What changes the cost of SEO?
An established local business may need profile optimisation, service pages and review support. A competitive e-commerce store may need technical work, category content and product-page improvements. The number of pages, the competition, the quality of the current website and the amount of content required all influence the scope.
What should a practical SEO plan include?
A sensible plan usually begins with an audit and a clear priority list. It should explain which pages will be improved, how content will be created, what technical issues will be handled and how progress will be measured. A report full of activities is less useful than a plan connected to enquiries, calls and qualified traffic.
How should you compare SEO providers?
Ask to see the actual deliverables, reporting style and communication process. Be careful with guaranteed number-one rankings, copied monthly reports and packages that promise hundreds of backlinks without explaining quality. Good SEO has realistic expectations and a clear reason for every important task.
A better way to set your SEO budget
Start with the pages and searches most closely connected to revenue. Improve those foundations, measure what changes and expand when the process is working. This approach gives a small business more control than paying for a large list of activities from day one.