How much does SEO actually cost?
For most Pittsburgh-area businesses, real SEO runs between $1,900 and $4,900 a month. Here is exactly what we charge, what is included at each tier, and which one is probably right for you.
Why we publish our pricing?
Most agencies hide their prices. We don't.
01
It respects your time
You should be able to figure out if we are in your budget in thirty seconds, not after a 45-minute sales call.
02
It keeps us honest
When pricing is visible to every client, we cannot charge one business more than another for the same work. Everyone gets the same fair rate.
03
It tells you what quality costs
If you have been quoted $400/mo by a freelancer or $12K/mo by a big agency, you know the range is wild. These numbers are what real SEO costs.
Limited to only 2 spots per month
SEO Foundation
$
1,997
one-time
The right move if you want SEO done properly but aren't ready for a monthly commitment. Perfect after a new site launch or rebrand — or if you've never had SEO done right.
Book your SEO Foundation spot now
What's included
✓
Full audit of your website — see exactly what's costing you traffic
✓
Google Search Console + Analytics set up correctly
✓
Google Business Profile audited and cleaned up
✓
Technical markup Google and AI tools need, installed
✓
Site indexed properly across Google, Bing, and AI search
✓
Baseline keyword report so you know where you rank today
✓
30-minute strategy call to walk through everything
Timeline: 2-3 weeks start to finish
Monthly plans
Three ways to keep growing
Built to match where your business actually is. Pick the tier that fits today — move up when you're ready.
The honest version
What actually affects your SEO price.
SEO isn't one-size-fits-all. A few things move a business up or down the tiers.
No surprise invoices
What you don't pay extra for
Some agencies charge for every line item. We don't. Every plan includes:
✓
Strategy & account management from a senior consultant
✓
Access to our tools: Search Console, Analytics, rank tracking, Semrush
✓
Content edits and revisions within your plan's scope
✓
Monthly QA and performance validation
✓
All reporting and monthly strategy calls
✓
Work on any website platform — experts in Framer, BigCommerce, Shopify
✓
Technical markup and schema installation
✓
Up-front quotes on anything that falls outside your plan
Proof, not promises
Short & long-term results. Multiple brands, across different markets – yet we still get results.
Full-year 2022 (pre-engagement baseline) compared to full-year 2025. Every figure below is pulled from the clients’ own GA4 and Google Search Console accounts.
Organic search traffic growth, average across active clients.
Highest recorded click growth, single client, 6 months.
YoY US organic clicks on Warrior — in a year traffic broadly declined
Average Google ranking improvement per client
Case 01 — Ecommerce SEO
Warrior Alpaca Socks
Average page rank
GSC DATA
Site traffic grew 4.2x across all channels. Organic sessions more than doubled from the website baseline.
Organic Sessions
+112%
Website Traffic
+4.2x
Massive keyword shift: "alpaca socks" moved from position 4.3 to to 1.2 and “alpaca compression socks” moved from position 5.6 to 2.7, clicks +307% YoY.
Case 02 — Website SEO
Mizner Law Firm
Website Traffic
GA4 DATA
That's not a rounding error — that's a site that went from essentially invisible to ranking on page 1 inside six months.
Homepage Clicks
+3,227%
Organic Search Users
+295%
Biggest keyword shift: Lead attorney went from position 11.2 to 1.0. The firm now owns its entire branded search presence.
Methodology
All figures pulled from each client’s own Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console account data with their permission.
Pricing in context
How we stack up.
A quick matrix of where Striking Alchemy sits against the other two ways most SMBs buy SEO.
What matters to you
Option A
Freelancers
Budget, solo operator
Option B
Striking Alchemy
Expert-led studio
Option C
National agencies
Enterprise volume
Who actually does the work
One person, juggling many clients
✓
Nick leads every account, start to finish (which is why client spots are limited)
Junior account manager running a playbook
Strategy depth
Tactics only, rankings and backlinks
✓
Strategy tied to your revenue, not traffic or vanity metrics
Deep strategy, if you are big enough to get it
Reporting you can actually read
Ad-hoc, inconsistent
✓
Plain-English monthly report & live strategy meetings
Dashboards thick with metrics that do not matter
Visibility into what you are paying for
Quote on request, varies by client
✓
Published & transparent pricing
Rounds of sales calls before a monthly retainer is quoted
Contract you are locked into
Handshake or short retainer
✓
90 days, then month-to-month
12-month contracts are standard
AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AIO)
Rarely on the radar
✓
Built into Growth & Max
Add-on, billed separately
If the work is not paying off
You may never know why
✓
We will fix the strategy or advise you to prioritize other channels
Contract keeps running regardless
★★★★★
5.0 on Google
/
Senior-led
/
No long-term contracts
/
/
Pittsburgh-based
Three ways to start
Not sure which plan?
Let's talk first.
Every prospective client gets a free 20-minute fit call — we look at your site, your competitors, and your goals, and tell you exactly which plan makes sense. Or whether SEO is the right investment for you right now.
Free
Fit Call — 20 minutes, no pitch, no pressure. Honest read on whether we are the right studio for the work.
$0
One-time
SEO Foundation — full audit, technical setup, baseline keyword report. 2–3 weeks.
$
1,997
Monthly
Local, Growth, or Max — ongoing SEO with a 3-month commitment, then month-to-month.
from
$
1,990
/mo
Typically under 24 hours to reply
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Straight answers
·
Real data