Your number
$10,125
Your rate card
- Day rate$950 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- An SEO audit and plan$3,375 per project
- Monthly retainerthe plan worked every month, ranked pages reported$3,375 per month
What to charge for each thing (5)
- Technical audit$2,025 each
- Keyword strategy$1,475 each
- Optimized page$250 per page
- Link building$2,250 per month
- Local SEO setup$1,475 each
US rates for seo specialists at your level, adjusted for your market. What you last got wins.
- 3 months on retainer at $3,375the plan worked every month, ranked pages reported$10,125
For 3 months on retainer at $3,375, the quote is $10,125.
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 at your level day at about $800; you sit inside the range, so quote it without apology.
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.