How Much Does SEO Cost Per Month in the USA?

[DjSec]

SEO services in the USA typically cost between $500 to $5,000 per month, depending on your business size and goals. Providers like Tech Savy Crew offer customized SEO packages to suit different needs and budgets.

What's the single most important thing when it comes to ranking a site?

 

[ciphersdigital]

While I appreciate the thorough breakdown, it's important to recognize that SEO pricing isn't always as straightforward as broad monthly ranges. The reality is that SEO costs depend heavily on the unique situation of each business industry competition, website history, content needs, backlink profile, and local search factors all dramatically shift the strategy (and cost).


For some businesses, solid foundational SEO may be achieved for far less than the upper ranges mentioned, while others in hyper-competitive verticals may require far more aggressive investment.


A blanket $1,500 to $8,500 per month estimate can unintentionally scare off many small businesses that could absolutely benefit from a properly tailored SEO plan at a price point that makes sense for them.


If anyone reading this wants a quick, customized estimate based on their specific business and SEO goals, I recommend using this SEO Cost Calculator to get a much more accurate starting point.


Good SEO is always an investment, but it should be built around your business, not around generic pricing charts.

 

[growdy]

The good news is that SEO is dying a pretty quick death in the face of AI.

If you're still only focused on SEO, it has been nice seeing you in business.

Your SEO agency better be on top of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to get your content into the Large Language Models, or else your organic website traffic is going to bleed away over the next 24 months in a pretty painful fashion.

ChatGPT is likely already in your top traffic acquisition sources.

 

[Greg_Gifford]

That's not true, Growdy - all of the LLMs together only account for about 1% of search traffic in today's world. Will they increase? Definitely. Is traffic already being lost? For sure. But SEO is still going to be extremely important for at least a few years

 

[DjSec]

That's not true, Growdy - all of the LLMs together only account for about 1% of search traffic in today's world. Will they increase? Definitely. Is traffic already being lost? For sure. But SEO is still going to be extremely important for at least a few years

Hi Greg,

What are your thoughts on what Tim Soulo is saying?

He was saying that the last 12 months of GSC data for the Ahrefs Blog look like a crocodile.

He said they were calling it the “The Great Decoupling.”

They say:

1: Clicks are DOWN because of Google's AI Overviews.
People get their answers directly from AI, so they don’t bother clicking through to your site anymore.

2: Impressions are UP because of Google's AI Overviews.

The new AI block includes link citations, which boosts your “Impressions” metric.

According to Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, “AI Overviews are increasing Search usage.”

This means that the impressions might be climbing up because people ask more questions to Google, where they expect to get a "zero click" answer.

Here is the graph he posted

 

[Greg_Gifford]

well yeah - Tim is talking about the ahrefs blog - and that's almost 100% informational, top of funnel content - so not really anything like a car dealership. Not all websites are the same, you know... so when they have a focus of sharing tons of high level informational stuff and now AI overviews and AI mode can summarize that info, and users can get a quick answer without going to the page, of course they're going to lose traffic. But a massive international SEO tool site losing blog traffic is in no way related to auto dealer websites

what matters is this - traffic as a KPI is outdated and unreliable. So are website conversions. The way customers find dealers is going to change drastically (and has already started to)... but the number of customers needing cars or service hasn't changed - just the way those people find us.

will any dealer really care if they "lose" organic traffic because of AI mode or LLM searches that they can't track if sales aren't dropping (or what if they increase...)? The answer is no...

 

[DjSec]

well yeah - Tim is talking about the ahrefs blog - and that's almost 100% informational, top of funnel content - so not really anything like a car dealership. Not all websites are the same, you know... so when they have a focus of sharing tons of high level informational stuff and now AI overviews and AI mode can summarize that info, and users can get a quick answer without going to the page, of course they're going to lose traffic. But a massive international SEO tool site losing blog traffic is in no way related to auto dealer websites

what matters is this - traffic as a KPI is outdated and unreliable. So are website conversions. The way customers find dealers is going to change drastically (and has already started to)... but the number of customers needing cars or service hasn't changed - just the way those people find us.

will any dealer really care if they "lose" organic traffic because of AI mode or LLM searches that they can't track if sales aren't dropping (or what if they increase...)? The answer is no...

I'm posting because I am concerned and trying to wrap my head around a solution and NOT to be argumentative.

And I agree that not all top-of-funnel content is the same.

But I still think there's a bigger shift happening that will eventually affect everyone including dealerships.

If someone can just ask an AI “show me used SUVs under $10K near me with under 100K miles,” and get a list, that isn't that different from what Google or marketplace sites already do.

But it raises a new challenge:
Will that AI list your dealership’s cars? Will it even know your site exists or trust it enough to include it?

So I guess that’s where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes in, making sure your content is structured, crawlable, and authoritative enough to be included in these AI-generated answers.

So while this might not be hurting dealer traffic today, I agree with Growdy that it is something that dealerships should be preparing for. Especially because tracking AI-driven traffic is tricky right now, and traffic drops might not show up until it's too late.

And from what I have seen most dealership websites are not GEO optimized, and that’s a huge blind spot.

They’re often bloated, slow, cookie-cutter templates focused on SEO from 2015, not 2025. GEO optimization is something very few vendors are even thinking!

It could be a real advantage for a dealership and allow them to get ahead of the competition...

 

[Greg_Gifford]

Personally, I hate how everyone is trying to come up with a new acronym... regardless of whether we call is SEO, GEO, AIO, or any of the other variants that people use... It's all about making an awesome website that is easy to navigate that has all the answers to the questions customers are asking.

That's what SEO has really been for years - it's just that most SEO providers in automotive don't really do anything other than follow a 5-10 year old checklist.

But yeah - totally agree, dealers should be thinking about the future and finding a partner that REALLY knows what's going on (and doesn't just use some buzzwords and acronyms to sound informed)

 

[DjSec]

Personally, I hate how everyone is trying to come up with a new acronym... regardless of whether we call is SEO, GEO, AIO, or any of the other variants that people use... It's all about making an awesome website that is easy to navigate that has all the answers to the questions customers are asking.

That's what SEO has really been for years - it's just that most SEO providers in automotive don't really do anything other than follow a 5-10 year old checklist.

But yeah - totally agree, dealers should be thinking about the future and finding a partner that REALLY knows what's going on (and doesn't just use some buzzwords and acronyms to sound informed)

I completely agree — I hate all the new acronyms too.

I once debated with an SEO for over an hour, and the whole argument was just about terminology, not strategy, not execution, just me using the "wrong" name.

I read an article about GEO recently, and honestly, it was just a reminder of what we should’ve been doing all along: clear structure, useful content, accessibility, fast loading and all the fundamentals.

The real issue isn’t the name — it’s the execution.

And that’s on both the SEO crowd and the web developers. Most just do the bare minimum, check a few boxes, and move on. Too many are more focused on getting paid than doing it right.

Like you said, Dealers need partners who actually care about results, not just buzzwords!

 

[growdy]

I'm not saying that SEO isn't necessary. Or that it's dead.

I'm just saying ... I saw a US dealer GA4 account where ChatGPT is already in the top 20 of their traffic sources.

And it's growing each month.

In 12 months, I bet ChatGPT, Gemini and others chew into 20% of traffic.

Give it another 12 months, and we're living in a different world.