How much does an SEO audit cost, and what should it include?
An SEO audit can cost nothing, a few hundred dollars, or several thousand, and all three can be the right buy for different businesses. The price follows the depth: who looks, how much of your data they use, and whether you get a plan or a printout. Here is what each level includes, my own audit as one data point, and the questions to ask before you pay anyone.
By Muhammad Zohaib Ameer, SEO specialist · Updated November 14, 2026 · 9 min read- Free: a short look at the biggest visible problems. Useful as a first step, and usually a sales step, including mine.
- Paid specialist audit: your whole site, your data and your competitors, ending in a sorted plan. Mine is $499.
- Comprehensive: for large or enterprise sites, with workshops and a long report. Priced in the thousands and scaled to the site.
- Rule: pay for priorities, not for page count. A 90-page PDF with no order is a printout.
Screaming Frog
Google Search Console
Google Analytics 4
Semrush
Ahrefs
MozHow much does an SEO audit cost?
An SEO audit costs anywhere from nothing, for a short free review, to several thousand dollars for a comprehensive audit of a large site. The price tracks the depth of the work. A free review looks at what is visible from outside. A paid specialist audit goes through your whole site, your Search Console data, your links and your competitors, and ends in a plan. A comprehensive audit adds interviews, workshops, server logs and a long report. My own SEO X-Ray is $499, sits in the middle, and is built for small and mid-sized businesses.
Same word, four different products.
| Level | Who does it | What they look at | What you get | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automated tool report | Software | Crawl errors, missing tags, speed scores | A long list with no priorities | Free, or a tool subscription |
| Free review | A consultant or agency, briefly | The biggest issues visible from outside | A short call or a recorded video | Free. It is usually a sales step, and mine is too |
| Paid specialist audit | One experienced person | Full crawl, your Search Console and analytics, links, local, competitors | A sorted plan with the fix and the reason for each item | Hundreds of dollars. Mine is $499 |
| Comprehensive agency audit | A team | Everything above plus interviews, workshops, logs and templates | A long report, presentations, a roadmap | Thousands, scaled to the size of the site |
Published agency price lists I have seen run from a few hundred dollars for a basic audit to several thousand for an enterprise one. Choose by the size of your site, not the size of the report.
Where the money goes as the price rises.
| What is checked | Free review | Paid specialist | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical crawl of every page | A sample | Yes | Yes |
| Your Search Console and analytics data | No | Yes | Yes |
| Link profile and risky links | No | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor comparison | A glance | The top three | A wider set |
| Google profile, reviews and citations | A glance | Yes | Yes |
| Content quality, page by page | No | Key pages | Every page |
| Server logs and crawl budget | No | Rarely | Yes |
| Priorities with effort and effect | No | Yes | Yes |
| Workshops and presentations | No | A recorded walk-through | Yes |
Which audit do you actually need?
Four answers. The recommendation updates as you click.
A starting point. The free review is how I check it properly.
Start with the free one →My $499 SEO X-Ray, and what you get for it.
I charge $499 for a one-time audit I call the SEO X-Ray. It covers more than a hundred checks across technical health, your pages, your links, your local presence and your competitors, using your own Search Console and analytics data. It ends in a 90-day roadmap sorted by what will pay back first, written in plain English, with a recorded walk-through.
You keep the plan and can use it with anyone, including your own developer. If you start a monthly plan with me within 30 days, the audit fee comes off the first month. The full description is on my SEO audit page.
I share this as one data point, not as the market rate. A larger site with several teams needs more than this, and a brand new site with ten pages needs less. If you want to try the work yourself first, my SEO audit template and technical SEO checklist are free.
Six questions, and the answers you want to hear.
| Ask this | A good answer | A worrying answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who will do the audit? | A named person with experience in sites like mine | The team, or the software |
| What data will you use? | My Search Console, analytics, a full crawl and my links | Just a crawl, or just a tool score |
| What do I get at the end? | A sorted list with the fix and the effort for each item | A PDF, a score, a dashboard |
| Do I have to hire you afterwards? | No, the plan is yours | The audit is only available with a contract |
| How long will it take? | A realistic window, often one to three weeks for a small site | Tomorrow, or no date at all |
| Will you tell me what to ignore? | Yes, and why | Everything is critical |
When free is the expensive option.
Three patterns to know. The first is the cold email that says it found serious problems on your site and can fix them for a small monthly fee. These go out by the thousand, and the problems are often invented. The second is the free audit that is a tool export with a logo on it: three hundred warnings, no order, and a meeting to sell you the retainer that will fix them.
The third is subtler. A free audit that lists everything as critical so the retainer looks necessary. A real audit tells you what to leave alone. My own free review is a sales step too, and I say so, but it is a short recorded video from me about the biggest issues I can see, and you can take it to anyone. If you want help judging the people offering audits, my guide on how to choose an SEO company covers the red flags.
SEO audit cost FAQ.
Is a free SEO audit worth anything?
How long does a paid SEO audit take?
Is an SEO audit a one-time cost?
Can I audit my own site?
What does an SEO audit include for a local business?
I do the work myselfOne specialist. No hand-offs.
I'm Muhammad Zohaib Ameer. I have worked in SEO since 2022 for businesses in the US, UK, Canada and the UAE. I write every audit myself in plain English, and I tell you which findings to ignore. That last part is what most paid audits leave out.
“The best money I see businesses spend on SEO is a proper audit before a year of monthly fees. The worst is a year of monthly fees with no audit, because nobody ever found out what was actually wrong.”
Muhammad Zohaib Ameer · OvaVerseStart with the free one. Then decide.
Send your website. Within 48 hours you get a short recorded video audit of the biggest issues I can see from outside. If a full X-Ray would help, I will say why. If it would not, I will say that too.
- Personal to your site, never shared
- No sales call needed
- Reply within 24 hours
The photo on this page is a custom AI-generated illustration, not a real client or event. Diagrams and sample numbers are labelled illustrations; case study screenshots are real.