SEO · 28 August 2026
What SEO actually costs in Sri Lanka
Published price bands, what sits behind them, and how to tell when a quote is too low to work.
Most agencies here will not publish pricing, which makes it hard to know whether a quote is reasonable. Here is a straight answer.
The bands
A single-location local business generally starts around LKR 50,000 per month. That covers a technical audit and fixes, Google Business Profile work, a modest keyword set and monthly reporting.
Competitive work — more keywords, link building, content production — generally starts around LKR 75,000 per month.
International targeting, multi-location or high-competition sectors start around LKR 150,000 per month and go up from there.
Why very low quotes usually fail
SEO is time. If someone quotes LKR 10,000 per month, work out how many hours that buys at any reasonable rate. The answer is two or three. What tends to fill those hours is automated directory submissions and spun content, both of which are liabilities that surface about a year later.
That does not mean cheap is always wrong. It means you should ask what specifically will be done each month, and be able to check afterwards that it was.
Questions worth asking anyone quoting you
- Who does the work each month, and can I contact them directly?
- Will Search Console and Analytics be under my own account?
- Where will links come from, specifically?
- What happens if rankings have not moved by month four?
- What is the minimum contract?
Vague answers to the third and fifth questions are the ones to worry about.
Written by Buddhika Kasun Karunathilaka, WireCabin (PVT) LTD. SEO services · More posts