Guide · SEO prices in India
SEO cost in India, by what you need
Creatisoul team
SEO cost in India runs between ₹5,000 and ₹3 lakh a month. Freelancers charge ₹5,000–₹20,000, and most agencies bill small and mid-size businesses ₹15,000–₹50,000. We charge ₹15,000–₹60,000 a month, + GST, on sites we build, depending on how many cities you want to win and how many pages we write for you each month.
What do freelancers and agencies charge for SEO?
Freelancers usually charge ₹5,000–₹20,000 a month. Agencies charge ₹8,000–₹25,000 for local SEO in one city and ₹15,000–₹50,000 for most small and mid-size businesses. National, e-commerce and enterprise campaigns cost between ₹75,000 and ₹3 lakh a month, or more.
These are the ranges published by the pages that rank on Google for this search, side by side. They agree more than they differ: the average SEO cost sits in the agency band, and the price follows the work done each month, not the name on the invoice.
For business owners with a small site that mainly needs on-page fixes and a Google Business Profile, a freelancer can be the right choice. One person can't write, fix and report at the pace a growing business needs, which is why agencies cost more and do more each month.
An in-house hire costs ₹25,000–₹60,000 a month in salary, before tools and content. A one-time audit costs ₹10,000–₹60,000 and tells you what to fix, but someone still has to fix it.
| Who | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | ₹5,000–₹20,000 a month | A small site that mainly needs on-page fixes |
| Agency, local SEO in one city | ₹8,000–₹25,000 a month | A shop, clinic or office serving one area |
| Agency, small or mid-size business | ₹15,000–₹50,000 a month | A business growing across a city or a region |
| Agency, national or e-commerce | ₹75,000–₹3 lakh a month, or more | Many cities, many products, hard searches |
| In-house hire | ₹25,000–₹60,000 a month in salary | Enough work for one full-time person, plus tools |
| One-time audit | ₹10,000–₹60,000, once | A list of fixes, not the fixing |
What is the SEO cost per month in India, by scope?
On sites we build, our monthly SEO costs ₹15,000–₹30,000 for one city, ₹30,000–₹40,000 for steady growth with 3–4 new pages a month, and ₹45,000–₹60,000 for content-led growth with 8–10 pages a month. All + GST, with setup included.
You don't pick a band. Your written plan sizes one monthly plan from your searches and your site, and gives its price within 48 hours, before you decide.
Most of the price is the pages. A page written for a search, with the answer first, takes research, writing, checking and publishing. The bands differ mainly by how many pages we write each month and how many cities they cover.
We only run SEO on sites we built. If someone else built your site, we rebuild it first and carry every old address across, so the monthly plan starts on a site we can fix directly.
| Scope | What's in it | A month, + GST |
|---|---|---|
| Local, one city | Google Business Profile, on-page fixes, 1–2 new pages a month, a monthly report | ₹15,000–₹30,000 |
| Steady growth | Technical and on-page work, 3–4 new pages a month, a monthly report | ₹30,000–₹40,000 |
| Content-led | 8–10 new pages a month across services or cities, written to be quoted in AI answers | ₹45,000–₹60,000 |
What do SEO charges in India pay for?
SEO charges in India pay for work done every month: fixes to the site, new pages written for searches, the Google Business Profile kept current, and a monthly report with the numbers in your own accounts.
Technical SEO comes first: speed on a phone, pages Google can read, titles, schema, broken links and redirects. On a site we built, fixes are done, not listed for your developer.
Then the SEO content. Each month we write the pages your buyers search for, with the answer first, and link them to the pages that sell. That is most of the work, and most of the price.
Off-site work, such as mentions on other sites and link building, happens only if we agree it, as its own line in the plan. We never buy links, PR or directory packages.
The monthly work, line by line
- Technical fixesSpeed, crawling, titles, schema and redirects, fixed on the site.
- New pagesWritten for the searches your buyers make, answer first, linked to the pages that sell.
- Google Business ProfileSet up and kept current, with posts, and replies to reviews drafted for you to send.
- On-page workHeadings, internal links and copy on the pages you already have.
- Monthly reportWhat changed, what moved and what comes next, in plain words. The numbers sit in your own Search Console and Google Analytics.
- Off-site workOnly if agreed, as its own line in the plan. Never bought links.
What moves the price up or down?
Five things: how many cities you want to win, how hard your searches are, how many pages a month, whether the site needs rebuilding first, and who writes the words. The first three set the band. A rebuild is a one-time cost.
Local businesses, like a plumber in one part of Bengaluru, compete with a few dozen sites. A software company selling across India competes with hundreds, many with years of pages behind them. Highly competitive searches need more pages and more months for the same result.
Content writing is the biggest cost. If your team can send facts, photos and answers each month, the pages go faster. If we research everything from scratch, the plan is larger.
Not on a site we built? We rebuild it first, which is a one-time cost on top of the monthly fee.
| Factor | Costs less when | Costs more when |
|---|---|---|
| Cities | You serve one city or one area | You want several cities, or all of India |
| Searches | Few sites compete for them | Many established sites compete |
| Pages a month | 1–2 pages cover your services | Each service, city and question needs its own page |
| The site | We built it | Someone else built it, so we rebuild it first (one-time) |
| The words | Your team sends facts and photos | We research everything from scratch |
How does SEO pricing in India work?
Three pricing models: a monthly retainer, a project-based price or hourly consulting. Most SEO in India is sold monthly, because rankings take months and the work never stops: competitors publish, searches change and new questions appear.
A project-based price suits one job with an end, such as an audit, or moving a site without losing its rankings. Hourly consulting suits a team that does the work itself and wants a second opinion. Choose the right model for the job, not the cheapest.
We work monthly, with one plan sized in your written plan. The first six months are the commitment, because that is how long rankings usually take to move. After that it runs month to month, and you can stop with 30 days' notice.
Every price of ours on this page is before GST, which is 18% on SEO services. There is no setup fee.
Monthly, project or hourly: which fits
| How it's charged | When it fits | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee each month for agreed work | Rankings you want to grow and keep |
| Project | One price for one job with an end | An audit, a site move, a one-off fix |
| Hourly consulting | A rate for each hour of advice | A team that does the work itself |
Why don't we sell SEO packages?
Because an SEO package fixes the work before anyone has looked at your searches. Most SEO packages count keywords, such as 5 keywords for ₹5,000 a month, and a keyword count says nothing about enquiries.
SEO packages in India usually come in three or four tiers, named Starter, Gold or Platinum, each with a number of keywords and backlinks. Picking a tier means guessing how much work your site needs.
The number of keywords is the wrong unit. One good page ranks for dozens of searches, and a keyword nobody types is worth nothing. What matters is whether the people who find you become enquiries.
So we size one plan from your site and your searches, and the written plan shows what each month contains. The scope of work is written down, not hidden behind a package name.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
Sometimes, for a small local site. But a very low price usually means automated reports, bought links or no new pages, and bought links can get a site penalised by Google, which costs more to undo than the SEO saved.
Ask any SEO company what you get each month, in pages and fixes, not keywords. Ask who owns the accounts. Ask to see a site the agency has grown, and check that it ranks.
The checklist is the questions to put to any quote, ours included.
Red flags in an SEO quote, checked
- A guarantee of #1 rankings, or a date for them
- The deliverable is a keyword count, not pages and fixes
- "500 backlinks", or any number of links bought
- No access to your own Search Console and Analytics
- A report with a score and no traffic, enquiries or calls
- A long lock-in with no review of results
- Nobody can tell you who writes your pages
How long before SEO pays back?
Usually 3 to 6 months before rankings move, and longer for hard searches. SEO pays back when the enquiries it brings, times how many you close, times what a sale is worth, beats the monthly fee.
Take an invented example. A clinic pays ₹30,000 a month for SEO. Search brings 20 extra enquiries a month, and 1 in 10 becomes a patient worth ₹25,000. That's ₹50,000 of new business each month against a ₹30,000 fee.
Count it in your own numbers: enquiries by source in Analytics or your lead list, and what they became. SEO is long-term work, and rankings alone don't pay anything.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about SEO prices
- Is SEO free?
- Showing up in Google's normal results costs nothing per click, unlike ads. The work to get there isn't free: someone has to fix the site, write the pages and keep them current. You can do it yourself with time, or pay a freelancer or an agency to do it.
- Is SEO being replaced by AI?
- No. AI answers in Google and in chat tools still draw on pages that rank and answer clearly. The work changes a little: pages need the answer first, facts stated plainly and the business named the same way everywhere. That is part of our content-led band.
- What is the SEO price in India for a small business?
- For small businesses in one city, SEO cost in India is usually ₹8,000–₹25,000 a month from an agency, and less from a freelancer. Our local band is ₹15,000–₹30,000 a month, + GST, on a site we built, with new pages written every month.
- Do SEO prices include GST?
- Not ours: GST at 18% is added to SEO services in India, and every price of ours on this page is before it. Price pages differ, so ask any quote to show the monthly fee, the GST and the total, and you compare the same thing.
- Is there a setup fee?
- Not with us: setup is included in the monthly plan. If we didn't build your site, the rebuild is a separate one-time cost, shown in your written plan before you decide. A one-time audit elsewhere costs ₹10,000–₹60,000 on the price pages we read, so ask what any setup fee covers.
- Can I pay per keyword?
- Some agencies sell SEO per keyword, with a price for each keyword they promise to rank. We don't, because one good page ranks for many searches, and paying per keyword rewards picking easy words nobody types. We price the pages and fixes each month instead.
- Do you guarantee rankings?
- No, and be wary of anyone who does. Google decides rankings and changes how it does it often. What we promise is the work: the pages written, the fixes done and a monthly report, with the numbers in your own accounts. Rankings usually move in 3 to 6 months.
SEO priced for the work you need
Tell us your site and the searches you want to win. Within 48 hours you get a written plan with the pages, the months and the monthly price, + GST.
Or get a written plan