How much does SEO cost in Ireland?
In 2026 most Irish SEO work is sold as a monthly retainer between €300 and €2,500, a one-off audit between €500 and €2,000, or hourly consulting at €80 to €150. The spread is wide because SEO covers everything from a technical rebuild to somebody posting a blog a month. This guide sets out the ranges, what each buys, and how to judge a proposal.
Get a written quote01 The short answer
SEO pricing in Ireland is not a mystery, just unhelpfully wide. Two proposals can arrive the same week, one at €350 a month and one at €2,200, both called search engine optimisation. They are not the same product.
The difference is rarely talent. It is hours, and where they go. At the bottom of the market you buy a few hours a month spread across reporting, a blog post and some directory listings. At the top you buy a team that will rebuild your page structure and rewrite the pages that matter.
Work out which of those you need before you compare prices. A five page site with technical problems needs fixing once, not renting by the month.
The price gap is not talent. It is hours, and where they go.
02 What Irish studios publish
These are the ranges Irish studios and agencies publish on their own sites in 2026. They describe the market, not your site, and no honest studio prices a site from a table.
| Type of work | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small studio retainer | €300 to €800 a month | A few hours a month. Fine for upkeep, thin if the site needs real work. |
| Agency retainer | €1,000 to €2,500 a month | A team, a strategy and a content plan. Usually a six or twelve month minimum. |
| One-off audit | €500 to €2,000 | A diagnosis, not a cure. The price tracks the size of the site. |
| Local SEO starter | €300 to €600 a month | Google Business Profile, listings, reviews and a handful of location pages. |
| Hourly consulting | €80 to €150 an hour | For one question, a second opinion or a handover to your team. |
03 What you actually buy at each level
The number on the invoice matters less than what the hours go into. What each band usually contains:
Local SEO starter
Your Google Business Profile set up properly, consistent name, address and phone everywhere, a few Irish listings and a page per location. For a single site with a catchment area, this is often the whole job.
Small studio retainer
The local work plus a few hours a month on content and technical fixes. Ask how many hours and where they go, because a monthly report can quietly eat most of them.
Agency retainer
Keyword research, a content calendar, page rewrites, technical work and a named contact. The level where a competitive national term becomes realistic.
One-off audit
A crawl, an indexing and speed review, a look at your structure and competitors, and a prioritised list of fixes. Only worth it if somebody will act on it.
Hourly consulting
An hour or two on one question: why a page dropped, whether a migration is safe, how to structure a new section. Cheap against getting those wrong.
04 Why cheap SEO is usually a risk
A retainer well under the ranges above cannot pay for skilled hours, so something cheap has to fill it. Usually links or filler.
Links means buying placements on sites that exist to sell placements. It can move a ranking for a while. It is also what Google’s spam policies are written to catch, and the correction hits your site, not the supplier.
Filler means volume content. A blog post a month about nothing in particular, aimed at no search anyone performs. It does not rank, it does not convert, and it buries your good pages under thin ones.
If the price cannot buy the hours, something cheap is filling the gap.
The tell is simple. Ask where the hours go and ask to see the work. Real work is explained in a sentence. Links and filler come wrapped in proprietary methods.
05 What we do, and what it costs
We start with what is stopping Google indexing you. Crawl errors, pages blocked by mistake, redirects that loop, a Business Profile in the wrong category, a phone number that differs from the listing. All of it comes first, because new pages on a broken site rank for nothing.
Then we build the pages that rank. One per service, one per location where there is more than one, each answering the question somebody actually typed. We write them with you: you know the work, we know the structure. Most sites see movement within 60 to 90 days, meaning impressions in Search Console, better positions and more calls from the Business Profile.
On price there are two routes. SEO research and page build is included in our Grow tier at €10,800, with design and build for up to fifteen pages, hosting for year one and 90 days of rank tracking after launch, so you can see the movement yourself. Standalone SEO, on a site somebody else built, is scoped and quoted in writing within two working days. We do not publish a monthly figure, because a number invented before we have looked at the site would be a guess.
We will not promise a position. Nobody honest can.
More detail is on our local SEO page, and budget context is in our guide to what a website costs in Ireland. Small businesses may also qualify for up to €2,500 towards a build through the Trading Online Voucher.
06 How to judge a proposal
Ask these of everyone, including us, and compare the answers rather than the prices.
What are the hours, and where do they go?
A proposal that will not break down its own time is asking you to trust an invoice.
What gets fixed first?
If technical and indexing work is not near the top, the plan is content on top of a problem.
Which terms, and who searches them?
Ask for the keywords. If they are phrases nobody in Ireland types, first place is worth nothing.
What is reported, and how often?
Positions, impressions and enquiries. A traffic graph alone tells you little.
Who owns the work?
Your Business Profile, your analytics, your content. If leaving costs you access to any of it, that is a warning.
What happens if it does not move?
A good answer explains what changes and when. A bad one is a longer minimum term.
Common questions about SEO cost.
How much does SEO cost in Ireland?
What Irish studios publish in 2026: a small studio retainer of €300 to €800 a month, an agency retainer of €1,000 to €2,500 a month, a one-off audit of €500 to €2,000, a local SEO starter of €300 to €600 a month, and hourly consulting at €80 to €150. Those are market ranges, not quotes. Ask for a fixed number in writing for your own brief.
How long does SEO take to work?
Most sites see movement within 60 to 90 days. Movement means more impressions in Search Console, better positions for the terms you care about and more calls from your Google Business Profile. A competitive national term takes longer than a local one, and a broken site has to be fixed before anything moves.
Can anyone guarantee a number one ranking?
No. Nobody controls Google’s results, and anyone who guarantees a position is either guessing or selling you a term nobody searches for. What can be guaranteed is that the technical work is done, the pages exist and you can see the numbers.
Is SEO worth it for a small business?
It is worth it when people search for what you sell and can reach you. A clinic, a solicitor or a studio with a catchment area is a good fit, because local intent is high and the competition is a handful of businesses rather than the whole internet. If all your work comes from referrals, spend the money elsewhere.
Is a one-off audit enough, or do I need a monthly retainer?
An audit is enough when somebody can act on it. It is a list of problems, not a fix. If nobody does the work, you have bought a document. Start with the audit, do the fixes, then decide whether ongoing work earns its keep.
What does SEO cost with 3w?
SEO research and page build is included in our Grow tier at €10,800, with 90 days of rank tracking after launch. Standalone SEO on a site we did not build is scoped and quoted in writing within two working days. We do not publish a monthly SEO price we cannot stand over.
Want a real number for your site? Send the brief.
A fixed price in writing within two working days. No discovery call unless you want one.