How much does SEO cost?

What you get for your SEO budget

SEO can cost anything from a few thousand kronor a month to SEK 20,000–30,000 or more for larger, more competitive programmes. The difference lies mainly in how much needs doing – from improving a handful of key pages and building a solid foundation to working continuously on technology, content, keywords and new opportunities across the whole site.

At Skale, local SEO starts from SEK 3,000 a month and ongoing SEO from SEK 5,000 a month, excl. VAT. That level suits companies that want to start in a structured way, begin building their organic presence and let us identify where the biggest opportunities lie. We focus first on what will make the biggest difference and build a stable foundation step by step, one that can be scaled up when the results and the business potential justify a larger commitment.

That is why the right SEO budget is not about buying as much SEO as possible, but about investing at the right level for your company’s current position and potential. In this guide we cover what affects the price, what different budget levels can realistically deliver and how to decide which investment makes sense for your business.

SEO prices in Sweden – a quick overview

There is no standard price for SEO. Two companies can need entirely different work even if they want to be visible on Google in similar areas. As a rule of thumb, ongoing SEO work in Sweden typically runs from a few thousand kronor a month up to SEK 30,000 or considerably more for larger websites and highly competitive markets.

What changes between the levels is not how “good” the SEO is, but how much can be prioritised and carried out at the same time.

SEO budget	Typical set-up
SEK 3,000–5,000/month	A focused start where the most important opportunities are prioritised first. Suits companies that want to begin building organic visibility and create a foundation to develop further.
SEK 5,000–10,000/month	More continuous work on existing landing pages, keywords, on-page SEO, content and technical improvements.
SEK 10,000–20,000/month	Broader SEO work in which several key pages and topic areas can be developed in parallel, along with more extensive analysis and content work.
SEK 20,000–30,000+/month	Larger programmes for competitive markets, extensive websites or companies that want to build organic visibility across several important business areas at once.

Treat these levels as guidelines, not ready-made packages. The right SEO budget depends on where your website stands today, what the competition looks like and which opportunities carry the most business value.

Not sure which SEO budget suits your company? Contact Skale for a free assessment of your website, your competition and your organic growth potential.

How is SEO priced?

SEO can be priced in several ways, depending on whether the work is ongoing, defined or advisory. What matters is not which pricing model is used, but that it is clear what is included and which problem the work is meant to solve.

Pricing model	Best suited to
Monthly fee	Ongoing SEO, continuous optimisation and long-term growth
Fixed project price	SEO audits, migrations, keyword research or other defined projects
Hourly rate	Advice, specialist input and smaller one-off tasks
Performance-based SEO	Arrangements where payment is tied to a defined result

Monthly fee

A monthly fee is common when the SEO work is meant to develop continuously. The budget can then go towards different priorities from month to month, depending on what the analysis shows.

It works particularly well when the website needs work in several areas, such as technical SEO, landing pages, content, internal linking and follow-up.

Fixed project price

A fixed project price works better when the assignment has a clear beginning and a clear end.

That could be a technical SEO review, keyword research, a website migration or the optimisation of a defined number of pages.

Hourly rate

Hourly rates are often used for advice or smaller specialist tasks where the scope does not justify an ongoing arrangement.

The drawback is that it can be harder to link the cost to a clear long-term SEO result if the work consists only of the occasional hour.

Performance-based SEO

Performance-based arrangements can sound attractive, but you need to check exactly which result the payment is based on.

Ranking for a large number of keywords, for example, has limited value if those keywords do not lead to relevant traffic or business.

If performance-based pricing is used, the goals should therefore be clear, measurable and tied to the company’s actual business value.

For most companies that want to build organic visibility over time, an ongoing monthly arrangement is usually the most flexible, because priorities can change as new data and new opportunities emerge.

How big an SEO budget does your company need?

The right SEO budget depends less on the size of the company and more on how big the organic opportunity is and how much work it takes to capture it. A smaller company in a clearly defined market can sometimes get good results from a focused effort, whereas a larger website with many services, products or strong competition needs considerably more done in parallel.

A good way to think about it is to start from the type of website and business you have, rather than beginning with a ready-made SEO package.

1. Smaller companies that want to start building visibility

For a company that is not yet working actively on SEO, a smaller budget can be a good way to begin. The focus should then be on the most important services, the most relevant searches and the improvements most likely to make a difference.

At Skale, a set-up like that can start from SEK 3,000 a month, where we gradually build a stronger foundation and gather more data to base the next decision on.

2. Companies that want to grow nationally

If the aim is to compete on several important searches across Sweden, the work usually needs to be broader. More landing pages may need to be developed, the content needs to cover more topic areas, and technical SEO, internal linking and ongoing analysis become more important.

A larger ongoing budget is often justified here, because several parts of the website need developing at the same time.

3. E-commerce and larger websites

Online shops and websites with many categories, products or pages tend to have greater technical and content complexity. That can range from indexing and category structure to product content, internal links and large volumes of keywords.

In those cases the SEO budget commonly needs to be higher, because the number of possible actions and potential growth areas is considerably greater.

4. Established websites that already rank

A website that already has organic visibility does not always need to start with more content. There is often great potential in analysing which pages and keywords already sit close to better positions and focusing resources there.

That can make the SEO work more efficient, because you build on authority and rankings that already exist instead of starting from zero.

What do different SEO budgets get you?

Two SEO budgets can be used in very different ways. What matters is therefore not only how much you invest, but which problems and opportunities the money is spent on. A smaller budget demands tougher prioritisation, while a larger one makes it possible to work on more parts of the website in parallel.

Around SEK 3,000–5,000 a month

At this level the SEO work needs to be focused. It is about identifying the most important opportunities and working methodically on a limited number of pages and searches at a time.

The focus could, for example, be on:

• analysis of your existing organic visibility
• prioritising the most important keywords and landing pages
• optimising existing content
• titles, headings and search intent
• basic technical improvements
• internal linking between key pages
• ongoing monitoring of progress

This is also the level at which Skale’s SEO work begins. The aim is to build the right foundation and find where the next investment can make the biggest difference, rather than trying to do everything at once.

Around SEK 5,000–10,000 a month

With a larger ongoing budget there is room to develop more parts of the website at the same time. Besides optimising existing pages, the work can begin to include new landing pages, deeper keyword research and more continuous development of content.

That can include:

• several prioritised landing pages
• technical SEO and ongoing error fixing
• keyword and competitor analysis
• new and updated content
• development of content clusters
• more extensive internal linking
• continuous analysis of new SEO opportunities

This is where the SEO work can move on from individual improvements to a more coherent strategy for the website’s organic growth.

Around SEK 10,000–20,000 a month

At this level, several strategic areas can be developed in parallel. It suits above all companies where organic search traffic has clear business value and where there are many relevant searches to compete for.

The work could, for example, cover:

• several commercially important areas of the site at once
• an extensive content and keyword strategy
• ongoing technical SEO
• new landing pages and supporting content
• optimisation based on Search Console data
• analysis of competitors’ content and search strategy
• building topical authority
• continuous follow-up and reprioritisation

A larger budget mainly means that more relevant opportunities can be worked on at the same time, not that each individual SEO action suddenly becomes better.

SEK 20,000 or more a month

Larger SEO investments are mainly justified when the website, the market and the business potential genuinely call for them. That can apply to larger online shops, nationally competitive markets or websites with many service areas and large volumes of content.

At that level the work can include several parallel SEO tracks, such as technology, content, information architecture, larger content clusters and continuous analysis of a large number of commercially relevant pages.

But a budget of SEK 20,000 or 30,000 is not automatically better than a budget of SEK 5,000. If there are not enough relevant opportunities to invest in, a larger budget is not justified.

What affects the price of SEO?

The price of SEO is not decided by a single factor. Two companies may want to appear for similar searches yet need very different amounts of work, depending on the state of the website, the competition and how much of the site needs developing.

An SEO budget should therefore start from what actually needs to be done to deliver business results, not from a standard package with a predetermined number of keywords or articles.

Competition in the search results

The stronger your competitors are on the searches you want to appear for, the more it usually takes to compete. That might mean better landing pages, broader topic coverage, stronger internal linking and a more extensive ongoing effort.

That is why two keywords with roughly the same search volume can require entirely different investments.

Where your website stands today

A website with a good technical foundation, relevant landing pages and existing organic visibility starts from a very different place than one where large parts must be built first.

In some cases the biggest potential lies in improving pages that already rank. In others, technical problems, information architecture or content need sorting out before the website has a reasonable chance of growing.

How many services or product areas you want to be visible for

A company focused on a handful of clear services can often work far more narrowly than one that wants to build visibility across many different areas at once.

The more commercially important areas there are to work on, the more search intents, landing pages and related topics need to be analysed and prioritised.

How much relevant content you already have

More content does not automatically mean better SEO. What matters is whether the website already has the right content for the searches that are valuable to the business.

If relevant pages are already in place, the work can often focus on improvement and consolidation. If key parts are missing, new landing pages or supporting content may need to be built.

The technical complexity of the website

On smaller websites the need for technical SEO can be relatively limited. For larger online shops, sites with many URLs or more complicated platforms, however, indexing, crawling, canonical tags, redirects and site structure can demand considerably more work.

How much you want to do in parallel

A larger budget mainly means that more prioritised actions can be carried out at the same time.

With a smaller budget the work has to concentrate harder on the opportunities judged to have the biggest impact. With more room, technical improvements, landing pages, content and analysis can, for example, run in parallel.

That does not mean the biggest budget is automatically the best. The right budget is the level at which there are enough relevant opportunities to invest in.

What the first 90 days of SEO can look like

The first months of SEO should not be about producing as much content as possible. First we need to understand where the website’s biggest opportunities and limitations lie, then carry out the highest-priority actions and finally use the first data to steer the work onwards.

The exact order varies from site to site, but SEO work might look roughly like this over the first 90 days.

Month 1: Analysis, prioritisation and groundwork

The first period is mainly about understanding the current position and deciding where resources should go.

The work can include:

• analysis of existing organic visibility
• keyword and competitor analysis
• identifying important commercial landing pages
• reviewing the search intent behind priority searches
• a technical review of the website
• analysis of indexing and site structure
• identifying pages that already sit close to better positions
• prioritising the first SEO actions

The aim is to create a clear order of priority, so that the budget starts to be used where the potential is judged to be greatest.

Month 2: Putting it into practice on the website

Once the key opportunities are identified, a larger share of the work starts to be carried out.

That could, for example, mean that we:

• improve existing landing pages
• adjust page titles, headings and content
• improve internal linking
• fix technical problems
• consolidate content that competes for the same searches
• build new pages where important search intents lack a relevant destination
• strengthen the site’s structure around priority services or product areas

Which actions come first depends on where the website stands. A site with strong existing positions may, for example, benefit more from optimising pages that are already visible than from starting straight away on new content.

Month 3: Follow up, reinforce and prioritise the next step

After the first changes have gone live, we begin to get more information about how the website responds.

The work can then involve:

• tracking progress in Google Search Console
• analysing which searches and pages are starting to improve
• identifying new opportunities
• reinforcing pages that show positive development
• adjusting priorities where results fall short of expectations
• planning the next content or landing page area
• deciding whether the SEO effort should be scaled up

This is where SEO starts to become an ongoing process of decision-making rather than a list of one-off actions.

90 days is the beginning – not the final result

Three months can provide valuable data and show whether the work is heading in the right direction, but it is rarely a reasonable time frame for judging the full business impact of SEO.

How quickly things move depends on factors such as the competition, the website’s history, where it stands today and the scope of the work. The first 90 days should therefore be used mainly to build the right foundation, carry out the most important actions and create a better basis for deciding the next step.

When is SEO not worth the money?

SEO can be a very profitable channel, but that does not mean it is always the right investment. In some situations other problems should be solved first – or other marketing channels may deliver better results in the short term.

Spending money on SEO without a clear business case risks creating more traffic without actually creating more business.

1. When there is hardly any relevant search demand

SEO works best when potential customers are actually searching for what the company offers.

If very few people search for the product, service or problem you solve, SEO can still have value, but the potential is limited. In such cases advertising, social media or active sales may be better ways of creating demand.

That is why we look not just at search volume, but at whether there are relevant searches with real commercial value.

2. When the website cannot convert the traffic

Getting more visitors from Google helps little if the website fails to turn them into enquiries, purchases or other important actions.

If the site is hard to use, has an unclear offer or lacks clear next steps, it may therefore be more profitable to improve the website and its conversion first.

SEO should not be used to send more traffic to a website that already has clear conversion problems.

3. When the company needs results immediately

SEO is rarely the right channel if the company needs to generate traffic and leads within days.

In those situations Google Ads or other paid channels may be more suitable, because the traffic can start coming in considerably faster.

That does not mean SEO should be ruled out. A combination is often best: advertising creates demand in the short term while SEO gradually builds a more long-term organic channel.

4. When the business value does not justify the competition

Some search results are so competitive that the cost of building enough visibility can exceed the potential business benefit.

This applies particularly if margins are low, customer value is limited or very large, established players already dominate the search results.

The question then needs to be:

What could a better organic position realistically be worth to the company?

Not just:

Can we rank for the keyword?

5. When the company cannot make the necessary changes

SEO often requires changes to the website. These might involve content, technical improvements, new landing pages, internal linking or changes to the site’s structure.

If the organisation cannot or will not make some of these changes, it is hard to get the full effect of the work.

Paying for analyses and recommendations that are never implemented is rarely a good SEO investment.

6. SEO needs a business case

We do not recommend SEO just because a company wants to “be more visible on Google”.

There needs to be a reasonable link between search demand, business value, competition and what it costs to create visibility.

If that link is missing, the budget is better spent elsewhere.

And sometimes the best SEO recommendation is actually to not invest more in SEO right now.

SEO or Google Ads – where should the budget go?

SEO and Google Ads can both reach people who are actively searching for what you offer, but they solve different problems. SEO builds organic visibility over time, whereas Google Ads lets you buy visibility on chosen searches for as long as the advertising is running.

Which channel should get the biggest share of the budget therefore depends above all on how quickly you need results, what the search market looks like and what a new customer is worth to the company.

BR&K AB is an example of this: from no digital presence at all to SEK 342,000 in signed deals within five weeks.

SEO suits you best when you want to build long-term visibility

SEO is particularly interesting when there is recurring search demand in areas that matter to the company’s business and you can invest with a longer-term view.

A strong organic presence can gradually bring traffic to several important pages without every individual click having to be bought through advertising.

SEO therefore often becomes more attractive when:

• the same relevant searches come back month after month
• several services or product areas have organic potential
• you already have a website that can be developed
• you want to build a stronger position on Google over time
• you do not depend on the investment paying off in full straight away

Google Ads suits you best when you need demand now

If the company needs enquiries or sales faster, Google Ads can be a better first step.

Advertising lets you aim the budget at specific searches and quickly test which offers, keywords and landing pages actually lead to business.

It can be particularly relevant when:

• you have just launched a new website or service
• organic visibility is still low
• you need to generate leads in the short term
• you want to test demand before making a larger SEO investment
• certain commercial searches are so valuable that you want to appear both organically and through ads

The combination is often stronger than choosing between them

For many companies the best solution is not SEO or Google Ads, but giving each channel a different role.

Google Ads can be used to create visibility while SEO is being built up. At the same time, data from the advertising can give valuable signals about which searches, offers and landing pages actually generate business.

As organic visibility grows, the budget split can then be adjusted according to which areas work best.

Compare the cost per deal – not just the cost per click

You cannot tell which channel is best simply by comparing what SEO costs per month with what a click costs in Google Ads.

The more important question is what it costs to generate a relevant enquiry or a new customer.

If SEK 10,000 spent on advertising generates more profitable deals than the same investment in SEO, advertising is probably the right priority for now. If SEO, on the other hand, can build organic visibility that keeps generating relevant leads over time, the long-term calculation can look entirely different.

The budget should therefore go to the channel – or combination of channels – best placed to create profitable growth for your company in particular.

How do you work out whether SEO is profitable?

In the end, SEO should be judged by what the organic traffic is worth to the company – not just by how many keywords have moved a few positions.

To decide whether the investment is reasonable, you therefore need to link the SEO work to leads, sales and customer value.

Start with the value of a new customer

If an average new customer is worth SEK 20,000, for example, and the website needs four qualified enquiries to win one new customer, you can start to work backwards.

Each qualified enquiry is then worth roughly SEK 5,000 in theory.

If the SEO work generates several new relevant enquiries each month over time, it becomes far easier to judge which monthly budget can be justified.

See the BR&K AB case study for a concrete example of what that calculation can look like in practice.

Measure more than just positions

Rankings are useful as an indicator, but they do not tell the whole story.

So we mainly track the development of:

• organic clicks from relevant searches
• visibility for commercially important keywords
• traffic to key landing pages
• form enquiries and other leads
• sales or other conversions where these can be measured
• which pages and topics are actually starting to create business value

SEO needs to be judged over time

A single month rarely says much about how profitable an SEO effort is.

What matters is whether the organic channel gradually starts to generate more relevant traffic and more business opportunities in relation to the investment.

Once you can see that link, the question is no longer just what SEO costs – but how much it makes sense to invest to keep growing.

Red flags when buying SEO

There are many reputable SEO agencies and consultants, but also arrangements where it is hard to understand what the client is actually paying for. A high price is not automatically a sign of quality – and a low price is not automatically a bargain.

What matters most is whether the work is clearly linked to business goals, priorities and actual changes on the website.

Guarantees of specific rankings

Be wary of providers who guarantee first place or a certain number of top positions on Google. No SEO provider controls Google’s search results, and competition, algorithms and the website’s circumstances can change over time. A reputable provider should be able to explain what will be done and why – not promise a result that cannot be guaranteed.

Google also advises caution with SEO providers who promise specific rankings, and recommends checking SEO advice against Google’s own guidelines.

A focus on the number of keywords instead of business value

Reporting that a company “ranks for 500 keywords” says very little if the keywords are not relevant to the business. What matters is whether visibility exists on searches that can create relevant traffic, leads or sales.

It is unclear what is actually being done

If the reporting consists mostly of graphs and position changes, and it is hard to see which actions have been carried out, that is a clear warning sign.

You should be able to get answers to questions such as:

• which pages have been improved?
• which technical problems have been fixed?
• what content has been created or updated?
• which opportunities are being prioritised next?
• why are these particular actions being prioritised?

Content is produced just to fill a quota

A set number of articles each month can sound concrete, but more content is not automatically better SEO. If new pages lack a clear search intent or compete with existing pages, they can instead weaken the site’s structure. Content should therefore be published when there is a clear need and a clear purpose.

Links nobody wants to explain

Links can be part of SEO work, but quality and context matter a great deal. If the provider will not explain where the links come from, why they are relevant or what kind of websites are used, you should be wary.

No link between SEO and the business

The biggest red flag is when SEO is treated as a separate project whose only goal is more traffic and better positions.

Good SEO should always be traceable back to questions like:

Which customers are we trying to reach? Which searches are valuable? Which pages should generate the business? And how do we measure whether the investment is working?

If those questions are missing, it is hard to know whether the SEO budget is actually being spent where it does the most good.

What does SEO cost at Skale?

At Skale, local SEO starts from SEK 3,000 a month, ongoing SEO from SEK 5,000 and e-commerce SEO from SEK 7,500, excl. VAT. The price is always assessed individually, based on the size of the company, the scope of the website and the keywords and markets you want to compete for.

That does not mean every company needs the same set-up. We start by assessing the website’s current position, the competition and the organic business potential, and then prioritise the actions judged most likely to have the biggest effect.

From SEK 3,000 a month

This level suits above all companies that want to start working with SEO in a structured way without committing to a large monthly budget straight away.

The work could, for example, focus on:

• the most important commercial pages
• keywords with clear business relevance
• improving existing content
• technical problems that limit visibility
• internal linking and site structure
• ongoing analysis and prioritisation

Exactly what is prioritised depends on where the website’s biggest opportunities lie.

The budget can scale when the potential justifies it

When there are more relevant areas to work on, the effort can be scaled up.

A larger budget makes it possible to work on more landing pages, content areas and technical improvements in parallel, but we do not recommend a bigger commitment simply because more SEO can be done.

First we want to see a clear business case for the next investment.

No off-the-shelf SEO template for every company

We do not work from a model in which every client automatically gets the same number of articles, keywords or activities each month.

Two companies with the same budget can therefore end up with entirely different priorities, depending on what is judged to create the most value.

If you want to understand which level makes sense for your company, we can start with an assessment of your website, your competition and your organic growth potential.

If you would like to start with a review of the whole site, there is the Full SEO Audit from SEK 6,900, as a one-off. You get a prioritised action list you can work from yourselves or with us, and the audit fee is deducted if you continue with ongoing SEO within 3 months.