What is the hourly rate for SEO?

On the Hungarian market, typically between €25 and €65 net per hour. An hourly rate below that usually signals a lack of experience, not a discount.

Do you have to pay separately for AI visibility?

Partly. Gemini and Google AI Overviews work from the Google index, where classic SEO helps directly. ChatGPT and Perplexity rely on other sources, so connecting Bing, the structured data and the entity building are separate work.

Knowledge base · Updated: 20 August 2026 · WebPot DEV

SEO prices 2026: how much does search engine optimisation cost?

Q: How much does search engine optimisation cost per month in Hungary?

On the Hungarian market, between €180 and €1,300 net a month, with most small and medium businesses signing between €180 and €500. Local work narrowed to a single town can start from €100 net, while a larger webshop may spend above €2,000.

Q: Why is the spread in SEO prices so wide?

SEO is an umbrella term: sending a monthly report and rebuilding a site technically with content and link building run under the same name. An itemised quote says more than the price on its own.

The short answer: on the Hungarian market, monthly search engine optimisation runs between €180 and €1,300 net a month, and most small and medium businesses sign in the €180 to €500 band. Local work narrowed to a single town can start from €100 net, while a competitive webshop may spend between €400 and €2,000 net a month. One-off items run separately: a basic SEO audit is €400 to €1,200 net, and a strategic one €1,200 to €4,000 net. The hourly rate for SEO typically settles between €25 and €65 net.

Situation	Monthly fee in 2026 (net)	What it covers
A local service provider, one town	€100 to €400/month	Business profile, local results, a few keywords, basic technical clean-up
An SME with a nationwide service	€180 to €500/month	Keyword strategy, 2 to 4 pieces of content a month, technical fixes, measurement
A provider in a strongly competitive market	€400 to €1,300/month	The above plus link building, competitor monitoring, more content
A webshop with many categories	above €400/month, and even above €2,000/month	Category pages, product data, technical SEO, continuous content
Hourly consultancy	€25 to €65/hour	When there is an in-house team that only needs direction

The bands are compiled from several Hungarian provider and price guide sources from August 2026, net values.

We approach search engine optimisation from the developer side. We do not publish a single monthly fee, because the size of the work differs radically from site to site. The guide below is therefore not a price list but a help in judging any quote you get.

Four pricing models

Model	When it works	What to watch for
Monthly package	For continuous work, the most common option	Ask in writing how many hours or which specific items it includes each month
Project price	For a one-off job: audit, migration, technical clean-up	Make sure the fixes are included, not just the list of faults
Hourly rate	When there is an in-house marketer who only needs professional direction	A low hourly rate often means a lack of experience, not a discount
Performance-based	Rarely, with a clear conversion goal	Clarify what counts as a result, because a ranking on its own is not revenue

Prices of individual tasks ordered separately

Task	Market price in 2026 (net)
Basic SEO audit (smaller site)	€400 to €1,200
Full or strategic audit	€1,200 to €4,000
Large webshop audit, several thousand products	above €4,000
Keyword research on its own	€150 to €700
Technical SEO fixes as a project	€700 to €4,000
On-page optimisation per page	€80 to €350
SEO copywriting per article	€80 to €400
Link building per link	€50 to €700, a premium placement above €900
Monthly link building package	€1,200 to €4,000/month

Adding them up is misleading. In a good monthly package three or four of these run in parallel, dosed by priority, not all at once. If a quote promises everything every month, it is either very expensive or very superficial.

What decides the bottom and the top of the band

The strength of the competition. For a narrow, niche phrase you can get to the front in three months; for a general, high-volume keyword a year may not be enough.
The starting state of the site. On a technically sound site most of the work is content; on a slow, badly structured site six months of clean-up comes first.
Whether you have your own source of content. If the expertise is in the company and only the wording is needed, that is cheaper than the provider having to research it as well.
Whether link building is needed. This is the most expensive item and the riskiest, so it is worth starting only once the technical and content work is in place.
How large the site is. Above a thousand products the product data and the category structure alone are several months of work.

When it pays off

SEO is not a cost but an investment with a delayed return. On a site in good shape the first measurable movement comes between 2 and 4 months, and the business effect between 6 and 12 months. That is why a monthly fee is always worth looking at over at least six months: a €800 net monthly fee is €4,800 over half a year. The question is how many new enquiries that money has to bring for it to be worth it.

A simple calculation: if an average order is worth €3,000 net and the margin is 40 per cent, then €4,800 of SEO spend pays off at four new orders. If that is realistic in the given market, it is worth starting. If not, either aim at a narrower set of keywords or choose a different channel.

The new item in 2026: AI visibility

Alongside the classic results list, another surface has appeared: the answers of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. These choose their sources by a different logic than the ranking, so a good Google position is not enough on its own. The GEO service now taking shape on the market is typically priced as a fixed-price audit plus a monthly package.

With us the AI visibility audit is a fixed €990 net, and the ongoing GEO package is €790 to €2,400 net a month. This is deliberately a separate item alongside classic SEO, because the work is different: structured data, answer-shaped content, connecting Bing and IndexNow, entity building and measuring real AI crawler traffic. We have set out the details on the AI visibility and GEO optimisation page.

Three promises worth walking away from

A guaranteed first place. The ranking comes from Google, not from the provider. Anyone who guarantees it is either optimising for an insignificant phrase or not telling the truth.
Full-service SEO for €200 a month. That buys two or three hours of work, which is enough for writing a report but not for real work.
A cheap link package with hundreds of links. Bulk, low-quality links are no longer neutral today, they are a risk.

Five questions when you request a quote

What exactly does the monthly fee include? Item by item, not as a list of capabilities.
What is the plan for the first three months? If there is no plan, there are no priorities either.
How do we measure the result? Rankings, traffic and the number of enquiries together, not just one of them.
Who carries out the technical fixes? Many quotes only give recommendations, with the development work billed separately.
How long is the notice period? A long tie-in is a commercial argument, not a professional one.

Frequently asked questions about SEO prices

On the Hungarian market, between €180 and €1,300 net, with most small and medium businesses signing between €180 and €500. Local work narrowed to a single town can start from €100 net, while a larger webshop may spend above €2,000.

A basic technical audit is €400 to €1,200 net, and a full or strategic audit €1,200 to €4,000 net. For a webshop with several thousand products it can go above €4,000. Always ask whether the fixes are included or only the list of faults.

The first measurable movement typically comes between 2 and 4 months, and the business effect between 6 and 12 months. It is faster where the site is technically sound and already has some authority, slower on a new domain or in strong competition.

You can work it out. Divide six months of SEO spend by the margin on an average order and you get how many new orders it takes to break even. If that number is realistic in the given market it is worth it; if not, it is worth narrowing the target or choosing another channel.

Because SEO is an umbrella term. Sending a monthly report and rebuilding a site technically with content and link building run under the same name. An itemised quote therefore says more than the price on its own.

Partly. Some of the classic SEO work also helps in AI answers, because Gemini and Google AI Overviews work from the Google index. ChatGPT and Perplexity, however, rely on other sources, so connecting Bing, the structured data and the entity building are separate work. With us this consists of a fixed €990 net audit and a monthly package of €790 to €2,400 net.

Not sure how much work your site needs?

Request a free survey and an itemised quote