a good user experience. 

A technical audit takes time and, therefore, can be a bigger investment. 

After an audit, one of the first steps you will take in an SEO program is to improve the performance of your website. 

Depending on the website’s state, technical SEO may require the bulk of your efforts and budget.

Once your site runs well, you will likely need to invest less to keep it humming, barring any big changes to search engine algorithms or general fixes.

Content creation

Excellent content is the foundation of any SEO program. Unfortunately, it’s one of the areas that tends to slow down SEO programs because businesses fall behind.

Expect to invest effort into this step. You will need to pay for the cost of writers and/or editors, as well as other professionals who know multimedia. 

Yes, you can use AI tools to streamline efforts, but the bar needs to be high on quality standards. Expect to invest in content as an ongoing expense.

Link management

Earning high-quality, relevant links takes resources, too. Content creation is the first step in earning links.

Building a network, sharing your content resources through creative partnerships, managing the backlink profile and more are all part of it, too. 

Depending on how much time and effort you put into this area of your SEO, the cost to maintain the strategy varies, but it is ongoing.

SEO tools

Making sure your SEO program is on target takes data analysis. 

Investments in SEO tools can vary from affordable to a bit more robust. An enterprise company can spend several thousands on SEO tools per month.

Companies spent about 19% of their marketing budget on marketing technology in 2024, the CMO Survey found.

But only about 56% of all martech tools purchased are actually used, according to the research. This is an area to watch for wasted spend.

Also factor in the time to review, analyze and course-correct as needed.

Other SEO activities

Worth mentioning, so I’m not leaving anything out, are the niche SEO activities required in local SEO, ecommerce SEO and international SEO – all of which require a budget. 

Tip: Use the 80/20 rule – spend 80% on proven strategies and reserve 20% for testing innovative approaches. Prioritize foundational tasks like technical SEO audits and performance fixes early on.

2. Figure out the costs of SEO in-house vs. agency vs. consultancy  

The second thing you need to ask is if your budget will support an in-house team, an agency,  some hybrid of the two or a consultant. 

According to recent research: 

• Agencies charge an average of $3,209 per month (Ahrefs). 
• Freelancers charge $1,348 per month (Ahrefs).
• Retainer pricing can go all the way up to $50,000, but not the norm (Ahrefs).
• In-house SEO team roles can range from $45,000 for analyst positions to about $82,000 for head of SEO (Ahrefs).

These stats can offer a frame of reference but know that they will change based on the vendor’s or professional’s experience and location. 

Tip: Start with a clear understanding of your goals and internal capacity before deciding on external help. Hybrid models can be cost-effective and produce great results for many businesses.

If you think an agency might be the right fit for your business, you can check out my Search Engine Land article, How to hire an SEO agency: The definitive guide.

3. Understand the factors that impact an SEO budget

Here are some considerations when crafting an SEO budget. 

Your business

The size of your business and your specific SEO goals will have a big impact on pricing. 

Larger enterprises with ambitious goals may ultimately pay more for an SEO program. At this level, SEO becomes a significant line item in the marketing budget and requires buy-in from senior leadership.

On the other hand, for small businesses, SEO costs can be on the lower end of the spectrum. However, that doesn’t mean you should skimp on quality. 

Your revenue

Your SEO budget should align with your overall business goals and objectives. 

Most businesses have SEO budgets that range from $500/month to $20,000/month, depending on their size and goals.

Businesses should allocate as much as they can afford to SEO as a cost of advertising. 

Every industry is different; some may require more or less of an investment to compete. 

Remember, just because $3,000 is comfortable does not mean it is sufficient to compete and win. 

Here are some guidelines:

• Consider allocating 5% to 10% of your business revenue toward SEO. This is what businesses that are serious about competing do. 
• Consider your paid advertising budget, and spend about 25% of that budget additionally on SEO. 

Your competition

Who is your competition? And how fast do you want to beat them? These are the questions that should drive budget decisions. 

First, determine who your competition is in the SERPs. There are many SEO tools out there to help you figure out competitors by the keywords you want to target.

Then, take a deeper dive into your competition’s SEO efforts, including their technical strength, content quality and depth, optimization tactics and backlink profile. 

Estimate the resources required to compete.

Secondly, figure out how fast you want to compete. Most SEO programs take several months up to a year to see measurable SEO results. 

This can vary depending on how competitive the niche and keywords are. 

If you want slow growth, you’ll use a smaller budget over a longer period of time. Or perhaps you have the ability to launch a more aggressive campaign for six months to start.

Remember that the factors that influence how fast you’ll see results include the health of your site, the competition and whether you take action.

Tip: Regularly benchmark your competitors’ SEO activities to ensure your budget aligns with the level of competition you’re up against. 

For more, you can check out my articles here at Search Engine Land:

• What percentage of your budget should go towards SEO?
• How long SEO takes to work.

4. Establish what stakeholders want and report your wins

If you want to secure, keep and grow your SEO budget, here are some things to consider on an ongoing basis:

• Know the goals of the people controlling the budget. Try to align your SEO proposal with their goals. Jim Yu has a piece on communicating with the C-suite worth checking out here on Search Engine Land. 
• Educate stakeholders on the value of SEO. The truth is some stakeholders may not know much more about SEO beyond terms like “link building,” “rankings” and “Google.” Make sure to support your recommendations with advice from search engines like Google, too.
• Report your wins. Nothing is better at securing a budget than showing how the SEO strategy is driving the KPIs that matter to the company.

Tip: Use visual reporting tools like dashboards or charts to make SEO progress tangible for stakeholders.

Dig deeper: How to use SEO education for stakeholder management

5. Map your priorities

Don’t plan a road trip without a map, and don’t plan an SEO budget without clear priorities. 

Aligning your budget with your main SEO goals ensures your dollars drive results. 

For example, is building brand authority most important, or driving sales for seasonal products or services? Or maybe you want to enter into a new market segment or dominate the SERP features.

Remember: Not all SEO efforts have the same timeline or price tag. Split your efforts into:

• Short-term wins: These are actions that will provide quick results. 
• Long-term investments: These activities require consistent effort but pay off big. 

An initial SEO audit should uncover what the quick wins and long-term investments would be.

Tip: Focus on SEO initiatives that align directly with business goals, and revisit your roadmap quarterly to adjust. 

Dig deeper: How to create SMART SEO goals (with examples)

6. Adjust the budget based on performance

Being rigid with your budget allocations doesn’t leave you room to pursue what’s working and ditch what’s not. 

For instance, maybe one keyword has lost traction, or one type of content strategy is really driving success. 

Or perhaps a product page is seeing a surge in organic traffic but no conversions. You might reallocate the budget toward CRO efforts.

To keep your finger on the pulse, track performance. Conduct monthly and quarterly reviews to gather and analyze data.

And be willing to let go of underperforming tactics – even if you’ve sunk a large chunk of your budget into them.

Tip: Create a dynamic budget where a portion of funds is reallocated quarterly based on what’s delivering the best results. 

7. Be flexible with unforeseen costs

Imagine you’re on a basketball team, and the rules of the game require that the basket keeps moving across the court. That’s SEO. 

SEO is a moving target. Algorithms change, competition changes, socioeconomic factors come into play and more.

Anything that can happen likely will happen, so having some flexibility in your budget for times such as these is important.

For example:

• A Google algorithm change might require adjustments to your content strategy or technical fixes to maintain rankings.
• A surprise collaboration with an industry influencer could drive high-impact results.
• A security breach could demand immediate attention and resources.

Consider setting aside 10% to 15% of your SEO budget for emergencies or opportunities. 

At the end of a quarter or a year, review your “rainy day” budget to see how much was used and how you used it. This is good data moving forward.

Tip: Make continuing education a part of your SEO strategy so you can monitor industry updates and anticipate potential disruptions, staying proactive rather than reactive. 

Dig deeper: How much does SEO really cost

8. Assess the ROI of your SEO investment

Results can sometimes take time, and they should be demonstrable. I have seen many sites with a long list of deliverables without any quantifiable set of measurements.

“I will edit eight pages per month” is not ROI and is obviously easy to perform.

That said, many companies/people claiming to do SEO simply punch down a list of tasks without any results other than the fact that you paid for the tasks to be done.

The single most important metric for SEO success will be a growth in organic traffic over time.

Tip: Use cohort analysis to measure how SEO-driven leads or customers perform over time compared to other channels. 

In summary, successfully managing an SEO budget is a big task. Overspending can drain resources without delivering results, while underinvesting can leave you falling behind the competition.

When you view your SEO budget as a flexible, results-driven tool, you’ll help your business remain competitive in the search results no matter what comes your way.