Insights · Scope & pricing · September 2026
What $1,800 a month can buy in SEO for a SaaS company
A monthly SEO budget needs to pay for completed work. If your marketing lead spends every Friday rewriting drafts and chasing someone to publish them, the retainer is only part of what the program costs you.
At around $1,800 a month, the useful question is which work the provider will finish and which work stays with your team. A large content allowance can help a company with a clear product and an existing website. It will solve a different problem from a site rebuild, specialist technical project or senior marketing hire.
Here is a concrete example using Shifter's Gear 1 plan, checked on 24 September 2026. This is our package, not a market average or a claim that every SaaS company needs it.
What the fee includes
Gear 1 costs $1,797 USD per month, before applicable taxes. Its recurring scope is:
| Work | Included cadence |
|---|---|
| Articles with supporting media | 30 per month |
| Backlinks | 3–5 per month; average DR/DA 35+ target |
| Brand mentions | 3–5 per month |
| AI visibility tracking | Up to 150 prompts |
| PR campaign | One per quarter |
| Website work and planning | One-site optimization, topic and buyer-question mapping |
| Working relationship | Dedicated strategist, weekly written updates and Slack access |
The quantities need a plan behind them. Each article should have a distinct reason to exist. Website work needs named priorities. Tracking needs agreed questions, countries and platforms so the report explains what was actually checked.
The PR campaign is quarterly; the article, backlink and brand-mention allowances are monthly. The current terms describe approved syndicated distribution and a coverage record; they do not promise independent journalist coverage. A backlink and a brand mention can come from the same placement, so the delivery record should show that overlap.
The DR/DA figure is a stated backlink target. Ask which scoring tool is being used and inspect the placement itself: who reads the page, why your company belongs there and where the link leads.
Read the visual as text
- Price: $1,797 USD per month, before applicable taxes. Offer checked 24 September 2026.
- Monthly scope: 30 articles with supporting media; 3-5 backlinks with target average DR/DA 35+; 3-5 brand mentions. A link and mention can share a placement; record overlap.
- Included ongoing work: 150 tracked AI visibility prompts, one-site optimization, topic and buyer-question mapping, a dedicated strategist, weekly written updates and Slack access.
- Quarterly: one PR campaign covering writing, approval, syndication, coverage reporting and a permanent media room.
- Optional, separately priced: website rebuild and migration, Visitor Identity, Authority Accelerator. Confirm selected scope and price before payment.
- Client inputs: accurate product facts and limitations, website access, a named approver and answers only the team can verify. Agree review responsibilities and time.
- Outputs and cadence do not establish traffic, revenue or ROI.
Does that scope match your bottleneck?
Consider a fictional SaaS team with an established website and a product manager who can explain the software accurately. Buyers repeatedly ask how it handles implementation, integrations and switching from a spreadsheet. The team has useful answers in demos, but little of that information reaches the website.
A recurring content and website program could turn those answers into pages buyers can use before a call. The product manager supplies facts and checks consequential claims; the provider handles the agreed research, writing, media and publication work. The first-month plan should name those handoffs.
Now change one fact: the company's website platform prevents the required pages from being published, and no developer can repair it. More drafts will accumulate behind the same obstacle. That team needs the technical work scoped first, even if a monthly content program follows later.
This is why “one-site optimization” deserves a conversation about the actual changes. Agree which pages or templates can be edited, who has access and which development tasks are outside the package. A broad service label cannot answer those questions for your particular site.
Budget for your team's contribution
Your provider needs someone who can confirm product capabilities, limitations, pricing and permission to use customer evidence. Assign that responsibility before production starts. The agency should own routine research and editing within its scope; your team should resolve facts only it can know.
Review an early batch together and record how much internal time it takes. If approval repeatedly turns into a rewrite, fix the brief, source material or review process before increasing the queue. The cost of an unfinished program includes the time you spend rescuing it.
The other dependency is access. Establish who can publish, approve website changes and correct an error. Confirm those permissions before increasing the article allowance.
Which costs sit outside the monthly plan?
A website rebuild and migration, Visitor Identity and the Authority Accelerator are separately priced options in Shifter's offer. They are not included in the $1,797 base fee. Check the current options against the work you need, and have any additional scope recorded before it starts.
The base Gear 1 plan runs month to month, with no standard onboarding fee. An expressly selected six-month commitment changes the term. The accepted order and current terms define the selection, taxes, cancellation and guarantees; use those documents when comparing the total commitment.
Decide how you will assess the spend
Start with delivery: reviewed pages, completed changes and verified placements. Then examine relevant search activity, AI observations and actual inquiries over comparable periods. More published URLs or AI mentions alone cannot tell you whether the service has paid for itself.
Shifter's first-month delivery guarantee and conditional traffic guarantee cover different commitments. Their remedies and eligibility conditions are in the terms; neither promises a particular amount of revenue.
Before choosing a plan, write down the work currently stuck, the help your team can supply and what would count as completion. Review Gear 1 against that list, or bring us the work your site needs.
FAQ
What does Shifter's Gear 1 plan include for $1,797 a month?
Each month: 30 articles with supporting media, 3–5 backlinks and 3–5 brand mentions. It also includes up to 150 tracked AI prompts, one PR campaign a quarter, one-site optimization with topic and buyer-question mapping, a dedicated strategist, weekly written updates and Slack access. It runs month to month.
What isn't included in the monthly fee?
A website rebuild and migration, Visitor Identity and the Authority Accelerator are separately priced options. Your team's time for product facts, approvals and website access also sits outside the fee.
How should I judge whether the spend is working?
Start with delivery: reviewed pages, completed changes and verified placements. Then compare relevant search activity, AI observations and actual inquiries across comparable periods. More published URLs or AI mentions alone don't show that the service has paid for itself.