The six providers checked publish displayed amounts from $300 to $6,000 or more per month. Currency terms differ or are unstated, the scopes differ, and this range is not currency-normalised or an estimate of a typical tradie SEO fee.
The figures in this guide are individual providers’ own published offers, checked on their websites on 26 October 2026. The six listings are not a market survey or representative sample and do not establish a typical price. For how SEO fits into a trade business overall, start with our complete guide to SEO for tradies.
Key Takeaways
- This guide found no verifiable published Australian average for trade SEO. Compare published scopes instead of chasing a single number.
- The six pages display amounts from $300 to $6,000 or more per month; currency terms and scope differ or may be unstated.
- Check GST treatment, contract length and who actually does the work before comparing two quotes.
- Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and you remain responsible for the actions of a company you hire.
- Work out the break-even using your own job profit, not a borrowed average.
Why There Is No Single Price for Tradie SEO
SEO retainer pricing is charged against the work the plan contains. That work changes with the number of services, the areas served, market competition, how much the website needs fixing and how much content is required. Two businesses in the same suburb can reasonably be quoted very differently.
Three items to check when comparing quotes are:
| Variable | What changes | What to check in a quote |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Services covered, areas targeted, content volume, technical work | Which outputs are fixed and which vary month to month |
| GST terms | Provider pages state GST differently or leave it unstated | Whether GST is added, excluded or not stated in the written quote |
| Contract | Month to month versus a fixed term | Minimum term, notice period and exit conditions |
A “from” figure is the lowest amount a provider advertises. It does not establish the fee for a different scope. Ask which configuration that figure applies to.
What Australian Providers Publish
The table below lists six providers’ own published figures, ordered by the lowest amount each one advertises. Each links to the page where the figure appears. Treat them as a spread of published offers, not a ranking and not a benchmark. HeyTradie labels its amount AUD, and Intellar’s package table is headed AUD; the other four rows come from Australian providers whose pricing blocks do not state a currency. Where a displayed offer does not state GST, the table says so rather than assuming it. A retainer here means a recurring monthly fee for ongoing work.
| Provider | Published amount and stated terms | Published scope |
|---|---|---|
| HeyTradie | from $300 AUD per month; GST not stated | Varies with locations, services and desired speed |
| Localsearch | from $499 per month plus GST; 6-month minimum; setup fee varies by scope; currency not stated | Keyword strategy, website audit, on-page and technical fixes, content, backlinks, blog posts, schema markup and dashboard |
| DreamoonTech | $999, $1,499, from $2,999 per month, excluding GST; currency not stated | Fixed scope for the first two tiers; Premium quoted after a consultation. See our SEO packages |
| Intellar | Launch from $1,500 per month; the package table is headed AUD; GST not stated | Monthly backlinks, content and consulting hours, tailored to the market |
| Safari Digital | about $2,000 per month plus GST for non-metro; $2,500 to $3,500 metro; $3,500 and above for metro suburb-level targeting; GST treatment not stated for metro amounts; currency not stated | The provider’s own stated guidance for trade businesses |
| SOUP Agency | $2,500, $4,000 and $6,000 and above per month, excluding GST; currency not stated | Site size and category competitiveness |
Do not average these. They describe different deliverables for different customers and different stated terms. Safari Digital’s figure, for example, is stated guidance rather than a fixed package, while SOUP prices against landing-page count. A lower number may mean a narrower scope, not a better deal.
What Should Be in a Trade SEO Retainer?
A retainer should describe output, not activity. “Monthly SEO” tells you nothing. Ask which pages will be worked on, which profile fields will be updated and what will be reported.
- Technical and on-page work: crawlability, indexing issues, page structure and internal links.
- Business Profile work: categories, services, service areas, photos and review process.
- Content: new or improved service pages, written for the customer rather than for a keyword list.
- Local signals: consistent business details where the business is listed.
- Reporting: what was done, what changed, what the enquiries looked like.
Also ask who performs the work and whether it is done in-house. Ask what happens if the business adds another service or another suburb mid-contract. If the answer is “that costs extra”, get the amount in writing.
Reviewing a site before paying is a sensible place to start. Our guide to a tradie site that is not ranking lists the checks an owner can run themselves.
Why Some Offers Are Much Cheaper
A low price can reflect a genuinely narrow scope. A single-van business with one service and one tight service area may not need much. A low price can also reflect templated work, automated output or little oversight. Neither possibility is proven by the price alone.
What is worth treating cautiously is certainty. Google publishes direct guidance for buyers. It says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. It warns about companies that are secretive about their methods. It also says you remain responsible for the actions of any company you hire. At the start, Google suggests read-only access to Search Console rather than write access. Read the current Google guidance on hiring an SEO.
Ask one question in every sales conversation: what will you do in the first month, and how will you report it? A provider who cannot answer clearly is a risk regardless of the price.
Work Out What a Monthly Fee Has to Earn
The fee only makes sense against the profit it can produce. That is your own arithmetic, not an industry benchmark. The worksheet below is a hypothetical example. Replace every input with your own records.
| Input | How to find it | Hypothetical value |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly SEO fee | The quote you are comparing | $F |
| Gross profit per completed job | Job revenue minus labour, materials and direct costs | $P |
| Close rate on qualified enquiries | Jobs won divided by qualified enquiries, over a quarter | R |
| Jobs needed to cover the fee | Fee divided by gross profit per job | F / P |
| Qualified enquiries needed | Jobs needed divided by the close rate | F / P / R |
Suppose a hypothetical business pays a $1,000 monthly fee and earns $500 gross profit per job. It needs two jobs to cover the fee: $1,000 divided by $500. If it closes one in three qualified enquiries, it needs six qualified enquiries: two jobs divided by one third. Those numbers are placeholders chosen to show the arithmetic, not a claim about any real trade business.
If you do not know your close rate yet, measure it before signing a long contract. A monthly fee that looks reasonable against an assumed close rate can look very different against the real one.
How Should SEO Fit With Google Ads?
The two channels behave differently. Google Ads is paid placement managed through a campaign budget. SEO is work on pages and profile signals, with no per-click charge. Google says advertising does not affect organic presence, so evaluate an ad budget and an organic ranking strategy separately.
For the full channel comparison, including how the timing and cost structures differ, see SEO versus Google Ads for tradies. For general Australian SEO pricing outside the trades, see the general SEO cost guide for Australia.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does SEO cost for a tradie in Australia?
Across these six provider pages, the displayed amounts run from $300 to $6,000 or more per month. Currency terms differ or are unstated, so this is not a currency-normalised Australian market average. Compare each offer’s scope, stated GST terms and contract conditions instead.
Is cheap SEO worth it?
It depends what the fee covers. A low price can reflect a narrow scope that genuinely suits a small business. Treat guarantees, secrecy about methods and missing reporting as reasons to ask harder questions, not as proof of anything by themselves.
What is included in a monthly SEO retainer?
A retainer may include technical and on-page work, Business Profile updates, content, local listing consistency and reporting. Ask explicitly which outputs are fixed and which vary month to month, and who performs the work.
How do I know whether SEO is worth the monthly cost?
Compare the fee with the gross profit per job and the close rate on qualified enquiries. The number of jobs needed to cover the fee is your own calculation. If those figures are unknown, measure them before committing to a long contract.
Next Steps
Start with the scope, then the price. A retainer that names what it will do and how it will report is easier to judge than one that promises a position. The package table above provides a published scope example to compare against your quote.
