SEO Pricing NZ | How much does SEO cost in 2024?

Perhaps you are a New Zealand business looking to hire an SEO professional or agency but aren’t sure how much you should pay for these services. 

Whether you are a small business seeking local clients or a nationwide start-up aiming to reach customers anywhere from Auckland to Invercargill, understanding the costs and what is involved is crucial.

Every website is different, and the costs depend on your specific goals and the tailored strategies needed to achieve increased keyword rankings, organic traffic, leads, and sales for your business.

We’ve broken down the costs to simplify the decision-making and hiring process. We’ll also cover what’s typically included in these services and what you should be aware of before making any commitments. 

Here’s what we found:

• Contractors/Freelancers: $25 - $300 + GST per hour
• Agencies: $249 - $20,000 + GST per month.
• One-Off Projects: $1,000 - $25,000 + GST
• SEO Audits: $0 - $5,000 + GST
• Local SEO Services: $300 - $2,000 + GST per month
• Training or Workshops: $500 - $3,000 + GST per session

At Vanguard 86, we offer a unique pricing structure for our SEO services. We charge a small monthly retainer, sometimes as low as $700 + GST, to work on ranking agreed-upon keywords related to your business.

Additional charges only apply if we achieve positive results for those keywords. Specifically, our fees are based on your ranking positions, with the monthly retainer covering the basic service. 

This risk-free approach ensures you pay based on results, which sets us apart from most New Zealand and Australian agencies.

Price breakdown of common SEO services:

Let’s break this down further to understand the types of services SEO specialists offer and the typical costs (in NZD) associated with common services you’d likely need.

SEO Audits:

An evaluation identifies areas for improvement on your website. This often includes page speed analysis for mobile and desktop, competitor analysis, backlink assessments, keyword research, content evaluation, and any issues that might be stopping your website from ranking well in the SERP (search engine results page). You can get basic audits for free, often as a lead-gen tool for the SEO agency, or you can pay up to $5,000 for more in-depth analysis. We charge $430 for a 20-page report. 

Technical SEO: 

Focuses on optimising technical aspects of your website to ensure it is accessible and indexed efficiently by search engines. This includes improving page speed, mobile optimisation, proper crawling and indexing, and implementing schema markup. Sometimes developers need to be involved for custom websites and more complex issues, which can range from a one-time fee of $100 to $5,000.

Off-page optimisation: 

Involves building domain authority through external (off-page) tasks such as citation building on directories, outreach for sponsored posts, press release distribution, and forum posting. This ongoing task ranges from $500 - $5,000+ per month. 

On-Page SEO: 

Optimise elements within your website, including alt tags, meta descriptions, title tags, internal linking, and header structure, to improve search rankings. Prices for on-page SEO typically range from $500 to $3,000.

Content marketing: 

Consists of creating and optimising various types of content on a website. Includes blog posts, landing pages, product descriptions, and guest post writing. Costs per post can range from $100 - $500+ per article and monthly package deals can range from $1,000 - $5,000+. Find out more on how much you should pay for SEO content.

Reporting & Analytics: 

Provides regular updates and insights into your website’s performance, including keyword position tracking, traffic trends, competitor analysis, and key metrics like bounce rate and click-through rate (CTR). These services typically cost between $200 and $1,000 per month.

Ongoing Management: 

Includes continuous updates, technical support, and strategy adjustments to maintain and improve SEO performance. This service covers monitoring for algorithm changes, addressing technical issues, and regular meetings or calls to discuss strategy. Costs range from $429 to $1,000 per month.

What influences the price? (Factors to consider)

Pricing is hard to pinpoint because SEO is not a one-size-fits-all model. 
If an agency or ‘professional’ insists otherwise, then run the opposite way. It’s like asking a mechanic for a quote without them looking at your car first; they need to do an initial inspection to understand the amount of work required to achieve the desired result. 

This exact concept applies to SEO, which is why we always recommend getting an audit done before any work begins. 

That said, here are some of the three main factors that influence pricing:

Industry Competition

Depending on your market, you might face stiff competition. Websites with high domain authority generally rank more easily for challenging keywords than those with lower scores. These may be the exact keywords needed to get your products or services noticed. Therefore, tasks like backlink acquisition, keyword research, and content creation will require more time and effort to help you rank above your competitors.

Lack Of Data

We are not miracle workers; we need clear data to make informed decisions and achieve tangible results for our clients. Businesses offering niche-specific services can be more challenging for this reason. Additionally, a good SEO specialist will want to understand your business model and target audiences. Some industries are more complex and may require more time, which could affect hourly rates.

Website Size

SEO pricing is often influenced by the number of web pages a site has. Larger websites, such as e-commerce sites with 500+ pages, require more time for tasks like on-page optimisation, technical SEO, content creation, site architecture, and more. Smaller websites (under 100 pages) require a lot less effort, reducing the amount of money you have to spend.

Doing it yourself vs hiring a professional

I always recommend hiring a professional, someone with years of experience who knows how to drive tangible results for your business is worth their weight in gold. Especially if they can drive more leads and sales.

However, if you’re a small business on a tight budget, I always recommend at least getting an SEO audit done. This way, you’ll know where to focus your time and effort. From there, you can apply the recommended techniques using basic SEO strategies.

We provide SERP SEO audits. This process involves collaborating with our clients to identify the products or services they want to drive more traffic to from Google. We then analyse key ranking factors from competitors who are performing well for related keywords to diagnose what needs to be done. 

Next, we evaluate your current keyword positions, conduct a backlink analysis, assess page speed performance, and examine domain authority. 

Based on our findings, we provide recommendations to help increase your rankings. Additionally, we identify site-wide issues that might be holding your website back.

Vanguard 86 SEO services

By now you should have an understanding of the costs involved in hiring your first SEO expert. 

As said in the article, it’s difficult to determine the exact amount you’ll have to pay, as factors such as marketing goals, competition, website size, and scope of work determine the price point.

Be sure to do your research before hiring an agency or contractor. Check reviews, years of experience, and industry expertise. Don’t forget to use reputable platforms. A good SEO professional is well worth the price if they can drive results for service-based keywords.