UK agencies publish ongoing SEO costs from about £185 to £2,000 a month ex VAT, and more for larger campaigns. Agencies that focus on medical practices quote around £900 to £1,800 a month for a single-clinic site. Doing it yourself with paid tools starts at about £100 a month. A one-off audit or setup costs roughly £600 to £4,500.
The figures below come from prices that each named business publishes on its own website, checked on 7 October 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a guide to the market rather than a quote.
SEO prices at a glance
| How you buy it | Published cost | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Contract SEO consultant roles in England had a median day rate of £475 in 2025 (ITJobsWatch). One or two days a month works out at about £475 to £950 [VERIFY: day-rate data from contract job adverts, not a survey of freelancer monthly fees] | One person’s time. Usually technical fixes and page edits; content is often charged separately |
| Generalist agency | £185 to £850 a month + VAT (Design for Online); £799 to £2,149 a month ex VAT (Nautilus Marketing); from £1,967 a month ex VAT, or from £2,967 with content (Whitehat SEO) | Keyword research, page edits, Google Business Profile work and monthly reports. Blog posts and link building tend to appear in the higher tiers |
| Specialist medical agency | £900 to £1,800 a month for a single-clinic site, £1,800 to £3,500+ for multi-site groups, as typical ranges published by Blackstone Media | Content written around treatments and conditions, profile and schema work for each clinician, Google Business Profile upkeep |
| DIY with tools | Ahrefs Lite £99 a month (Ahrefs); Semrush SEO plan £95.07 a month billed annually (Semrush). Google Search Console and Google Business Profile are free | Data and suggestions. The writing, editing and fixing is your time |
| One-off audit or setup | £699 setup for a five-page site (Nautilus Marketing); £600 to £1,200 typical setup for a medical practice (Blackstone Media); £2,500 to £4,500 for an audit (Whitehat SEO) | A written list of problems and priorities, sometimes with the first fixes done. No ongoing content |
The spread is wide because the packages buy different amounts of work. Two quotes at the same price can include very different things, so compare the monthly deliverables, not the headline figure.
What affects the cost of SEO for a private practice?
Competition in your specialty and town. A knee surgeon in London is up against more consultant websites, hospital pages and clinic groups than a hand surgeon in a smaller city. More competing pages means more content and more months before your pages move, which pushes the monthly fee up.
Number of hospitals and clinics. Each site you practise at needs its own location page and, often, its own Google Business Profile listing. Blackstone Media’s published ranges roughly double between a single-clinic site and a multi-site group for this reason.
Content volume. This is usually the biggest variable. Whitehat SEO’s published prices show a £1,000 a month gap between its SEO retainer and its SEO with content package. Nautilus Marketing’s tiers step up from no blog articles to two, then four, each month.
Where your website starts. A site with broken pages, slow loading or no pages on the conditions you treat needs setup work before ongoing SEO can do much. A site built on a platform your agency cannot edit may need rebuilding first.
Whether photography and video are included. Most SEO retainers do not include them. If one quote includes a shoot and another does not, they are not the same product.
For how SEO fits into your wider marketing budget, see how much surgeons should spend on marketing.
What should a monthly SEO retainer include?
A retainer for a single-consultant practice should list what you get each month in plain terms. At minimum, that means a set number of new or updated pages on the conditions and procedures you want to be known for. It should also cover Google Business Profile upkeep, checks for technical problems on the site, and a monthly report that shows enquiries and booking-page visits, not only rankings.
Updating older pages matters as much as adding new ones. In Ahrefs’ research, 76 percent of the pages ChatGPT cited most often had been refreshed within the previous 30 days (Ahrefs, Learn 80% of AEO in 19 minutes). A retainer that only adds new posts leaves your best pages to age.
You may not need paid SEO at all. If your private list is small, sits at one hospital and is full from GP and insurer referrals, an accurate hospital profile and a free Google Business Profile will usually do the job. The comparison of your own website vs a hospital profile covers when each is enough.
What to check in an SEO quote
Contract length and exit terms. Published terms range from 30-day rolling contracts to six-month minimums. Ask what happens if you want to leave early, and whether any setup fee is repayable.
Guaranteed rankings. Google’s own guidance on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google (Google Search Central). A quote that promises a position, a traffic number or a number of new patients is promising something the provider does not control.
Who owns the work. The domain, the website, the written content, your Google Business Profile and your analytics account should all be in your name. If you leave, you should keep every page you paid for.
What happens each month. A list of deliverables you can check, such as two new condition pages and one updated page, is easier to hold someone to than ongoing optimisation.
How long does SEO take to show results?
In a Google Search Central video on hiring an SEO, Google’s Maile Ohye said that in most cases an SEO needs four months to a year to make improvements and then see a possible benefit (Google Search Central, How to hire an SEO). That range is a fair planning assumption, with caveats:
- Searches for your name usually move first.
- Condition and procedure searches in a crowded specialty and city take longer.
- A brand new website starts slower than one that has been live for years.
The early signs show up in Google Search Console before they show up in your diary. Impressions rise first, then clicks, then enquiries. None of them can be promised on a fixed timeline.
What Alchemy charges
Our ongoing SEO and content retainers cost £795 to £1,295 a month ex VAT [VERIFY: Sam to confirm these figures can be published]. Website builds cost £4,200 to £6,500 ex VAT, at a fixed price [VERIFY: Sam to confirm these figures can be published], and most sites are live within six to eight weeks.
We only work with UK private surgeons and consultants. We usually start with photography and video, then the website, then ongoing SEO and content, with monthly reporting from Plausible analytics. Our SEO and content service sets out what each month includes.
In my experience: Sam Stratton
Before signing, ask for the list of what will be delivered in month one, month three and month six, and who owns it all if you leave. A good agency can answer both in one email. If the answer to the first is a set of rankings and the answer to the second is unclear, keep looking.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost per month in the UK?
UK agencies publish ongoing SEO packages from about £185 to £2,000 a month ex VAT, with larger campaigns costing more. Agencies focused on medical practices publish typical ranges of around £900 to £1,800 a month for a single-clinic site. Prices depend on competition, content volume and how many locations you cover.
Is SEO worth it for a private surgeon?
It depends on how much of your practice you want to come from self-pay patients. If your list is full from GP and insurer referrals at one hospital, an accurate hospital profile and Google Business Profile may be enough. If you want more self-pay patients or work across several hospitals, condition pages are how patients searching for their symptoms find you before they know your name.
Can I do SEO for my practice myself?
Yes, if you have the time. Google Search Console and Google Business Profile are free, and paid tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush start at about £95 to £99 a month. The cost is mostly your time: writing condition pages, keeping them updated and fixing technical problems.
How long is a typical SEO contract?
Published UK terms range from 30-day rolling contracts to six-month minimums. Check the exit terms, any setup fee, and that you keep your domain, website and content if you leave.
Can an agency guarantee my practice will rank on page one?
No. Google states that no one can guarantee a top ranking. An agency can commit to the work it will do each month and report what changes, but not to where Google places your pages.
Want to know what SEO would involve for your practice? We’ll look at your website, your Google Business Profile and how you appear in Google and AI assistants, then send you a plain-language summary of what we’d prioritise. It’s an assessment, not a sales call. Request a free audit.