How Much Does SEO Cost for Nonprofits?

As a nonprofit, you need SEO just as much as any other organization. SEO can help spread awareness about your cause, boost your brand’s visibility, and attract committed volunteers and donors. Neglecting this would mean reduced publicity and a drop in grants and support.

Hourly SEO consultants charge between $50 and $200 per hour, while a fixed monthly SEO retainer can range from $500 to $5,000. Learn more here.

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While SEO is often called a free traffic source, specialists who help businesses rank high on SERPs, increase website visitors, and convert them into cash don’t come cheap. Before settling for any SEO service provider, it’s important to know what kind of bill you should expect.

With this pricing model, SEOs charge a fixed hourly rate for their services. In the US, SEO consultants charge from as low as $50 to $200 per hour. This is ideal for nonprofits on a limited budget or short-term tasks, as you only pay for completed work hours. The disadvantage is that specific projects might take longer than others and require higher pay.

As a monthly retainer, you’ll pay a fixed monthly fee to your SEO provider for continuous SEO support. This can cost you between $500 and $5,000 monthly. Most agencies have different pricing tiers to suit diverse budgets, with the costlier packages containing more services.

This works on a fixed-price basis for individual projects. In this pricing model, you pay a separate fee for different services, which varies depending on the scope, requirements, and time frame of each. These could be keyword research for your blog, auditing your entire site, or improving site speed.

SEO tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs cost between $130 and $500 monthly, which is more affordable than external SEO specialists. If you’re a beginner, I recommend you take online SEO courses before handling anything yourself. Our SEO ebook is also an in-depth guide on implementing SEO for brand success.

Here are some of the factors that could impact your SEO budget:

Website size: If your nonprofit has a larger site, more pages must be audited, meaning a higher workload for your SEO service provider.

Competition level: Your industry's competitiveness determines how difficult or easy it is to rank for certain keywords. Highly competitive industries require more effort and higher charges from SEO agencies.

SEO goals: If you want an SEO agency to update existing content for better rankings, that might not be as costly as positioning your small nonprofit to rank for highly competitive keywords in three months. The bottom line? The more complex and time-constrained your goals are, the higher the cost.

Content creation needs: Do you need this agency to cater to your content marketing needs? And how many blog posts do you want published on your blog monthly? All these influence pricing.

Technical SEO requirements: These are the technical aspects of your website that improve rankings. Factors like website speed, mobile optimization, and security require industry expertise and will be more expensive.

Absolutely! Here are a few reasons why nonprofits should invest in SEO.

Increased online visibility: The first goal of investing in SEO is to increase your nonprofit's online visibility. When your website or blog ranks number one on Google for a keyword, your site gets a significant boost in organic traffic. This fosters brand discoverability and recognition.

Attract more donors and volunteers: As you steadily increase organic traffic to your site, you will convert some search engine users into donors or volunteers. People are actively searching on Google for causes that require financial aid, and focusing on SEO puts your nonprofit in front of such people.

Cost-effective marketing: No matter how expensive SEO tools or agencies might be, they're nothing compared to the thousands of dollars you would spend on Google Ads or traditional advertising. SEO is, therefore, a cheaper marketing option for nonprofits on a budget.

Why is SEO important for nonprofits?

How long does it take to see results with SEO?

Remember, your nonprofit depends on recognition and support for survival. Investing in SEO is one of the surest ways to attract the proper attention and translate it to brand awareness, support, volunteers, and donations.