The seven bands
Between one budget and the next $500 there is almost nothing to say. Between one band and the next there is most of what a buyer wants to know, so these are the levels where the answer genuinely changes.
- From $100 — Below the useful threshold — This is not enough to fund search work that will change anything, and we would rather say so than take it.
- From $500 — Diagnosis and foundations — Enough to find out what is actually wrong and fix the worst of it, but not enough to run a programme.
- From $2,000 — A real starting programme — The first level at which diagnosis, fixes and a steady flow of content can run together, which is what makes rankings move.
- From $5,000 — Competing properly — Enough to run search, answer-engine and generative work as one programme rather than choosing between them.
- From $15,000 — Multi-front programme — Enough to run several fronts at once — technical, content, authority, answer engines and generative visibility — without robbing one to fund another.
- From $50,000 — Enterprise and multi-market — Enough to run search as an internal function with external seniority attached, across markets and languages simultaneously.
- From $200,000 — Beyond an agency engagement — At this level you are not buying an agency retainer, you are funding a function — and the honest advice is usually to build some of it in-house.
We do not sell packages
Every figure on these pages is a ceiling a reader brought with them, not a rate we charge. Scope decides what work costs, and a number without a scope attached is guesswork dressed as an answer.
What these pages are for is the question underneath the search: whether the budget you have is enough to get what you want. Often the honest answer is no, and it is more useful to hear that here than after three months.
Tell us what you are trying to move
Two minutes. It opens WhatsApp with your answers filled in, and you can edit anything before it sends.