SEO Pricing Models for Private Practices: Hourly, Retainer, Package or Per Link

Two SEO quotes for the same practice can differ by a factor of ten and still describe similar work, because providers charge in different ways. Before comparing numbers, work out which pricing model each quote uses and what it commits the provider to deliver. The useful question for a practice owner is not the headline figure but what each month actually buys, and how that compares with what a new client is worth to the practice.

How SEO is usually priced

You'll meet five pricing models. None is wrong in itself; each suits a different need.

Hourly. A consultant bills for time. This fits a one-off job, like an audit before a website rebuild or a fix after something broke. It's hard to budget for ongoing work, because the scope grows with every question.

Monthly retainer. A fixed fee for work that may or may not be written down. Retainers work well when the scope is specific. Ask for the list of what happens each month, in writing, before you sign.

Packages. Fixed deliverables for a fixed price. These are the easiest to compare, as long as the deliverables are listed in units you can check: how many links, on what kind of sites, for how many keywords, delivered when.

Per link or per article. You buy units. This can be economical if you know exactly what you need, and risky if nobody checks where the links land or what the articles say.

Bundles. Some website platforms and directories sell SEO add-ons. Check what is actually done each month, and whether any of it stays with you if you leave the platform.

Whatever the model, the price you're quoted will depend on your town, how many specialties you want to be found for, and how much work your site needs first. Ask two or three providers for a written scope and compare the scopes, not the headline numbers.

Where our packages sit

We use the package model, with the deliverables written down: a set number of target searches, guest posts, Web 2.0 pages and amplification links each month, plus Google Business Profile, citation and review handling within your code in every plan, and a report listing every link with its live URL, target page and anchor text. The full list and prices are on our fee schedule. The point here is the model, not the numbers: whoever you hire, ask for the monthly deliverables in units you can check.

Which level fits which practice

Treat these as starting points rather than rules.

A solo practice in a small or mid-sized town, with two or three specialties, rarely has more than ten phrases worth targeting. Silver covers that.

A solo practice in a larger city, or one offering telehealth across a whole state, has more phrases and stronger competition, and often a site that needs on-page work before links will help much. Golden adds the in-depth research, the on-page audit and the content gap analysis that show what the site is missing.

A group practice with several specialties spread across clinicians, or a practice running a second site (an assessment service on its own domain, for instance), fits Platinum: 40 keywords, two domains, and a look at what competing practices are doing.

A group with several offices, or several domains, is where Titanium makes sense.

Each package can also be bought once instead of monthly. That suits a practice that wants to see one month's work and the report before committing, or one that has just rebuilt its site and wants a single round of work while it decides what comes next.

None of these comes with a ranking promise. SEO takes months to show results, and how many months depends on how many practices and directories compete for the same phrases in your area. We've been doing SEO since 2009, and that answer hasn't changed in that time.

Red flags when you compare quotes

• A six- or twelve-month contract with an early-exit fee.
• No list of links, or a monthly report that's only charts.
• A guaranteed ranking, or a promise of the top spot on Google.
• A request for testimonials from your clients, or a plan to send review requests to them. Your code limits soliciting testimonials, and an agency shouldn't put you in that position.
• The agency registering your domain, website or Google Business Profile in its own name.
• Tracking scripts added to your site without a conversation about health privacy.
• Reports that never connect to inquiries: traffic graphs with no mention of how many people actually wrote to you.

Compare the fee with what a client is worth

The fairest way to judge any SEO price is against what a new client is worth to your practice over the time they typically stay.

Hypothetical numbers, for illustration only: say your session fee is $150 and a typical client in your practice attends about 12 sessions. That's $1,800 in fees per client, before expenses. Six months of Silver costs $750. On those figures, the package covers its cost if, once it starts working, it brings in one additional client over those six months. Six months of Golden, $1,410, also comes in under one client.

That's arithmetic, not a forecast. The first months may bring no new inquiries at all while pages are indexed and links take effect. Some practices will see less than this from SEO for reasons unrelated to the work, such as a small town with very few searches for their specialty. Budget for a stretch with no return before you start. The client value calculator runs this comparison with your own fee and numbers, and it's worth doing before you talk to any provider, us included.

The comparison also differs by practice size. A group practice can place a new client with whichever clinician has openings, so one inquiry is more likely to become a client. A full solo practice may get little value from extra inquiries, because there's nowhere to put them.

The full fee schedule, with content writing plans and website prices next to the packages, is on our pricing page. Everything there is month to month and can be canceled at any time.