What Does SEO Cost in Manchester? A Buyer's Guide with Published Prices

Several Manchester SEO companies in our review did not publish a price on the pages we checked, which makes them harder to compare. Others did. This guide sets out what we found on their own websites, what each figure does and does not tell you, and the questions to ask before you sign anything.

Quick answer: the published starting prices we found for ongoing SEO in Manchester run from £900 to £3,000 a month. The monthly fee is the least useful number on its own. What decides the real cost is what the fee includes, who does the work, the minimum term and any onboarding fee.

A note on bias. Indexify is one of the providers in this guide, so treat it as one supplier’s view and check the sources yourself. Every figure below links to the page it came from. This is not a ranking of the best agencies, and we have not judged anyone’s results.

What Manchester providers publish about SEO prices

We checked each page on 30 September 2026. The wording is quoted from the provider’s own website.

Provider	Published SEO price	Term stated	VAT stated
Candidsky	Campaigns “start from £3,000 per calendar month”, and “£135 per hour”	Fixed terms “from 3 months to 12 months”	Not stated
Cedarwood Digital	”SEO/Digital PR services start from £2,500 per month”	Not stated	Not stated
Indexify	Growth Partner £900 a month; SEO and AI search £1,750 a month; larger sites £2,500 to £3,500 a month	Three-month minimum on the £1,750 retainer	Plus VAT

Several other well-known Manchester agencies we looked at publish no price on their SEO page. That is not a criticism. It simply means you have to ask.

These are starting prices for different scopes. They are not like-for-like quotes, and a higher starting price can include work that a lower one leaves out.

What they publish about conversion work

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is often sold alongside SEO, so the same check is useful.

Provider	Published CRO price	Term stated	VAT stated
Connective3	Audits at “£500” and “£1.5k” one-off; monthly from “£1.7k” and “£3.5k”	Not stated	Not stated
Higher Ground	”Our fees start at £1800+VAT per month"	"Typically we advise” a minimum of three months	Plus VAT
Cybrial	Growth blocks “from £250 /month”, shared across several kinds of work	”No minimum term”	Not stated
Indexify	Audit from £1,500 one-off; ongoing CRO £1,750 a month, with SEO and AI search included; testing from £2,500 a month	Three-month minimum on ongoing CRO	Plus VAT

Higher Ground’s figure comes from an article dated 24 July 2026, not a price list. Cybrial’s is for a block of hours that can be spent on any growth work, so it is not a CRO programme price.

The questions that matter more than the monthly fee

1. What does the fee include?

“SEO” can mean a monthly report, or it can mean someone changing your website every week. Ask for the list. For our own retainer the answer is: technical fixes made on the live site, changes to the pages that matter, internal links, AI search visibility and conversion fixes. Content production and digital PR campaigns cost more and sit under the larger-sites fee.

2. Who does the work?

You may meet a senior person in the sales meeting and then be handed to a junior one. Ask who will log in to your site and who you will talk to each month. At Indexify the answer is the same person: Jon Goodey, the founder.

3. Is there an onboarding fee?

An onboarding or set-up fee can add a month’s cost or more. Ours is £2,500 for the first month on the SEO and AI search retainer, and we waive it on a six-month commitment. Ask every supplier the same question, because it is often missing from the headline price.

4. What is the minimum term?

Three, six and twelve months are all common. A longer term is not a bad sign, since SEO takes time, but you should know the figure before you compare monthly prices. A £1,750 retainer on a three-month minimum is a smaller commitment than a £1,500 one on twelve.

5. How will success be measured?

Rankings are easy to report and easy to misread. The measure that matters is qualified enquiries from search. Ask how each supplier will count them, and whether they will check that your enquiry form records every one.

6. What will you need to provide?

Access to Google Search Console and analytics, a way to make changes to the site and someone who can approve them. If a supplier cannot change the site and your developer has no time, the work will stall whatever the fee.

Working out the total cost

Add it up over the minimum term, not by the month.

	Monthly fee	Minimum term	Onboarding	Cost of the minimum term
Indexify SEO and AI search, three months	£1,750	3 months	£2,500	£7,750 plus VAT
Indexify SEO and AI search, six months	£1,750	6 months	Waived	£10,500 plus VAT

Do the same sum for every quote you receive. Add any software or content costs the supplier charges separately.

If you want to start smaller

A one-off technical SEO audit starts from £1,500 plus VAT and ends with a prioritised fix list your own developer can act on. It is a sensible first step if you are not ready for a retainer, or if you want to see how a supplier works before committing.

For conversion work, a conversion audit starts at the same price. Our free conversion scenario calculator shows what an improvement would be worth on your own numbers.

How we checked

Each provider page was fetched on 30 September 2026 and the price wording was read from the page itself. We did not contact any provider, and we did not verify what clients actually pay or what each price includes. Prices change, so follow the links before relying on any figure here.