How to Plan an SEO Budget to Maximize ROI (+Calculator)
16 mins read

How to Plan an SEO Budget to Maximize ROI (+Calculator)


An SEO budget covers costs for tools, services, and content creation. It can range from $500-$10,000 each month, depending on a few factors. Learn how to calculate and plan an optimal SEO budget for your site to drive the best results.

The average business spends $500 to $10,000 per month on search engine optimization (SEO). Because this range is so massive, building your own SEO budget can be tricky.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to calculate an SEO budget that covers all the essentials for success.

How to create your SEO budget

To calculate a custom SEO budget for your business, follow the five steps below:

  1. Identify (and divvy up) your total digital marketing budget
  2. Set goals for your SEO strategy
  3. Create an SEO marketing timeline
  4. Include your SEO software costs
  5. Factor in service costs

1. Identify (and divvy up) your total digital marketing budget

For most businesses, SEO is one of several channels that boost visibility and promote products and services. To decide on an adequate SEO spend, look at your digital marketing budget as a whole.

For instance, your primary channels may include SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Review how you currently distribute your budget across these marketing channels and compare how well they perform.

As an example, say you allocate half your marketing spend to social media — however, this channel drives only 10% of total revenue.

In contrast, say 10% of the budget goes to organic search, which drives about 50% of revenue.

In that case, it would make sense to rebalance your budget and spend more on search engine marketing (SEM).

With a smaller social media budget and a larger SEO or SEM budget, you could increase the results that matter (i.e., organic traffic and revenue) exponentially.

2. Set goals for your SEO strategy

The right amount to set aside for SEO depends on what your team wants to accomplish and how close you are to reaching those goals.

Perhaps you want to rank at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) for ten highly valuable keywords. Consider:

  • Are those keywords competitive?
  • Do you currently rank for those keywords at all?
  • Do you need to create brand new pieces of content that target that keyword?

Creating new, robust content for a competitive keyword will take more effort (and resources) than revamping an existing piece that ranks at the bottom of the first page of the SERP.

All that is to say, identify your top goal(s), how that goal can be accomplished, and how much those projects would cost — keeping in mind that if you’re in a highly competitive space with better-known brands, you may need a bigger budget.

Creating the same amount of content or building a similar number of backlinks as a long-established brand tends to require more time and more budget.

“The biggest mistake companies make when budgeting for SEO is that they don’t do niche analysis and competitor analysis, and don’t fully understand what budget they need,” explains Dmytro Sokhach, CEO and co-founder of Admix Global.

“I recommend analyzing your competitors first. As an example, say your main competitor has one thousand backlinks. It seems like too many to compete with them,” continues Sokhach.

He adds that, if you spend more time analyzing your competitors, you may find out that from 1,000 links, only 150-200 provide value. So, you can understand that you need about 200 quality backlinks to reach your top competitors.

3. Create an SEO marketing timeline

After clarifying a goal to guide your SEO efforts, think about the timeline for your strategy. With a time frame, you can set deadlines, map out milestones, and allocate your SEO budget more effectively.

For example, do you need to achieve key marketing goals by the end of this quarter? Or do you anticipate planning a yearlong SEO and content marketing push?

Keep in mind that short-term SEO campaigns can make a measurable impact. However, SEO typically requires a long-term investment to account for ongoing optimization and content production.

As a general rule, businesses serious about SEO work should plan to commit for at least six to 12 months. After this initial period, revisit both strategy and budget.

4. Include your SEO software costs

In most cases, you can split organic search costs into two categories: software and services.

Compared to services, software is a much smaller portion of the typical SEO budget per month.

How much should you budget for software? On average, tools for managing SEO and content start around $150 to $600 per month. For a large marketing team, enterprise tools may start at $1,000 or more per month.

Below, we’ll cover specific types of SEO software to consider. But if you hire a search engine marketing agency like HawkSEM to manage organic search, you won’t need to spend as much on software.

Instead, your SEO company or provider will manage the software on your behalf. So if you opt for managed SEO, software may not be a line item in your budget.

5. Factor in service costs

SEO services are likely to be a major factor in any SEO budget proposal. From keyword research to content creation to link building, SEO requires a lot of manual work that isn’t possible with software alone.

How much should you budget for SEO services? If you outsource, plan to spend at least $500 and up to $10,000 per month.

If you intend to manage SEO in-house, consider the time your employees will spend on training and tasks, then multiply by their hourly rate. And let’s not forget the benefits you’ll have to pay your workers.

“We take an all-hands-on-deck approach to SEO,” shares Kamil Rejent, CEO at Survicate.

Everyone from front-end developers to content writers and marketers is familiar with SEO practices and incorporates them into their daily work.

“We ensure there’s a budget for comprehensive SEO training for all relevant employees,” he adds.

In some cases, keeping your marketing in-house can be more affordable. However, contractors and agencies generally offer either project-based or hourly SEO pricing so costs are predictable.

What are essential SEO costs?

Successful SEO campaigns require a long list of software and services. But which line items are truly essential?

Take the following software and service costs into account:

  1. SEO software and tools
  2. SEO audit
  3. Content strategy
  4. Content creation
  5. Link building
  6. On-page SEO
  7. Technical SEO
  8. Local SEO

1. SEO software and tools

You can purchase separate subscriptions for individual SEO tools. However, you’ll save time and money with an all-in-one SEO software.

As an all-in-one SEO toolset, Ahrefs has a site audit, a keyword explorer, a rank tracker, and a competitive research tool. Subscriptions start at $129 per month.

Moz has a similar toolset, with keyword research, a backlink checker, and a rank-tracking tool. Moz also offers a dedicated tool for local SEO. Subscriptions for Moz Pro start at $49 per month.

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Semrush is a complete SEO and content marketing platform. In addition to competitor research, keyword research, and backlink tools, it has a suite of writing and content optimization tools. Subscriptions start at around $140 per month.

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3. Content management tools

If you work with a limited SEO budget, you can manage content with free tools like Google Docs and Google Sheets.

Paid content management tools allow you to manage content audits, plan content production, and handle internal linking more efficiently:

Letterdrop is a content marketing hub for B2B marketers that can optimize content for search and manage internal linking automatically. Contact sales for subscription pricing.

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A content marketing suite, StoryChief helps teams create optimized content and track performance across channels. Subscriptions start at $59 per month.

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4. SEO audit

Typically conducted at the beginning of a client-agency relationship, an SEO audit is a thorough look into your existing SEO campaigns — from your online presence and SEO results to web design.

The audit acts as a guide for improvement opportunities for your on-page and off-page SEO.

5. Content strategy

Most SEO strategies focus on creating content that ranks at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).

But before you write and publish, create a roadmap. A content marketing strategy uses audience and competitive research to plan content.

6. Content creation

While a content strategy can be a one-time or annual line item, content creation requires an ongoing investment.

In most cases, your content strategy dictates how often to publish — which affects the cost of content creation.

7. Link building

Backlinks signal high-quality content and increase site authority, making link-building an essential line item.

Like content, link-building is a long-term investment that requires ongoing research and outreach.

8. On-page SEO

Most SEO professionals offer on-page SEO on a monthly basis. This process includes small changes — like optimizing title tags and adding internal links — that can make a big difference in your site’s rankings.

9. Technical SEO

Creating a good user experience on your website is essential for SEO. Technical SEO packages typically include page speed optimization, website structure updates, and addressing duplicate content issues.

10. Local SEO

For business owners and companies that serve specific regions, local SEO is essential.

Most local SEO packages include local keyword research, content creation for your service area, optimizing your Google Business Profile, and navigating local citations.

SEO budget calculator template

Keeping track of your SEO costs doesn’t have to be difficult. Use this budget template for planning.

seo budget calculator

 

How to do SEO on a small budget?

Have a tight budget but don’t want to sacrifice results? Let’s look at how to prioritize costs and avoid potential downsides.

To get the most out of a limited budget, prioritize without compromising your SEO goals or business needs.

Use these tips to get more out of your SEO campaigns:

Start with an SEO audit

An SEO audit evaluates your website architecture, content marketing, keyword portfolio, and backlinks to assess the current status of your organic search efforts.

For example, an audit may tell you that you have great content to work with and a solid backlink portfolio, but your site structure could use work.

This lets you know where to invest your limited budget (technical SEO) for the biggest impact. With your remaining budget, update your evergreen content to make it more competitive, improve keyword rankings, and attract more backlinks.

Explore free SEO tools

Most keyword research and rank-tracking tools require a monthly subscription. But if you want to cut costs, use free SEO tools:

  • With free SEO tools from Moz, you can conduct a basic domain analysis, do competitive research, and find link-building opportunities. The free MozBar also analyzes the first page of SERPs as you search.
  • With free SEO tools from Ahrefs, you can generate keyword ideas, check backlinks, and analyze keyword rankings. The free Ahrefs toolbar also provides on-page SEO reports.

Outsource instead of hiring

Staff can quickly become one of the biggest SEO costs for small businesses. Depending on your business needs, you may need an entire SEO team to power your campaigns and make progress toward key goals.

If you don’t have the budget to hire in-house, consider outsourcing instead. Reach out to learn how our SEO agency can help.

“Working with a senior-level, experienced team who knows about your business, target audience, and competition is essential when determining and sticking to an SEO budget,” advises Rambod Yadegar, president and co-founder at HawkSEM.

“The last thing you want is to be in an SEO campaign for six months only to learn that the allocated budget will not get the results you need,” he says.

“It is essential to do research and your due diligence when budgeting for an SEO program.”

Downsides of cheap SEO: What to look out for

It’s possible to eliminate some SEO costs or prioritize certain aspects of search engine optimization, but avoid investing in SEO that’s so affordable it seems too good to be true (aka not getting the results you desired).

Beware of these potential downsides of cheap SEO:

Generative AI content

If you pay bargain basement prices, you can expect to get content that’s either low quality or generated by AI. Currently, Google doesn’t penalize AI-driven content. But that doesn’t mean it’s a smart investment.

By nature, AI content repeats the same information that already exists, without saying anything new or unique.

With primarily generative AI content, you’ll struggle to build a site that stands out against the competition. As a result, you could keep spending without seeing results.

Spammy backlinks

Acquiring a strong backlink portfolio usually requires one of two things: You need either an experienced link-building agency or high-quality content that acquires backlinks naturally.

With cheap SEO, you won’t get either of these elements.

If you get backlinks, there’s a good chance they’ll be low-quality or downright spammy.

Since search engines penalize link buying and other black hat techniques, your site authority and keyword rankings could decline, compromising your results.

Wasted time

Not every low-cost SEO provider will use black hat techniques or cost-saving tactics like AI content. But if you spend below market rate and much less than your competitors, you’ll probably get lackluster results.

If you need to meet marketing goals or outrank the competition, investing in cheap SEO will only waste time and money. You may not make much progress by the end of six or 12 months, but your competitors may get even tougher to beat.

How to measure the ROI of SEO

Whether you plan to budget for large or small-scale SEO campaigns, you need a way to quantify the impact.

By tracking SEO conversions and calculating return on investment (ROI), you can measure success objectively and ensure you spend your marketing budget wisely.

To measure SEO ROI, track your conversion rates, marketing costs, and total revenue from customers acquired via organic search.

Use this simple formula to calculate ROI:

SEO ROI = (Total Revenue – SEO Cost) / SEO Cost x 100%

For example, say your monthly SEO budget is $1,500, and your total revenue is $3,000. Your ROI would be 100%.

Ideally, your ROI will always be a positive metric. However, it’s possible to have negative ROI if sales from organic search efforts don’t outpace what you spend.

To ensure successful SEO campaigns, measure ROI over time and compare weekly or monthly. If your ROI remains high or increases over time, you don’t necessarily need to take action.

However, if you find that ROI remains either low or negative or notice it decreases over time, your campaigns may not be working.

In that case, an updated SEO audit or a conversation with your SEO provider can help you understand the situation and take appropriate action.

The takeaway

At HawkSEM, our average clients see a 4.5x ROI. To run successful SEO campaigns while managing marketing costs, you need a carefully planned SEO budget.

By allocating funds for both software and services, you can take a sustainable approach to SEO that drives positive ROI and benefits your business in the long run.

Considering hiring an SEO expert to manage search marketing for your business? Contact us for a free digital marketing strategy and SEO consultation.

This article has been updated and was originally published in December 2023.



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