SEO agency London: the 10 best agencies with a real London office
We compared more than 40 agencies in London on their offices, prices, case studies and reviews. Ten made the list, and every one of them gives a London office address we could check.
The short answer, by profile:
- A growing consumer brand that wants an agency doing SEO only, with no lock-in contract: StudioHawk, in Shoreditch.
- A B2B or professional services firm that wants SEO, AI search and paid search in one team: Passion Digital, in Holborn.
- SEO and digital PR (getting journalists to cover your brand, so news sites link back to you) from one team, on a rolling monthly contract: Go Up, on Old Street.
- An online shop with at least £10,000 a month to spend: Re:signal, which does nothing but e-commerce.
- A local or service business that wants a fixed package: Ignite SEO London, from £950 a month.
- SEO and paid search planned together, with a price range before the first meeting: Found, retainers from £4,000 a month.
The other four (ClickSlice, Rise at Seven, Kaizen and Bird Marketing) suit narrower profiles: the table and the "By profile" section tell you which.
Every agency on this list gives a London office address on its own website, not a registered-office address shared with thousands of other companies. That sounds like a low bar. It isn't. Two of the top ten Google results for "seo agency london", Ink Digital and First Place SEO, work from Brentwood in Essex and Henlow in Bedfordshire. The first result gives a Covent Garden address that more than 88,000 companies use as their registered office.
We compared more than 40 agencies, the names any search for an SEO company in London puts in front of you. We looked at four things: where their team actually is, what they publish about prices and contracts, the case studies they put their name to, and what their clients say. The ten best are scored below on five criteria, on the same scale for every agency, and each score names the fact behind it.
The ranking can't be bought: a sponsored place is always labelled as such, and no link is an affiliate link. No Hack'celeration agency is ranked. The scores are ours, calculated on five criteria.
The 10 best London agencies, compared
The full ranking in one table. The price column shows what each agency publishes on its own site, in pounds; "On request" means it publishes no fee. The London office column is our proof of presence: the office address the agency gives on its own website. Click a name to read its profile, including who it is not for.
| Best for | London office | Ideal client | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | StudioHawk | Best pure SEO specialist for growing consumer brands | New Inn Yard, EC2A | 4.2/5 | On request | Growing D2C and retail brands | Visit → |
| 2 | Passion Digital | Best for B2B and professional services firms | Holborn Tower, WC1V | 4.0/5 | On request | B2B and professional services | Visit → |
| 3 | Go Up | Best for SEO and digital PR on a rolling contract | Old Street, EC1V | 4.0/5 | On request | SMEs and scale-ups | Visit → |
| 4 | Re:signal | Best for e-commerce brands with a large budget | Eastbourne Terrace, W2 | 4.0/5 | From £10,000/month | Large e-commerce brands | Visit → |
| 5 | Ignite SEO London | Best for local businesses that want a fixed package | Chelsea, SW3 | 3.9/5 | From £950/month (local) | Local and service businesses | Visit → |
| 6 | ClickSlice | Best for Shopify stores that refuse long contracts | Hoxton, E2 | 3.8/5 | On request | Mid-sized online shops | Visit → |
| 7 | Found | Best for SEO, paid media and data under one roof | Hatton Garden, EC1N | 3.8/5 | Retainers from £4,000/month | Mid-sized and large brands | Visit → |
| 8 | Rise at Seven | Best for national consumer brands | Bevis Marks, EC3A | 3.7/5 | On request | National consumer brands | Visit → |
| 9 | Kaizen | Best for digital PR and AI search | Scrutton Street, EC2A | 3.6/5 | On request | Brands that want press coverage and AI visibility | Visit → |
| 10 | Bird Marketing | Best for SEO, PPC and a website from one supplier | Austin Friars, EC2N | 3.6/5 | On request | SMEs wanting one supplier | Visit → |
Prices are as each agency publishes them; only Go Up says its fee is ex VAT. Our scores average five criteria, each on one scale for every agency: independent reviews, named SEO cases with figures, what the site publishes, SEO focus, and team size, support and London presence. A tie goes to the better track record, then the better reviews.
Is your agency missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
StudioHawk
StudioHawk is an SEO-only agency founded in Australia, whose UK arm was set up in 2019. Its London office, with 10 to 15 people, is at Protein Studios, 31 New Inn Yard, in Shoreditch (EC2A); the group is headquartered in Prahran, Melbourne, and says it has more than 120 SEO specialists. Its services are all search: technical SEO (how fast, well built and easy to index your site is for Google), on-page SEO, content, digital PR and link building (earning links from other websites), CRO (conversion rate optimisation: turning more visitors into buyers), AI search, local and enterprise SEO, migrations, and Shopify and WordPress SEO. It lists fashion, beauty, retail, legal, property, SaaS, B2B and healthcare among its industries.
No agency on this page publishes more named results. Coffee brand GRIND grew organic search revenue by 386% over two years, PRESS Healthfoods by 529%, and fashion label Damson Madder saw clicks to its product pages rise 558%. Closer to home, London Hearing Specialists got 78% more earwax removal bookings year on year, a useful local example. There are no account managers: you deal directly with the SEO specialists, who send reports every two weeks or every month, and its FAQ says it doesn't do lock-in contracts. Reviews are the soft spot: 4.8 on Clutch, but from 6 reviews on the group's global profile. It publishes no price; each proposal is built on your budget and your site.
- GRIND: +386% organic search revenue over two years
- PRESS Healthfoods: +529% organic revenue over two years
- Damson Madder: +558% clicks to product pages
- London Hearing Specialists: +78% bookings year on year
- ✓Does SEO only, so your budget isn't split with ads or social
- ✓The longest list of named, numbered results on this page
- ✓Direct access to the specialists doing the work, with reports every two weeks or every month
- ✓No lock-in contract, by its own FAQ
- ✗Group headquarters in Australia: London is one office among several
- ✗Only 6 Clutch reviews, on the global profile
- ✗No price published, and no minimum term beyond a no-lock-in promise: get the notice period in writing
Our top pick in London for a consumer brand that wants a pure SEO team, plenty of comparable results and no lock-in contract. Ask for the London team's own references, not only the group's.
Passion Digital
Passion Digital describes itself as a search-led performance marketing agency. It is part of Stellar, which it calls an AI-native performance network powered by Pixis AI, while keeping a single office of its own, on the 4th floor of Holborn Tower (WC1V). Founded in 2012, it has 10 to 49 people, 31 to 40 of them in that London office. Its SEO work covers technical, content, international, e-commerce and local SEO, audits and migrations, and it sells AI search as a service of its own: GEO (generative engine optimisation, getting your brand cited in AI answers), AI Overview optimisation and tracking of how language models mention you. Paid search, paid social, programmatic, Amazon ads and CRO complete the offer. It names B2B, professional services, travel, charities and e-commerce as its sectors.
Its case studies lean B2B. Cloud Gateway, a technology services firm, saw generic organic clicks rise 210% year on year, organic conversions 22.5% and paid search leads 425%. Law firm Shoosmiths won 15 featured snippets and 21 AI Overviews, Quintain Living saw 127% more traffic year on year on its optimised landing pages, Nutanix 60% more non-branded clicks, and Stashbee doubled generic traffic to its inner pages in one year. Each client gets a dedicated account manager, monthly reports and a quarterly business review. On Clutch, it has 4.7 from 33 reviews. It publishes no fee, but its contact form asks for a monthly budget in three brackets: under £3,000, £3,000 to £10,000, and more than £10,000.
- Cloud Gateway: +210% generic organic clicks and +425% paid search leads year on year
- Shoosmiths: 15 featured snippets and 21 AI Overviews won
- A dedicated account manager, monthly reports and quarterly business reviews
- AI search sold as its own service, with tracking of how AI models mention you
- ✓Strong in B2B and professional services, with law and property references
- ✓SEO and paid search in the same team, judged on the same numbers
- ✓One office, in central London, with most of its people there
- ✗No published fee or minimum term
- ✗Paid media weighs as much as SEO: check who leads your organic work
- ✗Few consumer e-commerce references next to Re:signal or StudioHawk
- ✗Part of a wider network (Stellar): ask which decisions stay with the London team
The pick for a B2B or professional services firm that wants organic, AI and paid search planned by one team in central London. For a consumer brand that only wants SEO, StudioHawk is the closer fit.
Go Up
Go Up has its London office at 20 Old Street (EC1V) and a second one in Los Angeles. Founded in 2011, it has between 10 and 49 people, 21 to 30 of them in London, and puts SEO first: technical SEO and audits, site migrations, link building, AI search, digital PR, online reputation and PPC (pay-per-click ads). It works with fashion, fintech, food and drink, health, legal, property, recruitment and SaaS businesses.
Its homepage carries more hard numbers than most agencies on this list. Pasta Evangelists grew organic traffic by 444% and had 831% more first-page keyword rankings in one year. Trade Nation won 24,789 new paying customers from organic search in 12 months, No.1 Living saw 143% more organic sessions year on year, Banham 95% growth in non-branded organic traffic, and Hackett London 60% growth in organic revenue. Go Up also does something rare in this market: it writes its terms down. Contracts roll monthly, the notice period is two full working months, you can pause for less than three months, and its in-house strategy, PR, content and UX teams handle roughly 95 to 99% of the work. The rest goes to a small network of former staff, and it says so on its pricing page.
- Rolling monthly contracts, with the notice period (two full working months) published
- Pasta Evangelists: +444% organic traffic and +831% first-page rankings in a year
- Trade Nation: 24,789 new paying customers from organic search in 12 months
- States that 95 to 99% of the work stays with its own teams
- ✓SEO and digital PR in the same team, so content and press coverage pull in the same direction
- ✓Results published with client names and real numbers
- ✓Clear rules on notice, pauses and subcontracting before you sign
- ✗No fee published: you only learn the price after a scoping call
- ✗Only 7 reviews on Clutch, few for an agency founded in 2011
- ✗Two full working months' notice is longer than a true month-to-month deal
The pick for a growing business that wants SEO and digital PR from one team, with proof before it signs and freedom after. If you need a price before the first call, Found and Ignite SEO London publish theirs.
Re:signal
Re:signal does one thing: search for e-commerce brands. It calls itself a global e-commerce SEO and GEO agency, working on getting your brand and products found in Google, Amazon and in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers. Its services cover classic search (strategy, technical, content, digital PR), retail search (Google Shopping and Amazon), AI search and social search. Founded in 2012, formerly BlueGlass Interactive UK, it has 10 to 49 people and offices in London, Manchester and Los Angeles. The London office, on Eastbourne Terrace in W2, is also its registered office, and 21 to 30 of its people are based there.
Its references are big names with big numbers: ASICS grew organic revenue twentyfold, FatFace saw a 96% increase in organic revenue, Vivobarefoot made £2.76m in sales and Loop Earplugs grew 990%. Under Armour, Ocado and N Brown sit among its logos, and it counts 91 search awards. The catch is the entry ticket: Re:signal says its typical engagements begin at £10,000 a month. It also calls itself a remote agency, so ask whether the people on your account work from the W2 office or from home, and how often you'll meet them in person.
- E-commerce only: Google Shopping, Amazon and AI search on top of classic SEO
- ASICS: organic revenue up twentyfold; FatFace: +96% organic revenue
- Winner of 91 search awards
- Entry price published: from £10,000 a month
- ✓The deepest e-commerce specialism on this list
- ✓Publishes its entry price, which saves you a pointless call
- ✓Covers Amazon and Google Shopping, which most SEO agencies leave to someone else
- ✗£10,000 a month to start rules out most SMEs
- ✗It calls itself a remote agency: ask how often your team actually works from W2
- ✗Only 4 client reviews on Clutch, and contract terms not published
The specialist to call if you run a retail brand with a serious catalogue and a serious budget. Below £10,000 a month, StudioHawk and ClickSlice are the e-commerce options on this list.
Ignite SEO London
Ignite SEO London works from 49 Stewart's Grove in Chelsea (SW3), the address on its site, which Clutch also gives as its head office. The company dates from 2020, though it says it has spent over a decade on local SEO campaigns. It lists 10 to 49 people, with 2 to 5 in London and 6 to 9 in a second office in Coventry. Its registered office is a shared Covent Garden address, so Companies House shows a different address from its website. Beyond its own site and Clutch, we found nothing that shows the Chelsea address as an office (no photo, no job advert naming it): ask to meet there before you sign. It covers local, national and e-commerce SEO, consultancy, link building, training and white label SEO (work done for other agencies and sold under their name).
Its packages form one of the clearest price ladders on this list, and it says what each one covers. Local SEO costs £500 as a one-off or £950 a month, for Google Business Profile optimisation, citations (consistent listings of your business in directories) and review management. SEO Sprints start at £2,500 a month, for technical fixes, content strategy and link building, and bespoke SEO at £7,500 a month. Reviews are good but dated: 4.9 on Clutch from 7 and 4.7 on Trustpilot from 31, where only one review came in over the last twelve months. Its homepage shows Fleet Evolution, with traffic up 230% within three months, and a testimonial from Empire Van Hire reporting a return of £450,000 on £1,000 a month. Your IT Department, an IT company, reports 58% more leads in a review on Clutch. Skip the directory award on its homepage: a badge handed out by a directory proves nothing about your results.
- A three-step price ladder, from £950 to £7,500 a month
- Local package spelled out: Google Business Profile, citations, review management
- Fleet Evolution: +230% traffic within three months
- Offers SEO training and white label SEO for other agencies
- ✓You can compare its packages with other quotes on day one
- ✓Says what each package covers, not just what it costs
- ✓A one-off local SEO option at £500 for very small budgets
- ✗A company founded in 2020, with few large-brand references
- ✗A London office of 2 to 5 people, with a larger team in Coventry: ask who will run your account
- ✗Few recent reviews on Trustpilot
The best value for a London business that lives on local searches and wants to know the price before the call. For an online shop, StudioHawk or ClickSlice go deeper on e-commerce.
ClickSlice
ClickSlice calls itself an SEO agency in London and works mostly for online shops, from Studio 10, Shoreditch Stables, 138 Kingsland Road, in Hoxton (E2). Founded in 2017, it has 10 to 49 people, who work across the UK and Europe, 6 to 9 of them in London. Its registered office is the shared Shelton Street address in Covent Garden, but the Hoxton studio is the one it lists on its own site. It handles e-commerce and Shopify SEO, Google Ads and Shopping, LinkedIn Ads, digital PR, CRO and GEO, and promises detailed monthly reports, weekly updates, a campaign dashboard and quarterly reviews.
Its best-known result is Dino Decking, with organic traffic up 501%. Honeypot Furniture now outranks DFS and Sofology on its searches, and Humax, a consumer electronics brand, reports in an older Clutch review a 243% rise in visitors to one product page, its Freeview page. ClickSlice also says it is the only SEO agency in London hired by the UK government, to train its digital teams. On contracts, it says it never ties you in and won't ask you to sign a 6- or 12-month agreement: get the minimum term written into your proposal anyway. Reviews are mixed. It has 5.0 on Clutch from 9, but 4.0 on Trustpilot from 21, none in the last twelve months, where 14% are one-star, with complaints about results, billing and access to reports (the agency replies to them).
- Dino Decking: +501% organic traffic
- Honeypot Furniture outranking DFS and Sofology
- SEO training for the UK government, by its own account
- 5.0 on Clutch from 9 reviews
- ✓Built for online shops, with Shopping ads and CRO in the same team
- ✓No long contract on offer, by its own pitch
- ✓A studio in Hoxton for meetings
- ✗No price published
- ✗14% one-star reviews on Trustpilot, about results, billing and reporting
- ✗A team spread across the UK and Europe
A good fit for an online shop that wants SEO and Shopping ads together without being locked in. Ask to see a sample monthly report before you sign: that's where the complaints come from.
Found
Found has been around longer than anyone else on this list. It started in 2005 as Artemis Eight and became Found in 2010. Its London office is in the Johnson Building at 77 Hatton Garden (EC1N), with a second office in New York, and it counts more than 90 marketing people, most of them in London. It calls itself an AI-first "Everysearch" agency: SEO is one of a dozen services, next to paid media, paid social, digital PR, data, creative and CRO. Its SEO offer covers AI SEO and GEO, technical, e-commerce and international SEO, and migrations. It holds ISO 27001 (the information security standard that large clients' procurement teams often ask for) and has won at the UK Digital Excellence Awards.
Found is one of the few London agencies to publish its prices. Bespoke SEO projects typically start at £3,000, ongoing retainers (a fixed monthly fee for continuous work) usually range from £4,000 to £12,000 a month, and large accounts can pass £20,000. For that, it promises a dedicated account team with one point of contact, monthly reports and quarterly business reviews. Its published SEO case study for AllClear shows 292% more non-branded visibility and 50% more organic transactions. Clients include Go City, Puma, The Hoxton, Bonmarché, Clermont Hotel Group and Many Pets. Social proof is thinner: its SEO page shows 4.8 on Google from only 12 reviews and a The Drum "Recommended Agency" badge scored 8.1, and its Clutch profile has no reviews.
- Price ranges published: projects from £3,000, retainers £4,000 to £12,000 a month
- A retainer includes a dedicated account team, monthly reports and quarterly business reviews
- ISO 27001 certified, useful if your security team vets suppliers
- AllClear: +292% non-branded visibility and +50% organic transactions
- ✓SEO, paid search, paid social and data in one team, so budgets are compared on the same numbers
- ✓A price range before the first meeting
- ✓Hospitality and retail references (The Hoxton, Clermont Hotel Group, Puma)
- ✗Retainers start around £4,000 a month: too much for most small businesses
- ✗Only 12 Google reviews and none on Clutch, few for an agency of 90+ people
- ✗Minimum term not published: ask for it in writing
A safe pair of hands for a brand that wants organic and paid search planned together, with a budget range it can take to the board. Under £4,000 a month, look at Ignite SEO London.
Rise at Seven
Rise at Seven sells "search-first content marketing": search strategy, SEO, digital PR in several countries and social search (being found when people search inside TikTok, Instagram or YouTube rather than Google). Founded in 2019, it has 50 to 249 people. Its website lists three offices: Manchester, London (6 Bevis Marks, EC3A) and New York. Clutch also lists a Sheffield head office, its largest team, and puts 16 to 20 people in London; its registered office at Companies House is the Manchester one. It counts 79 awards on its About page.
Its client list is mostly consumer brands. SIXT got an extra 3 million clicks regionally through SEO, JD Sports 65% more clicks year on year across France, Italy and Spain, and Magnet Trade, on the B2B side, a 170%+ increase from a full-service SEO campaign. Its SEO page adds BetUS (more than 950,000 clicks), Nationwide Vehicle Contracts (more than £45,000 extra monthly revenue from organic search) and Ninja (first position for the leading air fryer category). Parkdean Resorts, Revolution Beauty and Dojo complete the list. What you won't find is a price, a contract term or a public client review with a score. Its Clutch profile lists a minimum project of $10,000. That isn't unusual for an agency of this size, but it means you judge Rise at Seven almost entirely on its case studies, so ask for references you can call.
- SIXT: an extra 3 million clicks regionally through SEO
- JD Sports: 65% more clicks year on year in France, Italy and Spain
- 79 awards, on its About page
- Digital PR run in several countries at once
- ✓Creates demand with content and PR, not only rankings on searches that already exist
- ✓Proven on big consumer brands and on several markets
- ✓A large team of 50 to 249 people
- ✗No published price, contract term or scored public reviews
- ✗London is one office among several, with 16 to 20 people: ask which team runs your account
- ✗Built for big budgets, not for SMEs
The pick for a national or international consumer brand that wants to be talked about, not just ranked. For a B2B company, Go Up or Passion Digital fit better.
Kaizen
Kaizen calls itself an award-winning AI SEO agency. Its head office is on the 3rd floor of Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, in Shoreditch (EC2A), with a creative hub in Manchester, and it counts a team of more than 40. Its services are SEO (technical, international and local), digital PR, GEO and AI search, and social. Clients on its site include Reebok, Aqua, Capital on Tap, Peldon Rose and Mogo Farm. It offers a free performance audit as a first step, sets out its method in five stages, gives each client a dedicated account manager and live dashboards, and says SEO typically takes 4 to 6 months to show measurable results.
Its case studies are among the most detailed on this page. For Reebok, a digital PR campaign won 130 pieces of coverage across five markets, a 64% rise in traffic for related keywords and £82,800 in incremental revenue from better rankings. For Mogo Farm, a health and wellness brand, traffic from AI assistants rose 942%, organic clicks 508% and appearances in Google's AI Overviews 280%. What you won't find is a price, a contract term or a public client review with a score, so ask for references you can call and for the minimum term in writing.
- Reebok: 130 pieces of coverage across five markets and £82,800 in incremental revenue
- Mogo Farm: +942% traffic from AI assistants and +280% AI Overview appearances
- Digital PR and GEO as core services, not add-ons
- A free performance audit before any proposal
- ✓One of the strongest digital PR records on this page
- ✓Measured results on AI search, not just promises
- ✓A Shoreditch office for meetings
- ✗No published price or contract term
- ✗No scored public reviews to check
- ✗Less suited to a site that mainly needs technical work
The specialist to call if you want journalists and AI answers to mention your brand. If you want prices and terms before the first call, Found or Ignite SEO London publish theirs.
Bird Marketing
Bird Marketing lists its London office at 13 Austin Friars, in the City (EC2N), and Clutch makes London its head office. Its website lists two other offices, in Billericay (Essex) and Glasgow, plus versions of the site for the UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore. Its registered office at Companies House is a different London address, on Old Gloucester Street, that thousands of companies share; the City office is the one it gives for London. Beyond its own site and Clutch, we found no photo of that office and no job advert naming it, only a press headline on its site about new London premises: ask to meet there before you sign. Clutch says it was founded in 2010, while the company on the register dates from 2012, under another name. It has 10 to 49 people and is a full-service agency: SEO, PPC, social media and websites.
Its reviews are the best on this page: 5.0 on Clutch from 75 reviews and 4.9 on Trustpilot from 109. That's why it makes the list. The badges on its homepage (Trustpilot, Google, GoodFirms and Clutch) show lower review counts than the platforms themselves, 65 on Clutch for instance, so read the reviews at the source. What holds it back is proof of results: its case studies page shows no figures.
- 5.0 on Clutch from 75 reviews
- 4.9 on Trustpilot from 109 reviews
- SEO, PPC, social media and websites in one agency
- A City office at 13 Austin Friars
- ✓The largest volume of client reviews on this page
- ✓One supplier for search, ads and your website
- ✓A City office for meetings
- ✗A generalist more than an SEO specialist
- ✗No figures on its case studies page
- ✗Teams in Essex and Glasgow too: ask which one runs your account
The safe choice for an SME that wants one supplier and trusts other clients' word. If SEO is your main channel, a specialist higher up this list will go deeper.
Which agency for your business?
By budget and company size
- Under £1,000 a month: you're in the world of local packages and very small teams. Ignite SEO London's local SEO (£500 one-off or £950 a month) is the most solid option on this list. Below that, a freelance consultant for a one-off audit will often serve you better than a monthly retainer you can barely afford, and the right tools do part of the job: see the best SEO tools for local businesses.
- Local or service business (a clinic, a law firm, a trade with one or a few sites): Ignite SEO London. Your rankings depend on Google Maps, your reviews and your local pages, and its local package covers exactly those.
- Growing SME, £2,500 to £7,500 a month: StudioHawk if you want SEO only with no lock-in contract, Passion Digital if you sell B2B, Go Up if you want SEO and digital PR together on a rolling contract, Ignite's SEO Sprints (from £2,500) for a fixed scope, Found from £4,000 if paid search is part of the plan.
- SME that wants one supplier for everything: Bird Marketing covers SEO, PPC, social media and the website. If SEO is your main channel, a specialist such as StudioHawk will go deeper.
- Scale-up with a sales team: Go Up, which lists SaaS and fintech among its sectors and publishes named results (Trade Nation's 24,789 new paying customers in 12 months, for one), or Passion Digital for B2B services and technology.
- National or international brand, £10,000+ a month: Rise at Seven for consumer brands that want to create demand, Re:signal for retailers, Found if organic and paid search have to be planned together, Kaizen if press coverage and AI answers come first.
By sector
- E-commerce and retail: Re:signal above £10,000 a month (ASICS, FatFace, Vivobarefoot), StudioHawk for growing D2C brands (GRIND, Damson Madder), ClickSlice for Shopify stores (Dino Decking, Honeypot Furniture). To compare the tools your agency will use, see the best SEO tools for e-commerce.
- B2B SaaS and technology: Passion Digital has Cloud Gateway and Nutanix, and Go Up lists SaaS among its eight sectors. No agency on this list works only for software companies, so ask for case studies in software before you sign.
- Legal and professional services: Passion Digital (Shoosmiths) and Go Up, which names legal among its sectors. For a single-office firm that mostly needs local searches, Ignite's packages cost less.
- Property and finance: Passion Digital (Octopus Investments in SEO, Knight Frank in paid media), Go Up (Tide, Zilch, Trade Nation, and property among its sectors).
- Hospitality, leisure and food: Found (The Hoxton, Clermont Hotel Group), Go Up (Pasta Evangelists), Rise at Seven (Parkdean Resorts) and StudioHawk (GRIND, PRESS Healthfoods).
- Fashion, beauty and consumer brands: Rise at Seven (JD Sports, Revolution Beauty), StudioHawk (Damson Madder, RIXO), Kaizen (Reebok), Go Up (Hackett London).
An SEO agency in London or a remote one?
A London office doesn't make an agency better at SEO. Google ranks your site the same way whether your agency sits in Shoreditch or in Sheffield. What a London office gives you is easier meetings, people who know the local market, and an address you can check. Here is what an agency does for you each month, what SEO costs in the capital and what each price buys, how an agency compares with an in-house hire, what we look at before trusting a London address, and the questions to ask before you sign.
What an SEO agency does for you each month
What SEO costs in London
What each tier actually buys
Agency, freelancer or in-house hire?
When a London office really matters
Check that the address is real
Why some names you'll see on Google aren't here
Find out who actually does the work
Contract, notice and setup fees
Keep your accounts and your data
- "Show me three projects like mine, with the numbers before and after."
- "Who will do the work day to day, where are they based, and what share is subcontracted?"
- "What results do you expect, and in what timeframe?" Walk away from anyone who guarantees a #1 position.
- "What is the minimum term, the notice period, and is there a setup fee?"
- "Who owns the accounts, the content and the links if we stop working together?"
- "What will the monthly report show?" You want the raw data, a log of every change and the plan for next month.
Hiring an agency in London: FAQ
How much does an SEO agency in London cost?
From £950 a month for a local package (or £500 as a one-off) to more than £20,000 for a large account, and inside that fee you are buying hours: the agencies on this page that show an hourly rate on Clutch list $100 to $199, roughly £75 to £150. Most London agencies sell a monthly retainer rather than hours, so the hourly rate is the figure that makes two quotes comparable. Divide the monthly fee by the rate in the proposal and you know roughly how many hours of work you get each month. Our tip: ask for that number in writing, along with who does those hours, a senior strategist or a junior executive.How do I choose the right SEO agency?
Start from your profile, then check three things: proof, people and terms. Proof means case studies with client names and numbers, ideally in a business like yours. People means knowing who does the work and where they are. Terms means the minimum term, the notice period and who owns your accounts. Then ask two or three agencies for a proposal on the same brief. How they read your site in the first call tells you more than any award badge: a good agency points to concrete problems before it talks about price.How long does SEO take to work?
Count on three to six months before clear movement, and longer on competitive London searches. Go Up, for one, sets its KPIs in the fourth month of a campaign at the earliest, because the first months go on audits and fixes. A technical fix on a large site can show within weeks, while ranking a new site against established competitors takes much longer. The case studies on this page show the range: Ignite reports Fleet Evolution's 230% traffic gain within three months, while StudioHawk measures GRIND's 386% revenue growth over two years.Is a cheap SEO package in London worth it?
It can be, for a local business, if you know what's in it. Ignite SEO London's local package, the cheapest fixed fee on this page, costs £950 a month or £500 as a one-off, and covers your Google Business Profile, local citations and review management. That's enough for a shop or a clinic, not for a national site. The risk is paying for activity rather than results: on a UK business forum, a small firm paying £500 a month on a six-month contract found, three months in, that only keyword and competitor research and a little on-page work had been done. Ask for the monthly deliverables in writing before you sign.Can an SEO agency guarantee first-page rankings?
No. Nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, because nobody outside Google controls its results. An agency that guarantees a position is a reason to look elsewhere. What a serious agency can commit to is the work: the audit, the fixes, the content, the links, and a report on what moved. Watch out for guarantees on obscure phrases nobody searches for: they're easy to hit and bring you no customers.Can I switch SEO agency without losing my rankings?
Yes, as long as your site, your domain and your accounts are in your name. Rankings belong to your site, not to the agency: the pages, the content and most of the links you earned stay when the contract ends. What you can lose is work in progress, the history kept in the agency's own tools, and links bought from networks the agency controls, which can disappear when you leave. Before you give notice, export the reports, the list of links built and your keyword tracking, take back admin access to Search Console, Analytics and Google Ads, and check your notice period (Go Up's, for one, is two full working months). Then give the new agency a month's overlap, so nothing on the site changes without someone watching.What's the difference between an SEO agency and a digital PR agency in London?
An SEO agency works on your site (technical fixes, content, structure) and earns links; a digital PR agency gets journalists to write about you, which brings links and searches for your brand. In London the two often sit under one roof: Kaizen won 130 pieces of coverage across five markets for Reebok, Rise at Seven runs digital PR in several countries, and Go Up has SEO and PR in the same team. If your site has technical problems, PR won't fix them; if your site is sound but nobody links to it, PR is often the quicker lever. Ask what share of your fee goes on PR campaigns and what share on work on your site.What should an SEO agency report every month?
The data, the changes and the next steps. You want access to the raw data in your own Search Console and Analytics, a log of every change made to your site, the links earned with their addresses, and the plan for next month. At the higher end, expect more than a report: Found, for one, adds quarterly business reviews to its monthly reports. Missing reports are the first warning sign in the complaints we read, so ask to see a real sample report, with the client's name hidden, before you sign.How should I judge an AI search or GEO proposal?
As an experiment, with its own budget and its own measure. GEO (getting your brand cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI answers) is still young, but London agencies now publish numbers on it: Kaizen reports 942% more traffic from AI assistants for Mogo Farm, and Passion Digital 21 AI Overviews won for Shoosmiths. Ask how they'll measure it for you, for instance the share of AI answers on your topics that mention you, checked before the work starts and every month after. You can check it yourself too: see our comparison of AI visibility tools. Keep that budget separate from classic SEO, so that one can't hide the other's results.