SEO Costs in 2026

We see this all the time: every week a client brings three SEO quotes from three providers, almost 10 times apart, and asks one thing: why does the same website get 5 million VND from one and 45 million VND per month from another. It's the right question. It's so reasonable that we wrote this whole article to answer it properly. SEO cost has no standard list price, but it has a logic. Once you understand it, you can read any quote and see where your money is going, which items are worth it, and which are being cut to produce a surprisingly cheap number.

How much does SEO cost today?

Vietnam market range in 2026: a maintenance SEO plan for a small website runs around 5 to 15 million VND per month, and a full-scope SEO project for a business is priced by plan from tens to hundreds of millions of VND depending on industry and keyword competition. That sounds wide, but it is the reality of this trade, like asking "how much does it cost to build a house" and having to ask back how many floors.

To give you a concrete reference instead of a vague range, we publish our own prices: SEO service team at MONA has a price list starting from 25 million VND per month, including SEO-standard article writing and onpage optimization of the main pages. Full-scope SEO by industry is in the the full-scope SEO price list price list, which we update every year. The number printed on the web is the number we quote clients. We don't hide our prices.

One more number to size up the game: an Ahrefs study of 2 million pages shows that only 5.7% of pages reach the top 10 within 1 year for their keyword. The reward is big, though: the first position on Google gets 27.6% of all clicks according to Backlinko, many times more than the positions below it. SEO is a game measured in quarters, so every honest price list is a long-term commitment, not a one-off fee.

Where SEO money goes

Clients often think SEO money pays for "ranking magic". It actually pays for 4 very concrete blocks of work, and we break them down one by one. Just four.

Content takes the largest share, usually 40 to 50% of the budget. A proper SEO article needs a writer who knows the industry, original illustrations and a heading structure that fits search intent. To cover a topic cluster, a website needs dozens to hundreds of such articles, and content cheap filler is something Google increasingly removes without mercy.

Technical takes 15 to 20%: it opens with an audit then fixes speed, structure and indexing, everything under technical SEO. This part is worked hard in the first 2 to 3 months and then moves to monitoring mode. Speed also depends on the hosting plan your website is on. Links takes 20 to 30%, and it is the expensive part because quality links have to be earned through relationships, good content, or paid placement in the press. People who monitor and fine-tune take the rest: measuring rankings, reading Search Console data, deciding which cluster to push next month. Without this block, the other three run blind.

Why three quotes can differ by ten times

Back to the opening question. Three quotes differ for 3 reasons, and only 1 of them is dishonest.

Reason one: different scope. The 5 million VND quote usually covers 8 to 10 articles a month plus a few title tag edits. The 45 million VND quote covers rebuilding the site structure, links on major news sites, and a dedicated project team. These two are not the same product, and comparing their prices is comparing apples and oranges.

Reason two: different commitments. Some commit to a number of articles, some to keyword group rankings, some to traffic. The more a commitment depends on results, the higher the price, because the provider carries the risk for you.

Reason three, the dishonest one: cheap because they cut corners where you can't see. Machine-rewritten articles nobody reviews, links placed on junk site networks, and worst of all, black-hat techniques that can earn an algorithm penalty and wipe out the rankings you already have. Google states directly in its spam policies that link schemes and mass-produced low-quality content are grounds for penalizing a website. The few million VND saved each month then cost a hundred times more when the bill comes.

Our view, said plainly: the worst mistake a service company can make is to quote wrong, quote low to make it easy to sign and then run out of steam halfway, cut quality, or ask for a price increase. MONA would rather lose a deal by quoting honestly than win one by quoting short, because 85% of our clients come back, and clients only come back when the final figure matches the first one.

SEO price list by industry: the ranges we quote clients

Here is the full-scope SEO price range by industry that we use when advising, taken from our public price list. None of it includes a KPI commitment on traffic or hot keywords:

Why healthcare and finance cost much more: Google puts these industries in the group that "affects users' money and health", which demands very high trust in the author and sources, and content that carries a specialist's name. Doing it to that standard takes 2 to 3 times the effort of an ordinary industry. The tougher the field, the higher the price. General industries sit around 500 million VND, and industries touching money and health climb to 700 to 800 million VND. The more intense the keyword competition in an industry, the higher the price, simply because more writing and stronger links are needed to get into the top.

What doing SEO yourself costs

Many of you consider hiring staff to do it in-house, and we support running the numbers first. A solid SEO specialist in Vietnam earns 15 to 25 million VND per month, a content writer 10 to 15 million VND, and paid keyword and backlink tools run another 3 to 5 million VND per month. That adds up to 30 to 45 million VND per month for a minimum team of 2, before desk space and insurance, and above all with no guarantee of hiring the right strong people. Doing it yourself is not cheap.

When doing it yourself makes sense: the business treats content as a long-term weapon, a founder is willing to learn, or the niche has little competition and getting the basics right is enough to rank. If you go this way, start with SEO how-to guide and SEO-standard website checker our free ones, plus the list of SEO tools free tools, which is enough for the first 1 or 2 years. In a highly competitive field where your team has never done SEO, outsourcing at the start and taking the work back later is usually cheaper than trying it yourself and getting it wrong for a year.

When not to put money into SEO

A little in reverse, because advice that nods at everything is not advice. There are 3 situations where we tell clients not to rush into an SEO contract, even with MONA.

One, you need orders within the month: SEO needs 3 to 6 months to build up and cannot save next week's sales. Paid ads fit better then, with SEO running alongside for the medium term. Two, your website is about to be torn down and rebuilt, or your business model is changing: if you change domain or structure after doing SEO, the work is wasted. Get the website right first, then do SEO. Three, your industry has very little search volume: if you sell specialized machines and only 50 people a month search for them nationwide, move the SEO money into direct sales and industry relationships. SEO is a tool, not a religion. Keep the money for now.

How to read an SEO quote without getting burned

With any quote, including ours, ask these 5 questions and the hidden part is exposed:

• What exactly do I get each month? Number of articles, number of optimized pages, number of links, and whether there is a report. The answer must be a countable list, not "comprehensive optimization".
• Where will the links be placed? Ask to see 5 sample sites where links will go. A whole network of unfamiliar sites with no real readers is a red flag.
• What is the commitment based on, and what happens if it falls short? A guarantee of #1 in 30 days for a competitive keyword is the promise of someone about to disappear.
• Who will work on my project? Meet the people who will actually do the work, not just the salesperson. Ask which keyword cluster they plan to go after first and why.
• When the contract ends, what do I keep? The content, admin access and tracking data must belong to you. Good SEO leaves you with assets, not dependence.

Frequently asked questions about SEO cost

How long does SEO take to show results?

Easy keywords start moving after 2 to 3 months, and competitive clusters need 6 to 12 months. The Ahrefs study at the start of this article shows only 5.7% of pages reach the top 10 in the first year, so a proper SEO plan is always drawn up by quarter, with checkpoints along the way.

Can cheap SEO services be trusted?

Yes, if the scope of work is stated clearly and you accept slower progress. A niche website with little competition can still get results on a low budget, just more slowly. What to fear is a low price paired with a big promise.

Does SEO cost include article writing?

Each plan differs, and this is where you need to ask. MONA's SEO plans already include SEO-standard article writing. Many other price lists charge for writing separately, and you need to add it to get the real total.

Is SEO a one-time job or an ongoing cost?

The technical foundation is done once and the framework is finished. Content and links are a long race against competitors, and if you stop feeding them your rankings slip within a few months. A website that has reached a stable top position moves to a maintenance plan that costs less than the attack phase.

Is a guaranteed Google #1 real?

Nobody controls Google, not even someone with 10 years of SEO. There is no magic. A proper commitment is for a group of keywords to reach the top 10 within a time frame, with terms for what happens if it falls short. If you hear "guaranteed #1 for every keyword", keep your wallet and walk away.

Bottom line: buying SEO means buying a scope of work, not a promise

By now you have the logic of SEO cost: the money splits into 4 blocks of work, prices differ because of scope and commitments, harder industries cost more, and an unusually low price always cuts where you can't see. What to do in the next 7 days: write down the 10 keywords you want customers to type to find you, then use the 5 questions above on every quote you get, from SEO company any provider. It takes about 30 minutes. Whoever answers all 5 smoothly is doing real work.

If you want a number that fits your website and your industry, call us on 1900 636 648. Tell us what you sell and where you stand on Google, and we will send a quote that lists every item, as this article has just broken down. If you sign, we deliver at exactly that price to the end. If you don't, you still have a benchmark for shopping around. Now that you understand SEO cost, don't let anyone sell you a packaged promise.