SEO Agency Landscape 2026

This report describes the 781 SEO agencies listed on findseo, a directory that includes only agencies where SEO is a main service. It covers where they're based, which services they say they offer, when they were founded and how big they are. Every figure comes from facts the agencies publish on their own websites.

It's a snapshot of our directory, not a census of the SEO industry. We explain exactly what that means in the methodology and limitations sections. Please read those before quoting the numbers.

Key findings

• 781 agencies in 37 countries and 135 cities. The United States (195), United Kingdom (125) and Australia (114) account for just over half of all listings.
• Most SEO agencies offer much more than SEO. The median agency lists 6 of our 12 service categories. 83.9% also list paid media (Google Ads or social ads).
• Local SEO and link building are near-universal. 81.9% list local SEO and 81.2% link building. Specialisms are much rarer: international SEO 19.8%, enterprise SEO 12.8%, Shopify SEO 10.6%.
• Agencies that state a founding year are mostly well established. Of 287 agencies that publish one, the median year is 2014 and 69% have been operating for 10 years or more.
• Few agencies publish a team size. Only 75 (9.6%) do. Among them, the median is 35 people, but this group is unlikely to be representative.

Where SEO agencies are based

North America (33.5%) and Europe (32.8%) together make up two thirds of listings, followed by Oceania (18.8%) and Asia (9.9%). Europe is the most spread out: its 256 agencies are in 16 countries, while North America's 262 are in just two.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-regions"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/regions.svg" alt="Where the listed agencies are based: Share of 781 listings by region" width="720" height="298" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-regions">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
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By country, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia lead. These figures mainly reflect where findseo has added listings so far: the directory started in Australia and expanded to English-speaking markets first. They shouldn't be read as the relative size of each country's SEO industry.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-countries"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/countries.svg" alt="Listings by country (top 15): Number of agencies, of 781 in 37 countries" width="720" height="568" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-countries">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
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Cities

London and Melbourne have the most listings (27 each), followed by Auckland and Sydney (24 each). Of the 135 cities, 34 have a single listed agency, and the ten largest cities account for 24.8% of all listings.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-cities"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/cities.svg" alt="Listings by city (top 15): Number of agencies, of 781 in 135 cities" width="720" height="568" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-cities">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
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The full country list is below. You can browse every agency by location on our SEO agencies by country pages.

Which services agencies offer

We map each agency's services to 12 categories, based on what its own website says it offers. Google Ads tops the list at 82.8%, ahead of every SEO service. That's despite the directory admitting only agencies where SEO is a main service. Many SEO agencies sell paid search alongside organic, often as a package.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-services"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/services.svg" alt="Services agencies list: Share of 781 agencies offering each service" width="720" height="478" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-services">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
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The four core SEO services (local SEO, link building, content and on-page SEO, and technical SEO) are each offered by between 68.9% and 81.9% of agencies. SEO audits are listed by 66.2%. Specialist services drop off sharply: ecommerce SEO (34.8%), international SEO (19.8%), enterprise SEO (12.8%), and platform-specific Shopify SEO (10.6%) and WordPress SEO (9.5%).

For buyers, this has a practical implication. If you need a specialism, such as an international site with hreflang, a large ecommerce catalogue or a Shopify store, the pool of agencies that explicitly offer it is much smaller than the pool of "SEO agencies". Our guide to questions to ask an SEO agency covers how to check specialist experience.

Breadth of services

Most agencies offer a broad mix. The median agency lists 6 of the 12 categories. Only 41 agencies (5.2%) list one or two services; 44 (5.6%) list ten or more.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-services-per-agency"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/services-per-agency.svg" alt="How many services each agency lists: Number of agencies by count of findseo service categories (of 12), n = 781" width="720" height="448" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-services-per-agency">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
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Differences between countries

Among the four countries with more than 60 listings, the service mix differs noticeably. UK agencies are the most likely to list technical SEO (81.6%) and international SEO (32%). Australian agencies are the most likely to list enterprise SEO (27.2%) and the least likely to list link building (65.8%). US and Canadian agencies most often list local SEO (90.8% and 92.5%).

These differences partly reflect how agencies in each market describe their services, and how our listings were collected (see limitations). Treat small differences with caution.

How long agencies have been operating

287 agencies (36.7%) state a founding year on their website. Among them, the earliest is 1993 and the median is 2014. The largest groups were founded in 2010–2014 (28.9%) and 2015–2019 (28.6%). 15.3% were founded in 2020 or later.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-founded"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/founded.svg" alt="When agencies were founded: Share of the 287 agencies that state a founding year on their website" width="720" height="298" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-founded">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

Agencies that state a founding year are likely to be older on average than those that don't, because established firms tend to mention their history ("since 2008", "15 years in search") and newer firms have less reason to. The real share of young agencies is probably higher than this chart shows.

How big agencies are

Only 75 agencies (9.6%) state a team size on their website. Among them, the median is 35 people. The most common band is 10–24 people (26.7%). 25.3% report 100 people or more.

<figure>
  <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-team-size"><img src="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026/charts/team-size.svg" alt="Team size: Share of the 75 agencies that state a team size on their website" width="720" height="298" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://findseo.net/reports/seo-agency-landscape-2026#chart-team-size">findseo, SEO Agency Landscape 2026</a>. Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

This is the weakest data in the report. Larger agencies are more likely to publish headcounts, and some team sizes may include staff outside SEO, such as developers or paid media specialists. Our later listing batches also excluded sole traders and freelancers. The real distribution of SEO agency sizes is almost certainly weighted more heavily towards small teams.

Methodology

Population. All 781 published agency listings in the findseo directory on 11 October 2026, the snapshot date. No listings were excluded from the analysis.

Inclusion rules. findseo lists only agencies where SEO is a main service. Each listing was reviewed by hand. Generalist, web design-led, PPC-only and branding agencies were excluded. In later batches, consultants, freelancers, sole traders and doorway or city-landing sites were also excluded. Each listing needs a published office location in a city we cover.

Source of facts. Every fact (location, services, founding year and team size) comes from the agency's own website: usually the home, about, contact and service pages. We record the source page for each listing. We did not use surveys, review platforms or paid databases. The most recent batches were checked between 7 and 10 October 2026; earlier listings were checked when added.

Services. Each agency's service wording was mapped to 12 findseo categories (Local SEO, Technical SEO, Ecommerce SEO, Content & On-page SEO, Link Building, SEO Audits, Enterprise SEO, International SEO, Shopify SEO, WordPress SEO, Google Ads and Social Ads). Mapping used automated matching of site navigation and service pages, including local-language terms, followed by manual review.

Founding year and team size. Recorded only where the agency states them. Where a team size is stated as a minimum, such as "25+", it was counted at that number. Values that were clearly not team sizes (for example, a year entered in the team size field) were removed during review.

Regions. Countries were grouped into six regions for the regional chart. "Middle East & Africa" covers the United Arab Emirates and South Africa; "Latin America" covers Mexico, Central and South America.

Calculation. Percentages are of the stated base (n) for each chart, rounded to one decimal place, so totals may not add to exactly 100%. The data was taken from the live findseo database by a script and frozen for this report, so the figures won't change as listings are added.

Limitations

• This is a directory, not a census. The numbers describe agencies listed on findseo, not all SEO agencies. Country and city counts mainly reflect where we've added listings so far, which started with Australia and English-speaking markets.
• Services are self-described. A service listed on an agency's website shows what it offers, not how good it is at it or how much of its work it makes up.
• Founding year and team size are incomplete. Coverage is 36.7% and 9.6% respectively, and both are likely skewed towards larger and older agencies.
• No agency has verified its listing yet. At the snapshot date, none of the 781 listings had been claimed by its agency, so every fact is as published on the agency's own site and hasn't been confirmed by the agency through findseo.
• Websites change. Agencies update their services and sites. Facts were correct when checked but may since have changed.
• No pricing, quality or outcomes data. This report doesn't measure prices, results, client satisfaction or ratings.

Pricing data: coming later

We get asked how much SEO agencies charge more than anything else. We haven't published figures because we don't have data we'd stand behind. Agencies listed on findseo can now share their typical monthly retainer range anonymously from their dashboard. We'll publish a pricing report, with method and sample size stated, once at least 100 agencies have responded. Until then, our guide to how much SEO costs explains the pricing models without invented averages.

Using this data

The charts and aggregate data are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Each chart has an embed code and a data table, and the full set of aggregates is available as a CSV. If you find an error, let us know and we'll correct it and note the change.