GoMarty ConsultingHow much does SEO cost in South Africa?
If you've asked this question, you've already discovered the annoying truth: nobody publishes a straight answer. Agencies say "it depends" and then quote you somewhere between a used laptop and a used car. So here's the honest landscape — what things actually cost, and why.
The real price ranges (2026)
| What you're buying | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Once-off agency SEO audit | R3,000 – R15,000 |
| Monthly SEO retainer (agency) | R5,000 – R30,000+ /month |
| Freelance SEO (monthly or hourly) | R1,500 – R8,000 /month |
| "Cheap SEO" package (R500/month specials) | Usually worthless — avoid |
| GoMarty full website audit | R695 once-off |
| GoMarty free scan | R0 — no account needed |
Why agencies charge thousands for an audit
A traditional audit is a senior person spending hours crawling your site, checking your search visibility, testing speed, reviewing security basics, and writing it up. The work is real — but a large part of it is mechanical checks that software does better, faster, and without a consultant's day rate attached.
That's the honest split: the checking should be automated; the judgement shouldn't be. GoMarty automates the checking (dozens of probes: security exposure, Google readiness, speed, mobile, email spoofing protection) and keeps the judgement human — every report is written in plain language, for business owners, not developers.
What a R695 GoMarty audit actually includes
- A crawl of up to 50 pages of your site — not just the homepage
- Security checks: exposed files, open admin panels, certificate health, email-spoofing protection (SPF/DMARC)
- Google visibility: titles, descriptions, sitemaps, structured data, indexing basics
- Speed and mobile readiness, with the numbers that matter
- A single GoMarty Score out of 100 you can track over time
- Step-by-step fix instructions for every finding in the PDF report
- A free re-audit within 30 days — fix things, then prove the fixes worked. Two audits for one price: the benchmark and the results.
Do you even need an audit?
Maybe not. That's why the free scan exists: run it on your site right now — takes under a minute, no signup. If it comes back clean, spend your money elsewhere with our blessing. If it doesn't, you'll know exactly what's wrong before you pay anyone anything.
And if you're mid-conversation with an agency quoting R5,000 for an audit? Run the free scan first. Walk into that meeting knowing your own site's condition. It's remarkable how the quote changes when you do.
Scan your website free — under a minute, no account.
Then decide if the R695 full audit is worth it. Spoiler: it includes a second audit free.
Free website scan →More straight answers: Why Google says your website is "Not Secure" · Facebook page vs website · All guides →