SEO agencies have different pricing models:

1. Hourly consulting: the average SEO agency (or individual) charges between $100 and $300 per hour (all amounts in US$).

2. Fixed prices: businesses that are new to SEO often buy services at fixed prices. This can be a website content audit (usually $500-$7,500), link profile audits ($500-$7,500) or SEO copywriting ($0.10-$0.50 per word).

3. Monthly retainer: the most popular pricing model is a monthly payment. On average, SEO agencies and individuals charge $750-5,000 per month. Depending on how much you pay, you can expect different services: regular analytics reports, on-site optimization, link building, keyword research, etc.

Some offshore companies offer 'SEO' services for much lower prices ($100-$500/month). In general, you can be sure that these services use spam techniques to 'promote' your website and that these services will backfire on you.

If an SEO service is too cheap, it's likely that they use risky methods. That's a lesson that many businesses had to learn in the past. If something looks too good to be true, it's not true.

You can automate many things that SEO agencies do for you with the right tools. For example, SEOprofiler can do the following for you:

• Regular website audits: the website audit tool in SEOprofiler automatically checks the content of your web pages and it shows you all the errors that should be corrected.
• Regular link profile audits: the link profiler tool in SEOprofiler shows you the backlink structure of your website. It also shows the backlinks that could have a negative influence on the rankings of your web pages.
• Regular reports: use the scheduler in SEOprofiler to automatically get SEO reports by email. You can also view your reports online and you get access to all important key metrics.
• On-site optimization: the Top 10 Optimizer tool in SEOprofiler analyzes the content of your web pages.
• Regular position checks: the ranking monitor in SEOprofiler checks the position of your web pages on Google, Google Mobile and Bing. You can specify the exact city from which the rankings should be checked. The ranking monitor informs you about dramatic ranking changes, it shows easy ranking opportunities, and much more.

Instead of the $2,500 that the average client pays his SEO agency for these services, you can get all of this for a much lower price with SEOprofiler. SEOprofiler is a do-it-yourself SEO tool that helps you to get better rankings on search engines.

Even if you only use the fully automated reporting tools in SEOprofiler, you will save a lot of money. If you use all tools in SEOprofiler, you will save even more.

This depends on your needs. If you have the money, hiring an SEO agency or an SEO professional can be a good solution. To get results, you should invest at least $2500 per month. If you pay less, you'll only get automated reports (which you can run for yourself with the right tools).

If you can invest some time in your website, a do-it-yourself SEO tool can help you to save a lot of money. For example, SEOprofiler creates the same reports that you will get from a professional SEO agency - for a fraction of the costs. You can even use SEOprofiler to offer your own SEO services.