Short answer: An SEO audit typically costs anything from free (an automated tool report) to a few hundred euros for a freelancer review of a small site, around €1,500 to €5,000 for an agency audit of a small to mid-sized site, and €5,000 to €15,000 or more for large ecommerce or international sites. Site size, platform complexity, depth and how much senior human analysis goes in drive the price.
Key takeaways
- Typical market ranges run from free tool reports to €15,000 or more for large, complex sites. Most small and mid-sized businesses land somewhere between €1,500 and €5,000 for a proper agency audit.
- The price follows the work: number of templates and products, platform quirks, depth of analysis and whether a person interprets the data or a tool exports it.
- A prioritised roadmap and implementation support are the most valuable parts of a paid audit, and the first things cheap audits leave out.
- A cheap audit that sends your developers after low-impact warnings for three months can cost far more than its invoice.
- A free audit is a good first look and a fair way to judge an auditor. It is not a substitute for a full audit before a big investment.
If you have asked three people for an SEO audit quote and got back €300, €2,500 and €9,000, you are not alone. The word "audit" covers everything from a one-click crawler export to several weeks of senior analysis, so headline prices are hard to compare.
The figures below are typical market ranges for Europe and the UK, not quotes and not our prices.
What does an SEO audit typically cost?
Most SEO audits fall into five price bands, set mainly by who does the work and how large and complex the site is.
| Type of audit | Typical market range | Typical site |
|---|---|---|
| Automated tool report | Free to the cost of a tool subscription | Any size, no interpretation |
| Free agency or consultant audit | Free | Any size, top issues only |
| Freelancer audit | A few hundred to around €1,500 | Small service or brochure sites, up to a few hundred pages |
| Agency audit | Around €1,500 to €5,000 | Small to mid-sized sites and stores, up to a few thousand URLs |
| Large ecommerce or enterprise audit | €5,000 to €15,000 or more | Large catalogues, several languages or markets, custom platforms |
Treat these as orientation, not a price list. A strong freelancer can deliver more than a weak agency, so compare what is inside the scope, not the headline number.
What drives the price of an SEO audit?
The price is driven by how much work it takes to understand your site properly. Five factors account for most of the difference between quotes.
Pages, products and templates
A 30-page service site and a 20,000-product store are different jobs. But what really takes time is the number of distinct templates and URL patterns: products, categories, filtered and paginated views, blog posts, location pages. Each can hide its own indexing or duplication problem.
Platform complexity
Shopify and WordPress have well-known patterns, so an experienced auditor moves quickly. Headless builds, heavy JavaScript, custom CMSs, several storefronts, a recent migration or hreflang across several languages add days, and are a common reason a quote doubles. If any of these apply, expect a quote that leans on technical SEO services rather than a standard package.
Depth of analysis
A light audit checks crawlability, indexing and on-page basics. A deep audit adds log files, rendering checks, content gaps, backlink quality, competitors and AI search visibility. Each layer is only worth paying for if it could change what you do next.
Manual analysis or tool export
Running a crawler takes minutes. Reading your Search Console data, connecting symptoms to causes and deciding what matters takes a senior person days. Cheap audits are cheap because they skip that and hand you the export.
Roadmap and implementation support
Some audits end with a list of issues. Better ones end with a ranked roadmap: what to fix first, why, effort and expected impact. Some add developer tickets, a walkthrough call and a check after fixes go live. In our experience that support is often worth more than extra pages in the report.
SEO audit services with a prioritised action plan
We start from your Search Console data, explain why your site performs the way it does, and rank every fix by impact and effort. You get a plan your team can start on the next day, not a crawler export.
See our SEO audit servicesWhat do you get at each price level?
As a rule of thumb, the more you pay, the more the work moves from "here are the problems" to "here is what to do, in this order".
Up to around €1,500
A technical and on-page review, usually a spreadsheet or short report with issues grouped by type. Good for small sites with a narrow problem. Prioritisation varies a lot between providers.
Around €1,500 to €5,000
A full audit: technical, content, links, Search Console analysis and competitors, ending in a short list of fixes ranked by impact and effort, plus a walkthrough call. Where most small and mid-sized businesses should look.
€5,000 and above
Everything above, plus deep technical work: log files, faceted navigation, international setups or migration planning, usually with developer tickets and a follow-up check. Justified for large catalogues, several markets or sites where organic drives a large share of revenue.
Whatever the price, ask for a sample report before you commit. Our guide on how to choose an SEO agency covers how to judge an audit before you buy one.
Why do cheap SEO audits often cost more in practice?
Cheap SEO audits often cost more because the invoice is the small part of the bill. The large part is the developer and marketing time spent acting on the findings, and a poor audit points that time at the wrong things.
Take an example store with 2,000 products. Audit A costs €800 and lists 340 issues sorted by a tool's severity score. Audit B costs €3,500 and identifies five priorities, explains why each matters for this store, and comes with tickets your developer can estimate.
If Audit A leads your team to spend three months fixing missing alt text and long meta descriptions while 300 products sit unindexed, it has cost you far more than €800 in salaries, agency hours and lost sales. If Audit B's top two fixes get those 300 products into Google within a month, it may pay for itself quickly. The question is never only "what does the audit cost?" but "what will we do differently because of it, and how fast?"
A report with 400 issues is not more thorough than one with 15. It is usually less filtered. Ask the auditor which three findings they would fix first and why. If they cannot answer without the spreadsheet, you are paying for the export.
The same logic applies at the top end: a €12,000 audit for a 50-page site is oversized. Pay for the depth your next decision needs.
What can a free SEO audit do, and what can't it?
A free SEO audit can show you the most obvious issues and how an auditor thinks. It cannot give you a full diagnosis or a roadmap you can budget around.
Use a free audit as a first look and a test of the auditor. If it tells you something specific you did not know, that is a good sign. If it reads like a template with your domain pasted in, the paid version probably will too.
A free audit falls short before a large decision: a replatform, a migration or a long SEO retainer. Then a paid audit scoped to that decision is cheap insurance. For a store, that usually means an audit run by people who know ecommerce SEO services and catalogue structures, not a generic checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. Most audits are priced as a diagnosis, and implementation is quoted separately or done by your own team. Check whether the quote includes developer tickets, a walkthrough or a post-fix check, because those sit between the two.
A fixed fee with a written scope is easier to compare and budget. Hourly or day-rate pricing can make sense for a narrow question, such as checking a migration plan, where scope is hard to predict. Either way, agree the deliverable in advance.
Because providers are quoting different jobs under the same name. One may plan to run a crawler and send the export, another to spend several days on analysis and a roadmap. Ask each for a sample report and a list of what is in and out of scope.
Often a lighter one is. For a small service site with a clear symptom, a free written audit or a focused freelancer review may be enough. If you would rather have someone senior answer a specific question than buy a full audit, SEO consulting services on a few hours can be the better fit.
What to do next
Decide what you need the audit to answer before you compare quotes.
- Write down the one question you want answered, such as "why did organic sales fall after the relaunch?", and send it with every quote request so providers price the same job.
- Ask each provider for a sample report and a clear list of what is included: depth, roadmap, tickets and follow-up. Once fixes ship, our guide on how to know if your SEO is working shows how to tell whether the audit paid off.
- If you want a first look before spending anything, ask us for a free written SEO audit. You get it within 48 hours, with the top issues ranked by impact, and you can use it whether or not you work with us.