How to Budget for an SEO Campaign Without Losing Your Marbles

Let’s face it—running a small business is like juggling flaming pineapples while riding a unicycle on a tightrope over a pit of hungry accountants. Throw “SEO campaign” into the mix, and it can feel like someone just handed you a Rubik’s cube… blindfolded… and told you it’s on fire.

But fear not! Budgeting for an SEO campaign doesn’t have to send you into a spiral of spreadsheets, stress, and spontaneous sobbing. In fact, with a bit of know-how (and hopefully, a few giggles along the way), you can get your website ranking higher without selling your nan’s collection of antique spoons.

What Even Is SEO?

Before we get into budgeting, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation.” That’s just a fancy way of saying “make your website more likely to show up on Google when someone searches for stuff.”

It’s like shouting “Pick me!” in a room full of people shouting “Pick me!” and hoping Google is the one doing the picking.

There are loads of things that go into SEO—some simple, some more mysterious than your gran’s meatloaf recipe. But the good news is: it’s not magic. It’s manageable. Even for small businesses like yours.

Why Budget for SEO at All?

You might be thinking, “Can’t I just chuck a few keywords on my website and call it a day?” You could, but that’s a bit like trying to win Bake Off with a packet of Hobnobs.

A proper SEO campaign takes time, effort, and yes—some money. But the payoff can be huge:

• More people find your website
• More people buy your stuff
• You finally get to tell your competitors to jog on (politely, of course)

That’s why it’s worth putting some pennies (and some planning) into it.

Step 1: Decide What You Want From SEO (Apart From World Domination)

Before you start throwing money at the SEO gods, ask yourself: what do you actually want to get from SEO?

• Do you want more visitors to your website?
• Do you want to sell more products or services?
• Are you hoping people in your town will find your cafe/gym/hot yoga goat sanctuary?

Your goals will shape your budget. A local bakery might not need the same SEO spend as a global sock empire. (Unless those socks are really fancy.)

Write down your goals. Keep them specific. “More traffic” is vague. “Double website visits in 6 months” is a target you can actually aim for. Plus, it makes you sound like you know what you’re doing.

Step 2: Choose DIY, Done-With-You, or Done-For-You

Next, you need to decide who’s going to do the SEO. You’ve got three options:

DIY SEO (a.k.a. Sweat, Tears, and Googling ‘What Is SEO?’ at 2am)

This is the cheapest option money-wise, but not time-wise. You’ll need to do things like:

• Researching keywords
• Writing content
• Fixing technical issues (like your website being slower than your uncle Phil’s dial-up internet, complete with the dial tone and connection screech)

You’ll spend very little money, but a lot of time, as in days and days at times. It’s a great option if you’re skint but willing to learn. Just be prepared for a steep learning curve (there’s a basic SEO guide on Google here) and the occasional existential crisis.

Rough budget: £0–£50/month (for tools and snacks)

Done-With-You SEO (a.k.a. “Let’s Figure This Out Together, Mate”)

This option means working with a freelancer or agency who guides you but doesn’t do everything for you. Think of it like a personal trainer for your website.

You’ll still write some blog posts or tweak your site, but you’ll have someone making sure you’re not accidentally ruining everything with a rogue plugin or a misplaced comma.

Rough budget: £300–£800/month depending on how hands-on they are, how complicated your site is and to be honest what the competition is like

Done-For-You SEO (a.k.a. “You Take the Wheel, I’ll Be Over Here Drinking Tea”)

This is the most expensive, but also the easiest. You hire experts to do all the fiddly bits, from keyword research to content creation to technical fixes. You just sit back, relax, and occasionally panic about invoices.  You may even find that you can hire someone that specialises in your market and understands it, after all would you prefer someone that works on all types of sites (promoting e-cigs one day and accountants the next), or someone that only works on one vertical market?

Rough budget: £800–£3,000/month (or more if you want VIP treatment with bells on)

Step 3: Break Down Your SEO Budget Like a Boss

Okay, you’ve picked your SEO style. Now let’s talk about where your hard-earned cash might go.

1. Keyword Research

This is about finding out what your customers are actually typing into Google. (Hint: it’s rarely what you think they’re searching for.)

Be realistic in your phrases,  people won’t search for bakers across the UK, and as much as you want, they won’t tend to search for Accountants UK.  Unless you are selling products that can be shipped (think TV’s or books for example) start locally, you can always try to expand the area you cover later.

Avoid using technical terms, unless they are common in your target market – a red left-handed widget may be what you call it, but what would someone else search for?  You may provide business advisory services, but wouldn’t most people look for business advice?

Budget: £0–£100/month

2. Content Creation

Blogs, service pages, FAQs, memes featuring cats and your product—Google loves fresh content. So do your customers (unless it’s badly written… then they bounce faster than a toddler on a trampoline).

If you’re not writing it yourself, budget for:

• Freelance writers
• Editors
• Graphic designers (for jazzy images)

Budget: £100–£1,000/month depending on how much you need and how fancy it is

3. On-Page Optimisation

This means making sure your website pages are talking nicely to Google. That includes:

• Title tags
• Headers (like the ones in this blog—hello!)
• Internal links
• Alt text on images

If you’re doing it yourself, it’s mostly free (just time-consuming). If you’re hiring someone, it’ll cost.

Budget: £0–£500 one-off or per month depending on how much needs doing

4. Technical SEO

This is the behind-the-scenes stuff—site speed, mobile friendliness, broken links, weird code issues, and whether your website’s robots.txt file is secretly telling Google to go away.

Hire someone who speaks fluent tech but that also explain to you what they are doing and why. Trust us.

Budget: £100–£1,000+ depending on how broken your website is

5. Link Building

Getting other websites to link to you makes Google think you’re popular. It’s like being the cool kid in school, but without needing to own a skateboard.

You can:

• Create content people want to link to
• Do outreach and ask nicely
• Pay for links (carefully—some are dodgy)

Budget: £200–£1,000/month or more (depending on the quality of the links)

6. Tracking and Reporting

What’s the point of doing all this SEO if you don’t know whether it’s working?

You’ll want to track:

• Keyword rankings
• Website traffic
• Conversions (sales, sign-ups, etc.)

Tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Looker Studio (a free online data visualisation tool from Google) can help.

Budget: £0–£200/month (more if you hire someone to analyse the numbers for you so you can say, “Ooooh, look at that graph!”)

Step 4: Set a Total Budget You Can Stick To

Let’s be real. You don’t need to remortgage your shed to afford SEO. But you do need to be honest about what you can afford—and what you want to achieve.

As a general rule:

• Tiny budget (under £200/month): Focus on DIY or one-off tasks (like an SEO audit or content revamp)
• Medium budget (£300–£800/month): Go for a done-with-you service or hire freelancers for specific jobs
• Bigger budget (£1,000+/month): Get an agency to do the lot and sip your tea in peace

Remember: SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s better to spend £500/month for 12 months than £3,000 in one go and hope for the best.

Step 5: Avoid These Budgeting Blunders

Before you go waving your credit card around like a wizard’s wand, here are a few classic SEO budgeting mistakes to avoid:

1. Expecting Instant Results

SEO isn’t a microwave dinner. It’s a slow roast. Results can take 3–6 months (or longer if the market is competetive), especially if your website’s been gathering digital dust.

2. Falling for “Guaranteed Page 1” Promises

Anyone who says they can guarantee a top spot on Google is probably also trying to sell you magic beans. Run. Run fast.

3. Not Updating Your Site Regularly

One blog post from 2018 won’t cut it. Google loves fresh content like a hipster loves sourdough.

4. Not Tracking Your Results

If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. (That’s what the wise people say, anyway.)

Final Thoughts: Don’t Panic, Plan

Budgeting for an SEO campaign doesn’t have to be scary. Just break it down:

• Know your goals
• Pick your approach
• Allocate your budget by task
• Avoid common pitfalls
• Be patient (and maybe keep biscuits handy)

Whether you’re a one-person show or a small team trying to conquer the internet one click at a time, SEO can give you a big leg-up—if you treat it as a long-term investment rather than a quick fix.

And remember: if all else fails, you can always write a blog post about flaming pineapples and hope it goes viral.