What Melbourne agencies publish
Most SEO sellers in Melbourne do not publish a price. Three do. On 18 September 2026 their pages said the following, in Australian dollars.
- One agency publishes three monthly bands: $1,000 to $2,500, $2,500 to $5,000, and $5,000 to $10,000 or more.
- One solo consultant publishes $2,000 to $10,000 a month, with audits described as low four figures.
- One agency publishes its answer engine work from $2,500 a month.
Prices change. I have not bought from any of them. Treat the list as a reading of the market. Two of the three say on the same pages that no agency can guarantee a first-place ranking. I agree with them.
What sits behind the bands
The bands are hours. A $1,000 retainer is a few hours a month. It covers monitoring and small fixes and not much else. A $5,000 retainer is a working day or two a week. A $10,000 retainer is a person on your account for most of the week.
The bands do not say who does the hours. On an agency retainer the hours are spread across more than one person. A solo consultant's hours are one person's. A solo price and an agency price at the same number buy different amounts of work.
The bands also do not say how you exit. Twelve-month contracts are common. Ask about the exit before you ask about the number.
My prices
Everything below is plus GST. There is no hourly rate. Every package has a set scope.
- Package 1, SEO and AEO, A$2,900 a month. SEO and AEO set up and fixes, page speed fixes, up to 30 pages optimised and up to 2 new pages a month.
- Package 2, SEO, AEO and CRO, A$4,900 a month. The one I would start you on. Adds GA4, Google Ads and Meta Ads tracking, CRO improvements, up to 60 pages optimised and up to 4 new pages a month.
- Package 3, Full SEO, AEO and CRO, A$9,500 a month. Adds backlinks, server-side tracking, CRO testing and up to 8 new pages a month.
- AI search tracking, A$249 a month, and an Answer Engine Audit, A$1,500, on their own.
Against the published bands, Package 2 sits inside the middle Melbourne band, and it is one person doing the work. The full list is on the pricing page. The service is described on SEO and AEO.
The terms
- Packages run in three month terms, billed monthly.
- Each term renews for another quarter unless you give 30 days' notice by email before it ends. No exit fee.
- You can move up a package at any time and move down at the end of a quarter.
Compare those lines with the contract behind any of the published bands. The monthly number is rarely the expensive part.
When the right spend is nothing
If you cannot commit to a quarter, run the free check and fix what it finds first. If your site has a conversion problem rather than a traffic problem, CRO and tracking in Package 2 is the place to start. More traffic will not fix it.
The first 20-minute call is free. It starts with the generative-AI report open in your own Search Console. If there is nothing there worth paying to fix, I will say so.