An agency sells you hours.
Ranki sells you pages.
A retainer buys you a strategist, a monthly call and a report. Some of it is genuinely valuable and some of it is the meeting about the work. Ranki removes the meeting and keeps the output.
Plans from $197/mo. No lock-in contract.
What a good agency is genuinely good at
Judgement. A senior strategist who knows your industry will spot things no automated system will, especially when your market is unusual or your business is complicated.
Breadth. Technical fixes, site migrations, digital PR, paid search and design all under one roof, which matters when a project is bigger than content.
A person to ring. For some businesses that relationship is worth the premium on its own, and we would not pretend otherwise.
Side by side
What each one actually does for you, in the same words you would use yourself.
| An SEO agency | Ranki | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | Usually a four figure retainer | From $197 a month |
| What arrives | Strategy, a report and some content | Finished pages published on your site |
| Your time | Onboarding, monthly calls, approvals | Onboarding once, then nothing |
| Speed to first page live | Often weeks of setup first | Publishing within days |
| Contract | Commonly a minimum term | No lock-in, cancel any time |
| Reporting | A monthly deck or PDF | A live dashboard and a plain English email |
| Lead proof | Usually traffic and rankings | The calls and forms each page produced |
| Best for | Complex or competitive projects | Steady content that keeps compounding |
Which one is right for you
Pick an agency if
- Your market is fiercely competitive and needs a bespoke strategy
- You need technical work, a migration or digital PR, not just content
- You want a named person you can call and meet
- You have the budget for a retainer and the time for the meetings
Pick Ranki if
- You want the content produced without a monthly call about the content
- A four figure retainer is more than the job is worth to you right now
- You have been burned by a report that never turned into pages
- You want to see which page produced the enquiry, in your own dashboard
What Ranki costs
One monthly price, everything included. Cancel any time.
Growth
- 20 articles written and published a month
- 25 keywords tracked weekly
- Posted to your social channels
Pro
- 30 articles written and published a month
- 50 keywords tracked weekly
- Posted to your social channels
- Older pages rewritten when they stall
- Competitor gap analysis
- Quarterly strategy review
Questions people ask first
Is Ranki cheaper than an SEO agency?
Usually by a wide margin. Plans start at $197 a month with the writing, images, publishing, rank tracking and reporting included, where most agency retainers in Australia start well into four figures.
What do I lose by not having an agency?
Human judgement on an unusual problem, and someone to sit in a meeting with. If your project needs a migration, a technical rebuild or digital PR, an agency is the right call and we will say so.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. There is no minimum term and you can cancel any time, which is deliberately different from how most retainers work.
Can an agency use Ranki for its own clients?
Yes, and a lot do. Agencies run Ranki for their clients so content goes out for every one of them without growing the team, and branding arrangements are agreed with us directly. The partner page has the terms.