According to the latest data from Statista, by 2025, 72.9% of core traffic growth for e-commerce websites will rely on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But the reality is a bit harsh: many sellers only care about “how much they spent” but don’t know exactly what the money was spent on, and even less about why the results are poor. The real reason is the investment wasn’t allocated properly.
By 2025, basic SEO work will be much more than just “adding a few keywords.” Take a mid-sized standalone store as an example (with 300-500 SKUs). Even the basic SEO services alone include:
Fine-tuning the product pages for around 60 core SKUs,
Conducting a full technical audit and fixes on the website (like improving loading speed and ensuring mobile-friendliness),
Setting up the two data tools GA4 and GSC,
Building a basic content framework.
The reasonable starting price for this is ¥4000 to ¥6000 per month.
Three key factors affect the budget:
Category competitiveness: For example, SEO costs for beauty or health products are roughly 35% higher than for home goods.
Number of technical issues: If your website has 50 redirect errors, just fixing them could cost **¥1500+ per month**.
Backlink efforts: A link from an authoritative niche media site has a median cost of around ¥3000.
The problem is, now more than 60% of SEO providers give vague quotes, always hiding the lack of detailed work under the term “custom plan.”
This guide will break down the logic behind SEO pricing step by step.
What’s the basic service fee
If you’re running e-commerce and have a site with around 300-500 products, and by 2025 haven’t done SEO or have a lot of issues, the first step is to have a service provider do a round of “basic work.” This is what’s called the “basic service fee,” usually billed monthly.
In 2025, for a mid-sized standalone store, the monthly SEO basic service fee generally starts at ¥4000 – ¥6000.
Keyword confirmation
If you pick the wrong keywords, all your optimization is wasted. You need to know whether customers are really searching for “wireless Bluetooth earbuds” or “noise-cancelling running earbuds with long battery life”—those are totally different directions!
What exactly is done?
Core keyword selection: Pick at least 20-50 keywords most relevant to your business, including product keywords, category keywords, and problem-related keywords.
Difficulty Analysis: Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to check keyword competition. For example, “coffee machine” is too competitive (KD>65), nearly impossible for a new site; while “compact portable espresso machine KD<30” is much easier to rank for.
In 2025, a basic SEO plan typically covers 60%-70% of low to medium difficulty keywords (KD between 10-40).
Check search volume: Prioritize keywords with monthly searches >500 and conversion potential. Long-tail keywords under 100 searches may not be worth targeting.
User intent matching: Understand whether users are looking to buy, compare, or just read guides. If mismatched, bounce rates over 70% are common, wasting your effort.
Cost proportion: This usually accounts for 15%-20% of the basic service fee (around ¥600 – ¥1200/month).
Product Page Optimization
The core of an e-commerce site is the product page. Google values it the most. Poor titles, descriptions, or images not only turn off customers but also get ignored by search engines.
What exactly to do?
Rewrite titles: Focus on optimizing 30-50 main SKUs, keep under 60 characters, and include keywords plus selling points, e.g., “【2025 New】XX Brand Quiet Blender Home Use 1.75L Large Capacity”.
Description optimization: Don’t just stuff keywords. Use 200-500 words to clearly explain the product’s selling points (USP), naturally include 3-5 keyword variations, and highlight specs, benefits, and usage scenarios.
URL optimization: Change links like
/p=123to clear, readable URLs, e.g.,/blender/xx-brand-quiet-blender-175L, which helps SEO and sharing. Optimize 50-100 page URLs per month.Image Alt tags: Add descriptions under 125 characters for each product image, e.g., “XX Brand Quiet Blender Front View – White – 1.75L Capacity”.
Cost proportion: This is the most expensive part, about 50% of the basic service fee (¥2000 – ¥3000/month), because it requires deep product knowledge, rewriting copy, and image selection.
Website Structure Organization
A messy site structure confuses search engine crawlers, making it hard to find key pages and rank them. A clear structure allows crawlers to reach over 90% of important pages.
What was done?
Navigation Optimization: Ensure the main navigation is clear (3-5 categories), and users can find any product within 3 clicks. Optimize 1-2 key paths every month.
Internal Linking: Add 30-50 links between content pages, product pages, and category pages to pass authority to core pages.
Clean Up Orphan Pages: Handle 20-50 isolated or outdated pages by deleting or applying 301 redirects.
Check XML Sitemap: Make sure important pages are listed in sitemap.xml and submitted to GSC, with coverage above 80%.
Cost Share: About 15%-20% (roughly ¥600 – ¥1200/month), requires technical staff—it’s not something a simple editor can handle.
Add Basic Content Pages
Basic pages like “About Us” or “Return Policy” matter to Google, and users often check them before placing an order. Too short or unprofessional content can reduce your site’s credibility.
What to write?
About Us: Introduce who the company is, what it does, how long it’s been around, and its advantages (like “95% positive reviews”), write 300-500 words.
Contact Us: Provide phone number, email, address, and working hours (e.g., weekdays 9 AM to 6 PM).
Shipping Policy: Explain delivery areas, estimated time, free shipping thresholds, and courier options (like SF Express, JD), write 400-600 words.
Return & Exchange Policy: Include return/exchange timeframe (e.g., within 7 days), conditions, process, and who bears the cost, write 500-700 words.
If your website doesn’t have these, the basic service usually helps set them up for you.
Cost Share: Roughly 10%-15% (¥400 – ¥900/month), focus on being professional, clear, and credible rather than just producing volume.
Tool Setup
GA4 and GSC are free, but you must install them and know how to use them.
Tasks to do:
GA4 Installation & Configuration:
- Install on over 95% of pages
- Set up conversion tracking (like add-to-cart, checkout, successful purchase)
- Create commonly used reports so you know where traffic comes from and who bought what
- Add UTM parameters to all external links to track every entry point
GSC Setup & Monitoring:
- Verify domain ownership
- Submit sitemap
- Set geographic targeting and preferred domain (with or without www)
- Check core reports (indexing, mobile usability, page experience) once a month
- Handle 5-15 404 or mobile usability errors each month
Cost proportion: This part is mostly one-time, but maintaining it monthly still takes time. Accounts for 5%-10% (¥200 – ¥600/month), mainly for analyst or engineer work.
Five Key Factors
A basic SEO service costing ¥4000-¥6000 per month is just the starting point. The actual spend on your store could be two to three times higher, or even more.
Why? Because different stores have different “starting points” and “goals.” Data from 2025 shows that the monthly SEO budget for medium-sized e-commerce sites is roughly ¥4000 to ¥20000+. The cost differences mainly come down to these five key factors:
Keyword Difficulty (the more popular the keyword, the fiercer the competition, the more it costs)
Keywords are the heart of SEO. The words you want to target decide how much you need to invest.
How to tell if a keyword is hard?
Industry Competition: Industries like health supplements, finance, and legal services are highly competitive in SEO. Top companies might spend over ¥50,000 per month on SEO. Keywords in these industries often have a difficulty score (KD) above 65 (out of 100). On the other hand, niche tools or specialty home goods might have keyword difficulty under 35, making the cost 30%-40% cheaper.
Higher search volume means tougher competition: Big terms like “laptop” or “sneakers” with over 5000 monthly searches are tough to rank on the first page. They require lots of content and backlinks, meaning high initial investment.
High-value vs long-tail keywords: Targeting 10 high-converting keywords costs much more than 100 niche long-tail ones. For example, ranking a term like “Gaming laptops under ¥5000” could cost 2-3 times more than an average product keyword.
Number of keywords: If you target 300 keywords instead of 50, both work and cost go up. Generally, every extra 50 keywords increases the cost by 20%-25%.
The bigger the store, the less content, the higher the cost
How many products does your store have? How complex are your pages? These factors directly affect the workload for SEO optimization.
Number of products (SKUs) is key:
- For a store with 100 SKUs, optimizing all product pages takes roughly 60-80 hours;
- If you have 1000 SKUs, even optimizing only 20% of the main products (200 pages) requires 120-160+ hours. That’s why service providers sometimes charge per “core SKU,” around ¥80-¥200 each.
Is there very little content?
- If product descriptions are under 100 words and there are only a few blog posts, a lot of content needs to be added.
- A roughly 1000-word, rich, and practical product guide or blog post costs ¥1000-¥2500 in 2025.
- If you want to add 10 high-quality pieces of content per month, the monthly cost could be ¥10,000-¥25,000+.
Are there many categories and info pages?
For example, in fashion, the category structure might be: Gender > Season > Style > Fabric > Item. This complex structure requires optimizing more category pages, increasing costs by 15%-25% compared to a simpler store.
The more technical issues, the more expensive the fixes
Minor issues (low cost):
- For example, missing Meta tags—fixing 50 pages takes only 3-5 hours (about ¥400-¥800);
- A few 404 errors (<20) take roughly 1-3 hours (¥200-¥500) to fix;
- Submitting a sitemap usually takes less than 1 hour.
Moderate issues (higher cost):
- Slow site loading—for example, if the first screen takes over 3.5 seconds, you need to optimize code, images, caching, etc., taking 8-20+ hours with a cost of ¥2000-¥5000+.
- Many duplicate pages (like lots of useless pages from too many parameters) require URL canonicalization, costing around ¥1000-¥4000+.
Severe issues (costs soar):
- Messy structure, over 300 wrong redirects—just cleaning and fixing can take dozens of hours, costing ¥3000-¥10,000+;
- Old site system is weak—if basic functions are missing, you need development, like adding structured data (Schema) to product pages, costing ¥5000-¥15,000+;
- Site was previously hacked, too many spam backlinks—cleaning is time-consuming, potentially adding ¥3000-¥8000+ per month.
The more complex the technical issues, the higher the cost on top of the monthly fee, sometimes even quoted separately.
The more backlinks, the more expensive
Backlinks are like votes—the more people trust you, the higher search engines rank you.
A large number of backlinks with DA≥1 is more cost-effective:
500 backlinks with some weight (DA>1), even if not industry-related, are 3-5 times more cost-effective than a few high-quality links, costing around ¥50~¥80 each.
Different types of backlinks vary greatly in price:
Guest Posting: Posting articles with links on relevant websites costs around ¥2000-¥5000 per link.
Resource Links: For example, if your content gets featured on an authority site, and if the site has high authority (DR>80), one link can cost ¥5000-¥15000+.
Media reviews or coverage links: Getting on sites like TechCrunch or Forbes requires PR, connections, product sending, etc., costing ¥8000-¥20000+, with less than a 5% success rate.
Common practice:
New e-commerce sites usually build 8-15 mid-to-high quality relevant links per month;
Monthly backlink budgets generally range from ¥8000-¥25000, accounting for 40%-60% of the total SEO budget;
Some providers offer “basic backlink support,” while others provide “advanced backlink services” with per-link pricing.
How fast do you want results?
SEO takes time. If you want results in just a few months, you’ll need to spend more, and the risks are higher.
Normal pace:
- Months 1-3 are mainly about laying the foundation (technical optimization, content preparation, etc.), with little change in traffic;
- Months 4-6 show noticeable growth (traffic increases by 20%-50%);
- Months 6-12 are when traffic and rankings gradually stabilize.
If you insist on speeding it up:
- Multiply content output: Instead of writing 10 articles a month, write 30 or more, which adds ¥10000 – ¥40000/month in content costs;
- Backlink acceleration: Instead of posting links gradually, speed up several times, doubling costs, possibly adding ¥10000 – ¥40000+;
- Focus on a few big keywords: Ignoring other long-tail keywords can imbalance traffic structure.
Results could backfire:
- The chance of quickly hitting the homepage is less than 50%, and even if you make it, there’s over a 60% chance you’ll drop back down within three months;
- So reliable service providers usually suggest setting a goal period of over six months, optimizing in stages, and investing resources more steadily.
How SEO Service Providers Charge
In the 2025 e-commerce market:
72% of SEO collaborations are billed monthly,
25% are project-based,
less than 3% go by performance sharing (too risky).
The charging method affects your budget planning, risk level, and the sustainability of the collaboration.
Let’s break down the three main methods one by one.
Monthly Billing
Model: sign a contract, pay monthly, and get ongoing services, just like hiring an external SEO team to work for you long-term.
How is pricing determined?
Pricing depends on keyword difficulty, website size, technical issues, existing backlinks, and how tight your timeline is.
In 2025, SEO monthly fees for medium-sized independent sites range widely from ¥5000 to ¥20000.
For example, a home goods site with 500 SKUs just starting out would have a monthly fee around ¥8000;
A 300-SKU health brand with many issues and intense competition could have a monthly fee up to ¥18000.
What’s usually included in the service?
Clearly specifying this in the contract is key!
Typical packages include:
- Monthly optimization of 15-30 core SKU pages
- Writing 4-8 blog posts of over 1,200 words each
- Creating 5-10 backlinks in related fields (DR > 45)
- Fixing technical issues, like the top 20 critical errors
Service commitment standards:
- Email responses within 24 hours
- Progress meetings weekly or biweekly
- Assign 1 strategy manager + 1 execution specialist
Minimum contract term is 6 months, usually 12 months
Early termination usually requires paying 1-2 months’ fees
Most service providers require prepayment (before the 1st or 5th of each month)
Price may increase after 6 months or 1 year of cooperation, up to 15%, with 30-60 days’ notice
- Ongoing service, the team gets to know your business better
- Budget is easy to manage
- Issues can be addressed promptly
- Long contract commitment
- Results may not be obvious in the first 3-6 months
- Audit report: ¥3000 – ¥8000, deliver a 50-100 page detailed report listing issues, priorities, and recommendations, usually completed in 5-15 business days.
- Fixes: e.g., fixing 50 high-priority issues, cost ¥8000 – ¥15000+, should clearly state “how many issues are fixed”
- For example, optimizing 200 SKUs, ¥80 – ¥200 per SKU, total project cost ¥16,000 – ¥40,000, takes about 4-8 weeks.
- Write 10 in-depth industry articles (1500+ words, with data charts), ¥2000 – ¥5000 per article, total ¥20,000 – ¥50,000, takes 6-10 weeks.
Pay 50% upfront, 30%-40% after halfway, and the remaining 10%-20% upon completion. Project cycles usually last 1-3 months.
- Clearly state what tasks will be done, what deliverables are expected, deadlines, and acceptance criteria.
- If additional requirements come up midway, make sure to charge extra and extend the timeline (change request).
- Clear tasks, no long-term commitment
- No ongoing maintenance
- Easy to go over time/budget if scope is unclear
- Only addresses specific issues
For example, promising “get 50 keywords into the top 20.”
The issues:
The keywords might have no searches, so ranking higher doesn’t help
They might use unreliable methods to boost quickly, but rankings could drop in a few months
“Top 20” includes 20th place, which can get almost no traffic
For example, promising “5,000 new organic visitors in 3 months”
The issues:
The traffic might be irrelevant visitors who won’t buy anything (bounce rate >85%)
Requires you to open up GA4 data, with risks of cheating and privacy issues
Only looks at traffic, not conversions
Monthly base fee ¥5000
Achieved sales ¥100,000, 10% commission = ¥10,000
Your total spending that month is ¥15,000
Vendors tend to prioritize “quick-win” projects, like boosting traffic or rankings, regardless of basic quality
This model suits them to filter “easy” clients, not everyone
- Have strong trust with the vendor
- Have a mature data attribution system
- Are willing to share the risk together
- ¥80 – ¥180 per SKU (English versions may cost more, ¥150 – ¥350+)
- If rewriting 400 SKUs, estimated cost: ¥32,000 – ¥72,000+
- Simple blog post (800-1200 words): ¥800 – ¥1800/post
- Advanced guide (1500-2500 words, with data or case studies): ¥1800 – ¥3800/post
- In-depth report (3000+ words, including research/charts/expert interviews): ¥5000 – ¥15000+/post
- Translating a 1000-word English tech article into German/French: ¥1200 – ¥2500+
- Localized creation (not just translation): ¥2500 – ¥5000+
DA 50-65: ¥2500 – ¥5000/post
DA 65-80 (industry authority sites): ¥5000 – ¥10000+/post
- For example, your tool or research gets listed on industry resource sites.
- The cost includes producing high-quality content (e.g., an ¥8000 report)
- Then a backlink specialist recommends it to target sites, charging per successful link, around ¥1200 – ¥3500+/link
- For example, getting media coverage when launching a new product or winning an award.
- Extremely hard to get (success rate <5%)
- Usually requires sending samples, coordinating PR, or even sponsoring, with each link costing ¥8000 – ¥20000+
- Requires: front-end optimization, image compression, CDN setup, server caching strategies, etc.
- Dev hours: 25-60+ hours
- Cost: ¥10,000 – ¥48,000+ (cost skyrockets for every 0.5s improvement)
- Need to ensure no broken links, SEO data intact, traffic unaffected
- Hours: 80-200+
- Cost: ¥32,000 – ¥160,000+, varies a lot by number of pages
- Needs malware removal, patching vulnerabilities, filing appeals to Google, etc.
- Hours: 40-100+, recovery may take up to 3 months
- Cost: ¥16,000 – ¥80,000+, recovery period 1-6 months
- How much is the monthly SEO fee?
- How is the PPC management fee charged? Percentage? Fixed? Or a combo?
- How much is the ad spend? It must be loaded into your own ad account separately; don’t let the provider spend it directly!
- Medium-sized independent sites with basic setup (300-500 SKUs): reasonable budget is ¥8,000 – ¥12,000/month.
- Sites with many issues or heavy competition: budget should be ¥15,000 – ¥22,000/month.
- Small site (<100 SKUs): ¥4,000 – ¥8,000/month
- Medium site (300-800 SKUs): ¥8,000 – ¥20,000+/month (big range, depends on your foundation)
- Large site (>1000 SKUs): ¥25,000+/month, may need a dedicated team
- If you run Google Ads and a keyword costs ¥20 per click, using SEO to drive organic traffic, the cost per click (your spend divided by the traffic) should ideally be ¥2 – ¥6.
- If your current organic CPC is ¥15, it means the provider is inefficient.
- Example: “It’s been live for 90 days, but less than 20 visitors come from search every day, and 80% of our core product pages haven’t been indexed by Google yet.”
- Clear goal: Get Google to index pages quickly, lay a solid foundation, and push at least 50 keywords into the top 50 results.
- Focus the budget on technical optimization and foundational content.
- Example: “We get over 5,000 organic search visitors per month, but the add-to-cart rate is only 1.5%, far below the industry average of 2.8%.”
- Clear goal: Improve product page experience, speed up page load, make copy more appealing, and build trust.
- Focus the budget on product page optimization and content quality.
- Example: “Site-wide traffic increased by 40%, but keywords for Category A (35% of GMV) have been stuck at positions 11-20 for 6 months and never hit the first page.”
- Clear goal: Focus efforts to get 10 keywords for this category onto the first page.
- Budget should lean towards link building and dedicated content for this category.
- Don’t trust statements like “traffic increased by 200%.” You need specifics:
- Which industry?
- What was the original traffic? Over what time period?
- What exactly was done? (For example: “Non-brand traffic for the maternity site +65% over 6 months, mainly by revamping category navigation and optimizing long-tail pages in bulk”)
“Can you provide a draft of the keyword list for the first three months? Does it include estimated search volume and difficulty?”
“How do you track rankings? What percentage is in the Top 10/Top 20? How often is the report? Which tools are used?”
“Which specific points of product descriptions will be updated? How many SKUs per month?”
“Who decides the blog topics? How many rounds of outline review? How many revisions allowed? Any original charts or graphics? Extra charges?”
“What’s the website speed goal? For example, from 4.2s down to under 2.5s? Which tools are used for testing?”
“How many technical issues will be fixed each month? Does it include server optimization?”
“Does the monthly fee include backlinks? How many per month? What’s the minimum quality standard? (e.g., DR > 40, monthly traffic > 5,000)”
“Can I approve each backlink before it’s posted? How do you avoid spammy sites? Absolutely no PBN or black-hat links!”
“What data does the monthly report include? For example, core keyword rankings, brand/non-brand traffic, indexed pages, achievement summary?”
“How often do we communicate? (Recommended every two weeks) Response time for urgent issues? (Email within 24h, phone within 4h)”
- “Optimize no less than 25 SKU product pages per month (including title, meta, internal links)”
- “Write **≥3 original blog posts per month, each ≥1200 words**, topics need confirmation, client has review rights”
- “Submit a monthly report including keyword rankings, organic traffic changes, and work completed”
- For example: “Completion rate of product page optimizations ≥90% per month”
- Or: “Each backlink must meet quality standards (DR≥40, relevance≥80%)”
- Specify total monthly fee (¥XX,XXX) and payment deadline
- Additional fees and trigger conditions, e.g., “¥1,500 for each extra blog post”
Deliverables:
Monthly reports, including top 50-100 keyword rankings, organic traffic, website health, and a checklist of completed tasks
Key financial points in the contract:
Who is this for?
Suitable for sellers looking to do SEO long-term
Pros:
Cons:
Project-Based Pricing
Model: One-off charge for a specific task, like technical optimization or content writing, ends when the task is done.
How is it priced? Priced per module:
Technical SEO Audit + Fixes
Bulk product page optimization
Content Writing (Launching a Blog)
Payment schedule: common patterns are 5/3/2 or 5/4/1
Key points in the contract:
Who is this for?
People who want to solve a specific problem
For example:
Technical checks before launching a new site
Content migration after redesigning an old site
Batch creation of high-quality content
Pros:
Cons:
Performance-based pay
Model: Low base fee or even free, then share revenue once results are achieved. Sounds like “pay only when results happen.”
The problem is: how do you define “results”?
A. Ranking improvement (most risky)
B. Traffic growth
C. Sales Commission (Most Reliable but Hardest)
Share of sales brought by SEO, e.g., 5%-15%
But the biggest challenge is: how to track which orders came from SEO?
Attribution is tricky, GA4 model error 15%-35%
You also need to open your GA4 or order system, which has business confidentiality risks
Vendors might suggest discounting to boost commissions, which hurts profit
Actual cost breakdown:
For example:
Comparison: If using a flat monthly fee model, hiring a vendor at ¥12,000/month to achieve the same results saves you money and avoids hassle.
Hidden issues:
Who is it suitable for?
Only when you:
Can try this “base fee + sales commission” hybrid model.
How to choose among the three payment methods?
| Method | Who it suits | Popularity | Risks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | For sellers who want steady, long-term SEO and have a fixed budget (¥5000 – ¥20000/month) | ★★★★★ | 6-12 month contract, slow results (takes 3-6 months) |
| Project-Based Fee | For those who want to solve a specific SEO issue and have a one-time budget | ★★★☆☆ | Undefined scope can easily cause delays and overspending; service ends once project is done |
| Performance-Based | For experienced sellers who have high trust in their service provider and strong data attribution capabilities | ★☆☆☆☆ | Result definitions can be tricky, prone to disputes, and may attract unreliable providers |
Common Extra SEO Costs
When discussing SEO collaboration, many only focus on the monthly or project fees, but by 2025, there are actually four services that are likely to incur extra charges.
Often, packages only cover the most basic services, and to do things properly, extra spending is required. Without careful planning, your budget can easily overshoot by 20%-60%!
Industry data shows that over 65% of clients only realize after starting cooperation that they need to pay extra for content or backlinks.
Let’s break it down in detail:
Good Content = Cost, Extra Payment Required
Monthly packages usually only cover basic content maintenance (like optimizing existing pages), but if you want to create high-quality original content (especially in-depth articles), there will be additional charges.
Common content costs:
New Product Descriptions (large number of SKUs)
For example, if you have 500 products, each with only 50-character original descriptions, and you want to upgrade them to 300-500 character sales copy. Packages usually only include 20-50 core SKUs. Extra SKUs are charged separately:
Content Marketing (blogs, guides, research reports)
A key method to attract traffic and build backlinks. Pricing depends on content length and depth:
Multilingual content (translation or localization) can cost 50%-150% more:
For example:
If you plan to publish10 industry guides of 1500 words each per month, the content budget alone would be¥18,000 – ¥38,000+
Content is one of the most critical investments for SEO. The more you invest, the more likely you are to see 30%+ better results, so don’t overlook this budget.
Backlink Building
Packages usually include only a small number of basic backlinks (e.g., 3-8 per month, DR 40-50), but to really rank on the first page or surpass major competitors, you need to invest more resources in high-quality backlinks.
Guest Posts
Publishing your content on high-authority sites (not necessarily related) costs mainly depend on the site’s authority (DA):
Resource Links
These links are even more effective at passing authority than guest posts, roughly 15%-30% more efficient.
Relationship Links (Media Coverage/Reviews)
How to plan backlink expenses
Professional Technical Support
The package usually only covers routine maintenance (like basic error fixes, plugin updates), but if serious technical issues arise, like slow speed, hacked site, or full site migration, you’ll need to hire a professional developer separately, billed by hours or project.
Common scenarios:
Optimizing website loading speed (e.g., from 4.5s down to under 2s)
Full site migration or major redesign (switching CMS, rebuilding the site)
Hacked site or spammy backlinks attack
Custom Technical Development
For example, building tools to automatically handle SEO parameters, or integrating with internal company systems
Typical project cost: ¥15,000 – ¥50,000+
Pay-Per-Click traffic budget is separate
Key reminder: SEO and PPC are two separate systems!
SEO consultants handle organic traffic growth, PPC ads (like Google Ads) require a separate budget and are not included in your SEO monthly fee.
PPC budget breakdown:
Ad spend (money burned on Google)
For example, promoting “lightweight luggage”, each click might cost ¥18 – ¥35+, so monthly spend easily ¥10,000 – ¥100,000+
Ad account management fee (charged by service provider)
As a percentage of ad spend: 10%-20%, ad spend ¥50,000 → management fee ¥5,000 – ¥10,000
Flat management fee: e.g., ¥4,000 – ¥15,000/month
Mixed model: base fee + percentage, e.g., ¥3,000 + 10%, with spend ¥50,000, management fee = ¥8,000
SEO and PPC data can be analyzed together, but costs must be calculated separately
If the provider handles both SEO and PPC, make sure the contract clearly lists the costs separately:
SEO performance doesn’t affect PPC management fees
Even if SEO does well and your keywords rank higher, as long as you keep running ads, the account manager will still charge management fees unless you actively pause your ad campaigns.
Practical tips for choosing a provider and negotiating prices
By 2025, over 60% of e-commerce sellers wasted a lot of money with the wrong SEO provider or unclear details — on average losing ¥50,000+ for nothing.
Follow these 5 steps to get the same results others get with ¥15,000 using just ¥10,000.
Know your budget and the market rates
Industry benchmark prices:
Set your budget according to your site’s size:
Have a clear idea of natural traffic costs:
Set your annual budget first, e.g., ¥100,000 – ¥180,000, so the provider can plan accordingly without overspending at the start and running out of money by month-end.
First figure out what problem you really want to solve
Vague goals lead to vague plans. Don’t just say “I want SEO”; be specific about the problems you’re facing.
Scenario A: New site with no traffic (cold start)
Scenario B: Traffic exists, but conversion is low
Scenario C: Traffic for a category is stuck
Tip: Directly share your GA4 and GSC data with the provider, like “bounce rate > 70%” or “average session < 1 minute,” so they can propose proper solutions.
Talk to multiple providers and compare
Don’t just listen to one opinion; compare at least three different types of companies (individual experts, small agencies, large firms).
Data shows that this approach can help 70% of buyers save 10%-25%.
Level of detail in the proposal:
Don’t just hear vague terms like “keyword optimization.” Check whether it specifies: how many keywords to optimize (e.g., 50, with a clear list), how many product pages (e.g., 30 SKUs), and how many articles per month (e.g., 4 articles × 1,200 words each).
Who’s doing the work?
Ask clearly: Are they students or experienced professionals? How many years has the project manager done e-commerce SEO? (3+ years is acceptable) Are they responsive? (Will they reply within 4 hours for urgent issues?)
A reasonable setup is usually: 1 project manager + 0.5 content + 0.5 technical
Case studies should be from the same industry and verifiable
Be clear on pricing details
For example: “Your website has a lot of technical issues, technical work +¥2,500/month“, or “You want 5 extra articles per month, content fee +¥9,000/month“.
Ask about service details thoroughly
Go through every word, especially these key points:
Keywords:
Content:
Technical:
Backlinks (easily misleading area):
Communication and reporting:
Write the contract clearly to protect yourself
Verbal promises don’t count—make sure everything is in the contract!
Key contract points include:
Work Scope (SOW): List everything that should be done each month, for example:
Performance Standards (not recommended to tie directly to ranking or traffic):
Fees and Payment:
Contract Term and Termination:
Specify start and end dates, auto-renewal method (e.g., 30-day prior written notice)
Early termination compensation rules, e.g., up to 2 months’ fee
Intellectual Property: All SEO content (text, images) belongs to you!
Data Confidentiality: e.g., GA4, order data, only for SEO analysis, must not be shared
Liability Limitation: Even if the client makes a mistake, compensation is capped at 1-3 months’ service fee
The essence of SEO is a competition for resources, providing practical value to search engine users. Follow me, and I'll take you to the top floor to see through the underlying algorithms of Google rankings.
