What the market charges
Most pricing pages skip this part, which is why the question keeps getting asked. Here is the honest landscape before we talk about us. These are the bands a small business will actually be quoted in 2026.
| What you’re buying | Typical range | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Automated audit | Under $100 | Usually a crawler’s export — findings with no priority order. Ours is $99 and adds the ordering, plus what AI assistants say about you. |
| Freelance audit | $500–$800 | A person reviews the site. Depth varies enormously. |
| Agency audit | $2,000–$3,500 | Full technical + content + local review with a roadmap. 1–3 weeks. |
| Monthly SEO, freelance / small agency | $500–$1,500/mo | Some content, some technical fixes. Often one person part-time. |
| Monthly SEO, established agency | $1,500–$5,000/mo | A team: strategy, content, technical, reporting. |
| Small-business website build | $3,000–$15,000 | Design and build. SEO structure is often extra. |
| Custom CRM build | $10,000–$18,000 | Bespoke pipeline software, built once. |
Ranges are what small businesses are commonly quoted, drawn from published agency and industry pricing surveys. They are directional, not a promise about what anyone else will charge you. Your own quotes will vary with your market, your competition and the size of your site.
Why the spread is so wide
Because “SEO” describes wildly different work. One provider means a monthly PDF generated by a crawler. Another means a person researching what your customers search for, writing pages that answer it, fixing what is broken, and managing your Google Business Profile. The price gap is mostly a scope gap.
So the question worth asking any provider — us included — is not “how much?” but “what is produced each month, and who does it?” A quote that cannot answer that plainly is a quote you cannot compare.
What Meridian charges
Every price we sell, in one place. No “contact us for pricing” on anything self-serve.
Start here
Free instant audit
Paste a web address and your email. You get your score, a breakdown by category, and how many issues we found at each severity — free, in about a minute. It is the honest way to find out whether you need anything else on this page.
Automated deep audit
Every issue the free scan counted, with the exact fix for each — plus a crawl of your key pages for duplicate titles, orphan pages and dead ends, conversion and mobile checks, uptime and broken links, and whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini mention you when people ask for what you sell. Ends with a prioritised action plan. Machine-generated, with no human involved, which is why it is $99 rather than $2,000. Start with the free scan →
SEO · AIO · GEO Audit
The full human audit: seven areas including whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews cite you or a competitor, three competitors benchmarked, and a severity-graded roadmap. Priced at the entry of the agency band because it is agency work. See exactly what is included →
Run it yourself
Meridian QR & Design
Print-ready QR codes in your brand colours with scan tracking, plus on-brand images for posts and flyers.
Meridian Content
For businesses that already have a website they want to keep. Keyword-researched content that grows what you have.
Meridian Essential
A complete site built from a paragraph about your business, with your legal pages generated for you. Plus a one-time $300 build fee — charged only when you approve and publish, never at signup. If you never publish, you never pay it.
Meridian One
The full platform: premium website, weekly local articles, the Google Business Profile toolkit, keyword research, AI-search visibility tracking and the CRM. Cancel during the trial and you owe only the $9.99.
Done for you
Done-For-You Signature Partner
Website, custom CRM with AI agents, the full content and local-SEO programme, and a quarterly on-site content-capture day. The $2,000 audit is a prerequisite when you already have a site — and it is credited in full against the build, so it does not increase what you pay. See the full engagement →
Add-ons
| Service | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Video Content Subscription | $497/mo | 3 short-form videos a week. Cancel anytime. |
| Signature Brand Film | From $10,000 | Fully crewed production. Scope quoted before booking. |
| First Customer Sprint | $1,499 one-time | A 30-day sprint. If no qualified conversation converts inside the 30 days, the next sprint runs free. |
Which one is yours
Pick by what you are trying to get done, not by the number.
- You don’t know what’s wrong yet. Start with the free audit. If you want every finding with its fix and a plan in priority order, the $99 automated audit lands in minutes. If you want a person to weigh it, benchmark three competitors and write the roadmap, that is the $2,000 audit — and it credits back if you go on to a build.
- You want the people already searching for what you sell to land on you instead of a competitor, and you’ll drive it yourself. Meridian One, $300/mo. The site, the weekly local articles, the Google profile toolkit and the CRM, all in one place.
- Your website is fine — it just never grows. Meridian Content, $49/mo. Keyword-researched articles added to the site you already have.
- You need a real website and you don’t have one. Meridian Essential, $97/mo, and the $300 build fee only lands once you’ve seen it and said yes.
- You want the whole thing off your desk. Done-For-You. One business per category per neighborhood, so the answer is sometimes no.
Still not sure?
Two ways in, and the first one costs nothing. Run the free audit and let the result decide, or book a call and say it out loud.
Run the free audit → Book a call →Before you worry about committing
- The free audit takes no card — just your email, so we can send you the result. You can leave with the scorecard and never speak to us.
- Every self-serve plan — Meridian One, Essential, Content and QR & Design — carries a 30-day money-back guarantee if the platform and the support aren’t what you wanted.
- Meridian One starts at $9.99 for 14 days. Cancel inside the trial and the $9.99 is all you ever pay.
- Essential’s $300 build fee is charged when you approve and publish. You see the site first. Don’t publish, don’t pay it.
- On Done-For-You, half the build fee is held back until you approve the launch, and nothing is due before you’ve signed.
The one exception, said plainly rather than buried: the $2,000 audit is non-refundable once it starts, because the report is written for your site and gets delivered either way.
What we don’t charge for
- No setup fee on Meridian One, Meridian Content, or QR & Design.
- No charge to see your site first. Essential’s $300 build fee is charged at publish, after you have seen what was built.
- No cancellation fee on the Video Content Subscription.
- No surprise line items. Every fee and term is in the agreement you sign before any money moves.
What the price does not buy
We do not promise rankings, traffic, or revenue, and no agreement we write contains such a promise. We cannot control Google’s algorithm, your competitors’ budgets, or what an AI engine chooses to cite this week. Anyone quoting you a price and a guaranteed position is selling you something they cannot deliver.
Timelines are ranges, not dates. Consistently ranking in the Map Pack for competitive local keywords typically takes two to four months; more competitive markets take longer. We would rather say that before you pay than after.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost per month?+
$500–$1,500/mo with a freelancer or small agency; $1,500–$5,000/mo with an established agency. Below roughly $300/mo you are generally buying automated tooling rather than a person’s time. Meridian runs $49–$300/mo self-serve, and $4,500/mo for the full Done-For-You partnership.
How much does an SEO audit cost?+
Under $100 for an automated tool report, $500–$800 from a freelancer, $2,000–$3,500 from an agency. We sell both ends: $99 automated, delivered in minutes, and $2,000 human, credited in full against the $15,000 build. The $99 credits toward the $2,000 if you upgrade.
Why is SEO pricing so inconsistent?+
Because the word covers very different work — a crawler’s monthly PDF and a person writing pages and fixing technical problems are both sold as “SEO.” The price gap is mostly a scope gap. Ask any provider what is produced each month and who does it.
Are there setup fees?+
None on Meridian One, Content, or QR & Design. Essential has a one-time $300 build fee charged only at publish. Done-For-You has the $15,000 build, split half at signing and half when you approve the launch.
Do you require a long contract?+
Meridian One runs on a 12-month initial term. The Video Content Subscription cancels anytime. Done-For-You is a partnership with its own agreement. Every term is written down before any money moves.
Is the audit fee really credited?+
Yes, in full, against the $15,000 Done-For-You build. It is a sequencing rule rather than an extra charge — we do not quote a rebuild for a site nobody has looked at. It is non-refundable once started, because the report is written for your site and is delivered whether or not you hire us further.