Your number
$7,875
Your rate card
- Day rate$950 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- An SEO audit and plan$3,125 per project
- Monthly retainerthe plan worked every month, ranked pages reported$2,625 per month
What to charge for each thing (5)
- Technical audit$1,575 each
- Keyword strategy$1,150 each
- Optimized page$200 per page
- Link building$1,750 per month
- Local SEO setup$1,150 each
US rates for seo specialists at your level, adjusted for your market. What you last got wins.
- 3 months on retainer at $2,625the plan worked every month, ranked pages reported$7,875
For 3 months on retainer at $2,625, the quote is $7,875.
To take home $85,000 after $9,000 of costs and 30% tax you need to bill $134,286 a year. At 24 billable hours a week for 47 weeks that is $125 an hour, $950 a day. Anything under that is a pay cut you did not agree to.
SEO specialists usually day at $600 to $1,200. You are above it. That is fine when the work is, and it is the reason to say it plainly and show the work.
An SEO audit and plan runs $1,500 to $6,000 and takes about 25 hours of your time; at your hourly that is $3,125. The number is the higher of the two, because the client is buying the outcome, not the hours.
A retainer is the month, not the hours: the plan worked every month, ranked pages reported. It is priced about 20% under the same work bought one at a time, in exchange for the certainty; three months minimum, or it is not a retainer.