A new SEO retainer typically runs $1,500–$10,000 per month in Canada, with the sweet spot for most businesses landing between $2,500 and $5,000. If you're a local service business in a mid-sized market like Ottawa or London, expect the lower end. If you're an e-commerce site competing nationally or a B2B company in Toronto going after high-value keywords, you'll be closer to $5,000–$8,000. Agencies charging under $1,000 per month usually can't deliver meaningful results because the math doesn't work—10 hours of strategist time at a sustainable hourly rate already puts you past that threshold. What drives the cost up or down: - Market competition: Ranking for "personal injury lawyer Toronto" costs more than "arborist Sudbury" because the SERP is harder and the client lifetime value justifies bigger budgets. - Scope of work: Technical audits and link outreach are less expensive than also producing 8–12 optimized blog posts per month. - Site size: A 50-page site needs less ongoing work than a 5,000-page e-commerce catalog. - Baseline health: If your site has major technical debt, penalties, or zero backlinks, the first few months require more intensive work. At Ottawa SEO Inc., we don't do one-size-fits-all retainers. We'll audit your site and competitive landscape first, then propose a monthly budget that matches the work required to move the needle. For a typical local business, that's usually $3,000–$4,000 per month covering technical maintenance, content optimization, and link acquisition. For portfolio sites or national campaigns, we scale up. One warning: agencies that quote a flat rate before seeing your site are either overcharging everyone or underdelivering to most. Retainer pricing should reflect the actual effort required to rank in your specific niche, not a number pulled from a pricing page template.