SEO pricing: how much does SEO cost in South Africa per month?
What agencies charge, what you should get at each price, and exactly what our plans include.
SEO pricing in South Africa runs from about R2,500 to R25,000 a month in 2026, going by agencies' own published SEO packages, fees and rates for search engine optimisation. Entry packages cover a handful of keywords and pages; higher tiers add more keywords, content and ongoing link work. Shown charges a once-off build from R34,950 and then a monthly plan from R12,500, quoted by job and industry, with every deliverable listed.
Our SEO packages
Monthly SEO packages with a once-off start: every plan is a once-off build that fixes and sets up everything, then a monthly plan that compounds it. These are starting prices; your quote depends on the job and your industry.
Swipe to compare plans →
Local
For a business that wins on Google Maps and in its own suburbs.
The build, once-off
- Technical fix pass and tracking set up
- Google Business Profile rebuilt from scratch
- 40+ directory listings, identical everywhere
- 5 service and location pages
Every month after
- Profile posts, photos and Q&A kept active
- Review request system and replies
- 2 new location or service pages
- AI answers tracked: 50 prompts on 8 engines
Growth
RecommendedFor a business that wants to own its service searches across a city or the country.
The build, once-off
- Everything in the Local build
- Full technical SEO audit and fixes
- Keyword map of your whole market
- 10 pages, plus AI crawler access checked
Every month after
- Everything in Local, every month
- 4 pages or articles
- Link building with vetted, paced outreach
- AI answer tracking: 150 prompts on 8 engines
Authority
For competitive national markets, e-commerce and programmatic builds.
The build, once-off
- Everything in the Growth build
- Site architecture for scale
- 20 pages, or a programmatic or store foundation
- Digital PR plan and a 300-prompt AI bank
Every month after
- Everything in Growth, every month
- 8 pages or articles
- Digital PR and editorial links
- AI answer tracking: 300 prompts on 8 engines, weekly
Plans at a glance
| Plan | Once-off build | Then monthly | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local | from R34,950 | from R12,500 | a business that wins on Google Maps and in its own suburbs |
| Growth | from R69,950 | from R24,950 | a business that wants to own its service searches across a city or the country |
| Authority | from R149,950 | from R49,950 | competitive national markets, e-commerce and programmatic builds |
Why we charge a build first.
Most agencies sell a monthly retainer and spend the first months quietly fixing the basics on your money. We price like builders: the heavy lifting is done up front, at a fixed price, so every monthly rand after that goes into growth.
- The build fixes the technical base, rebuilds your Google Business Profile, lists you everywhere that matters and ships your core pages.
- It sets up tracking from your own Search Console, Business Profile and AI prompt bank, so month one is measured from day one.
- The monthly plan then adds pages, links, reviews and listings on top of a site that is ready to rank.
- You see the build list and the monthly list in writing before you pay anything.
- The buildOnce-off, weeks 1 to 6
- The monthly planFrom month 2
- Minimum on monthly3 months
- After thatMonth to month
Google Ads management pricing.
Need calls while your rankings build? We run Google Ads on the same terms: a fixed setup, a published monthly fee, every rand of ad spend paid straight to Google, and the account in your name. How we run Google Ads →
- Setup, once-offfrom R24,950
- Managementfrom R12,500 a month
- Above R84,000 ad spend15% of spend
- Ad spendPaid to Google, no mark-up
- Contract3 months, then monthly
See what clicks cost in South Africa before you set a budget.
Custom work, on request.
The plans cover what most businesses need. When you need more, or something different, we build it and quote it.
- AI prompt banks of any size, tracked on every engine you care about.
- Dashboards and data feeds from your Search Console, Analytics, Ads and CRM.
- Programmatic page systems built on your own data.
- Integrations with booking, quoting and CRM systems, and tools for your own team.
- Multi-brand, multi-branch and national rollouts.
- ScopeAgreed in writing
- PriceFixed quote per job
- OwnershipYours
Email hello@shown.co.za with what you need.
SEO fees and rates South African agencies publish
Many agencies hide their prices. These publish theirs, which makes them a fair reference point.
| Agency | Published price | What the price list says |
|---|---|---|
| iNetAxis (Johannesburg) | R3,500 to R12,500 a month | Four tiers from 4 to 20 keywords; the R8,500 tier lists a six-month contract |
| SEOPros | R6,999 to R25,000 a month | Five packages, each built around a set number of keywords |
| SEO Durban (Durban) | From R2,490 a month | Local SEO, technical SEO and GEO for Durban and KZN, as its site states |
| Shown | Build from R34,950 once-off, then R12,500 to R49,950 a month | Three plans listing the build and what is delivered every month |
What drives the price of SEO
How competitive your searches are
"Plumber Durban" and "personal injury lawyer Johannesburg" are different fights. The harder the search, the more pages and links it takes.
How many areas you serve
Every suburb, town or city you want to rank in needs its own page, citations and often its own links.
The state of your site
A slow site that Google struggles to crawl needs fixing before content and links can pay off.
How much gets built
Pages, articles and links a month are the real cost. Ask any agency for that number in writing.
Links and PR
Earning links from real sites takes research and outreach, which is why it is the part cheap packages quietly leave out.
Reporting
You should see positions, clicks, calls and a list of the work done. If a report has only charts, ask what was delivered.
Red flags when buying SEO
Guaranteed first place on Google
Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says that if someone guarantees you first place in search results, you should find someone else.
Hundreds of backlinks for a few hundred rand
Cheap bulk links come from networks and spam sites. They can get a site penalised and they are very hard to undo.
No list of deliverables
If nobody can tell you what will be built this month, nothing much will be.
They own your accounts
Your Google Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics and website should be in your name. We set everything up that way.
Questions buyers ask us
How much does SEO cost for a small business in South Africa?
Most small businesses that serve one town or city do well on R4,000 to R10,000 a month of consistent work. Our Local plan is a once-off build from R34,950, then R12,500 a month, more than most packages because it builds the whole job: Google Maps, reviews, listings and area pages, which is where local businesses win first.
Is there affordable SEO for small businesses?
Yes. Affordable SEO for a small business usually means focusing on Google Maps, reviews, directory listings and a few strong area pages first. Our Local plan does that work properly: a once-off build from R34,950, then from R12,500 a month.
Are cheap SEO packages worth it?
Cheap or low-cost SEO packages are fine if the work is real and listed. The problem is packages that are cheap because nothing is built, or because the links are spam. Ask for the deliverables and the link sources before you pay.
Do you charge a setup fee?
Yes, and we are upfront about it: every plan starts with a once-off build, from R34,950, that fixes the technical base, rebuilds your Google Business Profile, lists you on the directories that matter and ships your core pages. The monthly plan then builds on it.
Can I buy just the build?
Yes. Some businesses take the build on its own and run the basics themselves afterwards. Rankings for competitive searches still come from months of pages and links, which is what the monthly plan is for.
Is SEO cheaper than Google Ads?
Over time, usually. Ads charge for every click, forever: common local searches cost about R20 to R35 a click in South Africa. SEO charges for the work, and the visitors keep coming once you rank. See what Google Ads cost in South Africa.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
Ours is a once-off setup from R24,950, then from R12,500 a month or 15% of ad spend, whichever is higher. The ad spend itself is separate, billed by Google to your card and never marked up. Google Ads management.
Why do you publish your prices?
Because buyers compare, and the comparison should be on what gets delivered. Publishing saves you a sales call and saves us quoting for businesses we are not right for.
Not sure which plan fits?
Send us your website and the searches you want to win. The free audit tells you which plan makes sense, or whether you need one at all.
Or write to hello@shown.co.za