Typical SEO prices in New Zealand
Taken from prices NZ agencies publish on their own sites, checked in October 2026. Most are quoted plus GST.
An audit, keyword research and the technical fixes that only need doing once. Published agency ranges start around $3,500 and run past $10,000 for larger sites.
$3,500–10,000+Ongoing work for a local business targeting a handful of searches. Entry packages from NZ agencies sit around $1,000 to $1,200 a month.
$1,000–1,500 / monthMore keywords, regular content and link building, usually with an account manager.
$1,500–3,000 / monthAuckland-wide terms, national ecommerce, or industries like law, finance and real estate where every competitor is also paying for SEO.
$3,000–10,000+ / monthWhat I charge
The audit, keyword research, technical fixes, and your Google Business Profile properly claimed and configured.
$1,500 one-offTechnical work, Google Business Profile, local listings and content, reported monthly in plain English. A month's notice and you're out.
From $600 / monthWhy it's lower than an agency: it's one person, so there's no account manager or sales team in the price. I also focus on local SEO for small businesses, which needs fewer hours than a national campaign. If your business needs a national campaign, I'll tell you before you spend anything.
What the money should buy
Two retainers at the same price can contain very different amounts of work. Before you sign anything, ask for these in writing:
- Hours. Roughly how many hours a month go into your site.
- Deliverables. What gets done each month: pages written, fixes made, listings updated, links earned.
- Reporting. A report you can read, showing searches, clicks and enquiries. A page of automated charts is easy to send and tells you very little.
- Ownership. Your Google Business Profile, Search Console and analytics should all be in your name, with the agency added as a manager.
What makes SEO cost more
- Competition. A plumber in Masterton needs far less work than a lawyer in central Auckland.
- Locations. Every city or branch you want to rank in is more pages, more listings and more reviews.
- Content. If someone has to write new pages or articles every month, that's most of the cost.
- Site size. An online store with 2,000 products has more to fix than a seven-page service site.
- A messy starting point. A site that lost rankings in a bad redesign takes longer to recover than a new one takes to build.
Warning signs
- Guaranteed rankings or “page one in 30 days”. Nobody controls Google.
- Twelve month lock-in contracts with no way out.
- “We'll submit you to 500 directories.” That can hurt you.
- They set up your Google Business Profile in their own name.
- They can't tell you what they did last month.
More on this in what I will not do.
Common questions
Can I do my own SEO?
A good amount of it, yes. Claim your Google Business Profile, ask every happy customer for a review, write a clear page for each service you offer, and set up Google Search Console so you can see what people search for. That alone puts you ahead of most local competitors. Paying someone makes sense once your time is worth more than the fee.
How long before SEO works?
Google Business Profile changes can show within weeks. Ranking a website for competitive local searches usually takes three to six months, and a brand new domain takes longer than an established one.
Is $600 a month enough?
For a local business in one city, it usually is. For Auckland-wide or national terms, it isn't, and I'll say so before you spend anything.
Does SEO cost more on Squarespace?
Usually less. Squarespace handles hosting, SSL, sitemaps and speed, so fewer hours go into technical fixes. See Squarespace vs Wix vs WordPress.