What SEO costs in Dublin

The three pricing models

Monthly retainer. The client pays a fixed sum each month for an agreed scope: so many hours, or so many deliverables, or a defined set of responsibilities. This is the most common model in Dublin for ongoing SEO, because the work is continuous and the results compound. The risk is paying for months in which little happens; the protection is a written scope and a monthly report that shows what was done.

Project fee. A fixed price for a defined piece of work: an audit, a site migration, a set of new pages, a local listings clean-up. The scope is clear and the cost is capped. The limit is that SEO rarely ends; a project can fix a problem but cannot maintain a position.

Hourly or day rate. The client buys time. Common with consultants and freelancers, less so with agencies. It suits advisory work and short tasks. It is hard to budget for ongoing work, and it rewards slow delivery unless the hours are capped.

What drives the price up or down

Five things move the number, whichever model is used.

• Competition for the queries. Ranking a solicitor in Dublin city centre costs more effort than ranking a plumber in a single suburb, because more businesses are competing and the ones already ranking have done more work.
• The state of the site. A site with technical problems needs them fixed before anything else pays off. That is work, and it is priced.
• Scope. One location, one service and ten target queries is a different job from six locations, twenty services and a catalogue.
• Who does the work. An agency with staff costs more than a freelancer. It may also deliver more, or not. Agency, consultant or freelancer sets out the trade.
• What is included. Content writing, link acquisition and Google Ads management are sometimes inside the retainer and sometimes extra. Ask.

What a retainer should include

At minimum: a written monthly scope, technical monitoring, on-page work on an agreed number of pages, management of the Google Business Profile for a local business, a monthly report with business outcomes, and a named person to call. Anything described as “ongoing optimisation” without a list of what that means is a scope you cannot check.

The one published price this reference can verify

SEO Agency Dublin states on its homepage FAQ that its SEO packages for Irish businesses start from €700 a month for local businesses, scale with competition and goals, and carry no long-term contracts. It also states that it manages Google Ads campaigns from €500 a month in ad spend. Both are company facts, taken from the homepage FAQ on the date in the byline. The management fee for Google Ads is not published separately.

The same figures, with the criterion they satisfy, are on the agency page. This reference does not publish prices for other Dublin companies, because it has not surveyed them. When a dated survey of what Dublin SEO companies publish on their own sites exists, it will appear here with a source for every row. Until then, the comparison table on Dublin SEO companies compared leaves the pricing column for the reader to fill.

How to compare quotes

Put every quote into the same shape: what is delivered each month, how many hours or pages that represents, what is excluded, what the minimum term is, and what the report will show. A €700 retainer and a €1,500 retainer cannot be compared until both are in that shape. The cheaper one may include less; the dearer one may include Google Ads spend you did not ask for. SEO contracts and terms covers the term and exit side of the same comparison.

Questions to ask about price

• What exactly is delivered each month, and can I have it in writing?
• What is not included that I might expect to be?
• What is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?
• If results come slower than expected, what changes?
• What does your report show that would let me judge whether this is paying for itself?

The full list, grouped by criterion, is on questions to ask before you sign. The pricing basis is criterion three on the criteria page, and the selection guide explains why it matters before the first call.