SEO for tradies in Australia usually costs $500 to $3,500 a month, going by the agency quotes we see. Most trade businesses running a full local campaign pay $1,000 to $2,000 a month, and quotes under $500 a month rarely cover the work that moves rankings.
Updated November 2026.
Key takeaways
- Tradie SEO in Australia runs about $500 to $3,500 a month. Most full local campaigns sit at $1,000 to $2,000.
- The price is set by how hard your trade and area are to win, how many suburbs and services you target, and how much content and link work gets done each month.
- Plumbers and electricians pay the most because more businesses chase the same customers. Google estimates advertisers bid $5 to $46 to show at the top for plumber searches and $4 to $28 for electrician searches (Google keyword data, October 2026).
- Under $500 a month is a warning sign, not a bargain. So is a long lock-in, a guaranteed #1 ranking, or a report with no record of work done.
- SEO is a fixed cost. Once you rank, the enquiries are yours alone and carry no per-lead fee.
What does tradie SEO cost in Australia?
There are three ways to buy SEO, and the price follows how much human work goes in. Doing it yourself costs your time. A freelancer is cheaper but does less. A specialist agency costs more but runs the whole campaign.
| Option | Typical monthly cost (2026) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY | $0 plus your time | The basics: Google profile, a few reviews, slow progress |
| Freelancer | $500 to $1,200 | Part-time effort, limited content and link work |
| Specialist agency | $1,000 to $3,500 | Full campaign: suburb pages, content, reviews, links, reporting |
How much does SEO cost for my trade?
The biggest thing that moves the price is how many other businesses want the same customers. A good way to see that is how much advertisers bid to show at the top of Google for your trade. A high bid means lots of businesses are fighting over that search, and the same fight happens in the free results below the ads.
| Trade | Typical monthly SEO price (2026) | What drives it (Google keyword data, October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Electricians | $1,000 to $2,000+ in metro areas | “Electrician near me” gets 40,500 searches a month in Australia. Google estimates advertisers bid $4 to $28 to show at the top, so competition is strong. |
| Plumbers | $1,000 to $2,000+ in metro areas | “Plumber near me” gets 49,500 searches a month. Google estimates top-of-page bids of $5 to $46, the highest of these five trades. |
| Painters | $500 to $1,000 in lower-competition areas | “Painters near me” gets 6,600 searches a month. Google estimates top-of-page bids of $4 to $15, so fewer businesses are fighting for the top spots. |
| Cleaners | Depends on the work: homes, end of lease or commercial | “End of lease cleaning” gets 6,600 searches a month and “cleaners near me” 5,400. Google estimates top-of-page bids of $3 to $14. |
| Landscapers and gardeners | $500 to $1,000 in lower-competition areas | “Landscaping” gets 12,100 searches a month and “landscapers near me” 3,600. Google estimates top-of-page bids of $2 to $7, the lowest of these five. |
Search numbers are national monthly averages. Your own suburbs will have fewer searches, and a regional town is usually cheaper to win than a capital city. The bid figures are Google’s own estimates of what it takes to show at the top, not what anyone paid. For a closer look at one trade, see what the budget buys on our SEO for electricians page.
What changes the price?
- Competition. Ranking an electrician in metro Melbourne is harder, and costs more, than ranking a painter in a regional town.
- Suburbs and services. Every extra suburb and service you want to rank for needs its own page and its own work.
- Content. How many new or rewritten pages go up each month.
- Links and listings. How much work goes into getting other trusted sites, directories and suppliers to list and link to you.
If a quote looks very cheap, one of those is usually missing. Most often it’s the ongoing content and links, which are the parts that move rankings.
Why is SEO charged monthly?
SEO is ongoing work, not a job you finish. Google changes how it ranks sites, your competitors keep working, and rankings slip if nobody looks after them. A one-off SEO job does very little on its own.
The monthly fee pays for a cycle of work that repeats: fixes to the site, new and updated pages, listings, links and a report. If a provider can’t tell you roughly where your money goes each month, that’s a problem.
What you should get for the money
Price only means something next to the work. A full local campaign usually covers:
- Google Business Profile looked after, with posts and a plan for getting reviews
- New or rewritten pages for your main services and suburbs
- Site fixes for speed, structure and links between your own pages
- Listings built and kept consistent across Australian directories
- Some work to earn quality links from other sites, not spam
- A plain English report showing rankings, traffic and enquiries
If you’re paying $1,500 a month and all you get is a rankings spreadsheet and a line saying “we did some optimisation”, you’re paying for a screenshot, not SEO.
What each price tier buys
- Under $500 a month: usually a Google profile tidy-up and not much else. Fine as a start, rarely enough to rank in a competitive trade.
- $500 to $1,000 a month: active local SEO, a handful of suburb pages and some content. Good for lower-competition trades and regional areas.
- $1,000 to $2,000 a month: a full campaign with regular content, suburb and service pages, reviews and link work. This is where most tradies see steady growth.
- $2,000+ a month: heavier campaigns for competitive metro trades, or businesses with more than one location.
Red flags that mean bad value
Under $500 a month. Real SEO takes skilled human time. Below this you’re often buying automated links or the same cookie-cutter pages every other client gets. If that work gets your site penalised by Google, fixing it costs more than the cheap service ever saved.
A long lock-in contract. SEO takes a few months to show results, so a short first commitment is fair. A 12-month lock-in mostly protects the agency if the work doesn’t happen. Good providers earn the next month.
A guaranteed #1 ranking. Nobody controls Google. Anyone who guarantees a set position is either targeting words nobody searches or isn’t being straight with you.
No clear reporting. If you can’t see what was done and what changed each month, you can’t tell whether the work is happening.
SEO cost vs paying per lead
The bigger question is whether you own your leads or rent them. A per-lead platform like hipages charges for every lead or job, often sends it to other tradies too, and the bill runs as long as you stay. SEO is a fixed monthly cost, and once you rank the enquiries are yours alone. In our 2026 lead cost report, 71% of 1,266 enquiries across 14 trade businesses came from Google search and Google Business Profile. For the six running Google Ads with us, ads cost about $99 an enquiry. We lay out the platform maths in our look at whether hipages is worth it, and it’s the same thinking behind SEO for tradies.
Here’s a simple example. Say you spend $1,000 a month on SEO and, once you rank, it brings in 15 enquiries a month. That’s about $67 an enquiry, nobody else gets the same lead, and the cost per enquiry falls as more come in.
Is SEO worth it for a tradie?
SEO is worth it when people search for what you do and one new customer is worth more than it costs to win them. For most trades both are true. If one job is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, SEO only needs to bring in a few extra jobs a month to pay for itself.
It’s not worth it if nobody in your area searches for your service or you can’t wait a few months. If you need work this week, Google Ads is faster. We compare the two in SEO vs Google Ads for tradies, and the build side of the same question is in our guide to what a website costs in Australia.
What we charge
We charge weekly, with no lock-in contract, and every price is on our pricing page. On Spark and Growth the website is ours until you’ve made 26 weekly payments. Leave earlier and you can buy it out by paying the weeks left.
- Spark, $100 a week: a website with basic SEO built in, plus your Google Business Profile. It doesn’t include ongoing monthly SEO.
- Growth, $275 a week, no setup fee: ongoing SEO every month, plus one managed ad account. Your ad spend is paid straight to Google with no markup.
- Domination, $450 a week plus a $1,500 setup: everything in Growth with more ad accounts and content.
No percentage of anything and no surprise add-ons.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a tradie spend on SEO?
Going by the agency quotes we see, most tradies running a full local campaign spend $1,000 to $2,000 a month. Lower-competition trades like painting and landscaping, and regional areas, can see results from $500 to $1,000. Under $500 a month usually means too little ongoing work to rank in a competitive market.
Is cheap SEO worth it for tradies?
Rarely. Very cheap SEO often skips the content and link work that moves rankings, so you pay for activity rather than results. At the bottom end it can be automated links that get a site penalised, and fixing that costs more than the service saved. A modest budget spent on real work beats a cheap package that does nothing.
Why do plumbers and electricians pay more for SEO?
More businesses are fighting for the same customers. Google estimates advertisers bid $5 to $46 to show at the top for plumber searches and $4 to $28 for electrician searches, compared with $2 to $7 for landscaping (Google keyword data, October 2026). That same competition shows up in the free results, so it takes more work to rank.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
Your Google profile can bring calls in 2 to 6 weeks. Suburb pages usually take 4 to 6 months to bring steady enquiries. Because the leads are yours alone and carry no per-lead fee, the cost per booked job can drop below platform leads once you rank.
Is SEO cheaper than hipages or Airtasker?
Over time it can be. Platforms charge for every lead or job, often send it to other tradies too, and the bill runs as long as you stay. SEO is a fixed cost that brings in leads only you get, so once you rank the cost per booked job can be lower.
Should SEO have a lock-in contract?
A short first commitment is fair because SEO takes a few months to show results. A 12-month lock-in is a red flag. It protects the agency if the work fails rather than protecting your results. Good providers keep you by getting results and earning the next month.
How do I know if my SEO provider is doing a good job?
Look at the work and the report, not rankings alone. You should be able to see what was done, such as new or updated pages, site fixes, listings and link work, plus a plain English report showing what changed in traffic and enquiries. If all you get is a rankings spreadsheet with no record of work, you’re paying for a screenshot.
Related reading
- What Google Ads Cost in Australia
- SEO vs Google Ads for Tradies
- Is hipages Worth It for Tradies?
- Is Airtasker Worth It for Tradies? The Real Numbers
Written by Luc Dossis, founder of Dossis Digital. We help Australian trade businesses own their lead flow instead of renting it.
What It's Done for Tradies Like You
7x back on Google jobs
C&J Gardens, Bacchus Marsh. In September 2026 every $1 of our fee and ads came back as about $7 in jobs from Google, by their own books.
See the case study$2.40 back for every $1
NextGen Electricians, Bacchus Marsh. Paid work matched to website forms alone, phone calls not even counted. Top Google result for "electrician bacchus marsh".
See the case study8 to 26 enquiries a month
TACT Bio Recovery, Melbourne. From a website almost nobody could find to a steady flow of jobs from Google search, ads and AI.
See the case study416 enquiries in October 2026
Across the 14 trade businesses we work with, each person counted once. Every month on the board, by trade.
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