The short answer from current advertised prices
A September 2026 sample of five Melbourne providers with public pricing showed entry points from about A$750 plus GST to A$2,000 per month. Broader or more competitive tiers reached roughly A$3,000 to A$5,000 or more per month. Setup charges, GST treatment and inclusions varied.
That is a market sample, not a recommended price or a promise of results. One advertised package may include implementation, content and local work; another may mainly provide monitoring and a report. Compare the work, access and decision process before comparing the monthly number.
Price follows the commercial and competitive gap
A technically sound site with credible local proof needs different work from a new domain competing against established businesses. Search demand, current rankings, site condition, content quality, location coverage, authority gaps and the value of a qualified enquiry all shape the useful scope.
A proposal should connect the diagnosis to a priority sequence. If the same package is prescribed before the provider has reviewed the site, market and conversion path, the fee is easier to understand than the strategy—but not necessarily more useful.
What an initial setup fee should buy
Setup can legitimately cover access verification, a technical and content review, query and competitor research, baseline measurement, conversion checks and a prioritised implementation plan. It should produce evidence and decisions the business can inspect.
Ask whether setup includes actual fixes or only an audit. Confirm which accounts, exports, briefs and recommendations remain available if the monthly engagement does not continue. A setup fee should not simply rename ordinary sales onboarding.
What the monthly fee should buy
Ongoing work should include enough implementation capacity to change priority pages, resolve technical issues, create or improve useful assets, strengthen internal paths, earn relevant authority and review results against the same market.
The exact mix should change as evidence changes. A site with rising impressions may need better query alignment and snippets. A page attracting clicks without enquiries may need clearer proof or a better offer. A fixed activity quota that never responds to results is not a strategy.
Separate durable assets from rented activity
Technical corrections, strong service pages, original resources, structured evidence and earned references can keep contributing after the month ends. Reports, proprietary dashboards and advertising access may stop when payment stops. Both can have value, but they are not the same asset.
Ask who owns the website changes, written content, media, Search Console, analytics, Business Profile, rank history and outreach records. The business should not lose its accounts or measurement history when it changes supplier.
Treat very low package prices as a scope question
A low fee is not automatically bad when the task is narrow: a focused audit, advisory session or limited local correction can be valuable. It becomes implausible when the same small fee promises strategy, technical implementation, frequent long-form content, dozens of links, local management and guaranteed outcomes.
Ask how many experienced implementation hours are realistically available after tools, reporting, account management and margin. If the answer is replaced with backlink counts or keyword quotas, the package may be optimised for repeatable activity rather than the business problem.
Demand transparent authority work
Relevant citations, genuine client or partner attribution, useful community participation and editorial coverage can support discovery and trust. Buying links that pass ranking credit, automated directory blasts, private link networks and bulk guest-post packages create avoidable risk.
The record should identify the source, destination, acquisition method, cost, link qualification and live verification. Any paid exposure should be justified by its audience and marked sponsored or nofollow where appropriate; payment cannot directly purchase better Maps rankings.
Check exclusions and recurring costs
Ask whether copywriting, development, digital PR, photography, tools, listings, hosting and major website changes are included. Confirm setup fees, GST, minimum terms, notice periods, renewal dates and any third-party spend before approving the engagement.
A provider can reasonably exclude work outside its delivery model. The problem is an exclusion that appears only after the strategy depends on it—for example, identifying weak service pages while excluding every content or development change needed to improve them.
Measure qualified outcomes in sequence
Track crawlability and indexation first, then non-brand impressions, matched rankings, clicks, relevant referring domains, Maps coverage and genuine stored enquiries. Publishing volume, tasks completed and dashboard logins are inputs, not business results.
Use comparable date ranges and fixed keyword/location subsets. If impressions rise but clicks do not, inspect titles and query fit. If clicks rise without enquiries, inspect offer clarity, proof and friction. If no leading indicator appears across two review cycles, revise the tactic rather than increasing the activity count.
Compare proposals with one worksheet
Give every provider the same commercial goal, priority services, target locations, current evidence and budget boundary. Ask each to list the first 90-day priorities, who performs the work, implementation capacity, content responsibilities, authority method, measurement, exclusions and ownership.
Then compare the proposed decisions—not only deliverable counts. A smaller scope that fixes a clear bottleneck can be more useful than a larger package spread thinly across unrelated activities.
A useful next step
Before requesting quotes, collect Search Console access, analytics, the important service pages, genuine enquiry evidence, current profiles and any previous SEO reports. Write down what a qualified enquiry is worth and which services and locations matter most.
Ask for the smallest responsible starting scope and the evidence that would trigger a scale, maintain, revise or stop decision after the first review period.