11 Best
SEO agencies for startups

If you spend any time on LinkedIn, you've seen someone with "growth" in their headline announcing that SEO is dead, ChatGPT ate Google, and anyone still paying for blog posts is lighting money on fire.

Well, SEO is alive and kicking! What’s changed is where people find answers, not how you earn a place in them. GEO and AEO are extensions of SEO, not replacements for it.

So the real risk isn’t picking the wrong acronym, but picking the wrong agency. A team that knows what it’s doing will work across all three and deliver results you can actually see. A team that doesn’t won’t get you far, no matter how many acronyms are in the proposal.

So with that in mind, we ranked the 11 best SEO agencies for startups.

#1 Get Stuff Digital

Yes, we ranked ourselves first. Here's the context.

For "best X" buying queries, listicles are one of the formats Google and the LLMs lean on hardest right now. So nearly every agency publishes one, parks itself at the top, and writes as if the ranking fell from the sky. We're no exception.

Our founder, Nik, wrote earlier this year that he'd been sick of self-crowned listicles for three years, and that Google says it plans to go after them. We wrote one anyway, and we put ourselves first. The irony isn't lost on us.

So don't judge us by the position. Judge us by the specifics below.

The team behind Get Stuff Digital

If you're pre-seed to Series A and don't have a marketing team yet, this is the part we'd want you to read twice.

Our core team is six people: Nik, plus our leads for authority, content, development, tech and copy. That’s right, only six, but we’re willing to bet we’ll do a better job than a 40-person team spread across 50 different clients.

You’ll never have to re-explain your business to someone new. All six of us already know your site, your numbers and what you’re trying to win. For a startup, that’s the real product we sell: a growth and web team you can lean on.

A short client list, by design

We take on a limited number of clients at a time. It's written on our own company information page as a limitation, because for some buyers it is one.

Because we keep the client list short, every company we work with gets the whole team’s attention rather than an hour carved out of someone’s week. We think that’s a big part of why our clients stay with us for more than three years on average, even though they’re free to leave any month.

The people who write the fix list ship the fixes

Our developers work in-house, and they’re part of your project from the first day. When the audit turns up something like missing schema, broken redirects or slow pages, or the strategy calls for new comparison pages, we build it ourselves and send it to you ASAP.

We build full sites too and startups like Dalton Mills and Kimba run on websites we designed and developed.

The first call is a reality check

Before we write any proposal, we give you a read on your niche and domain: what's realistically winnable, through which channels, and how long it should take.

On a young domain, new content usually needs three to six months to gain traction, and we'll tell you that before you sign. And if it turns out we’re not the right fit for what you need, we’ll tell you that on the first call and point you to someone who is.

Who leads every project

Our founder, Nik, leads the strategy on every project we take on, and he stays involved long after the sales call. He actually came to SEO from economics and spent the early part of his career on the black hat side. We only do white hat work now, but that background is a big reason we’re so direct about shortcuts. We’ve seen up close what they end up costing.

That experience shaped how we work today. We focus on entities rather than individual keywords, we cover a topic properly instead of churning out content, and we earn authority instead of buying links from marketplaces.

Nik also shares this approach outside of our client work. This year, Google invited him to speak at Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe in Barcelona about using LLMs to get better data out of SEO tools – we think that’s a big deal!

Our background

Since starting GSD, we’ve partnered with more than a dozen companies, most of them early-stage. Because we keep the list small, our clients tend to stay with us for years, more than three on average. Several have raised serious funding along the way, including Dalton Mills, Santé and Kimba, which have raised $9.2M, a $7.6M pre-seed round along with a $15M Series A, and a $6.5M seed round respectively.

A few results we’re especially proud of: we built Rylo’s first organic marketing system when the company had no SEO at all, and Rylo later reached a $500M+ valuation. For Broadlume, we reversed a fast traffic decline before the company’s nine-figure exit. And we grew Akooda’s organic traffic by 1,900%.

What you keep if you leave

The launch month produces a long-term strategy document that's yours whether you stay or not. Guest placements stay live for 12 months, or we replace them free. And the retainer is month-to-month, so the only thing keeping you is the work.

Services:

• SEO
• AEO/GEO (AI search visibility)
• Link building and digital PR
• Content strategy and production
• Forum and community visibility
• Design and development
• Site migrations and technical audits
• Analytics and reporting tied to pipeline

Built for: Pre-seed to Series A, ideally before anyone else has touched your SEO

Hire us if: You want SEO, AI search, links and development from one team that ships the work, and you want honest numbers before you commit.

Skip us if: You're an enterprise with long approval chains, you need paid media, or you want a large agency bench.

Pricing: Custom. An optional one-time launch month, then month-to-month. Budget brackets on our contact form start at $3.5k–5k/month.

Our pitch in one Slack message: "Six people, one Slack channel. SEO, AI search, links and dev, and we ship it ourselves. Want the honest numbers first?"

#2 Embarque

Embarque was founded in 2020 by Julian Canlas and works mostly with SaaS companies, AI startups, marketplaces and job boards. Its client list leans early-stage and product-led, with names like VEED, Riverside and Buy Me a Coffee.

What makes it unusual is how productized it is. Pricing is on the site, the service menu reads like a catalog, and it publishes dozens of case studies, including recent ones on AI citations.

Built for: Pre-seed to Seed

Services:

• SEO content and landing pages
• Link building
• Technical SEO and audits
• Programmatic SEO
• AI search (GEO/AEO)

Hire them if: You have a clear sense of your positioning and mainly need a reliable content and SEO engine at a price a small round can carry.

Skip them if: You need heavy technical or development work, or senior strategy across several channels at once.

Pricing: From $1,500/month. They also recommend planning for at least six months.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Pricing's on the site, from $1.5k/mo. VEED and Riverside use us. Want to just pick a plan?"

#3 RevenueZen

RevenueZen is a Portland-based B2B agency founded in 2017. It positions itself around pipeline rather than traffic and says it has run more than 300 client partnerships.

Its content process starts with interviews. Writers talk to your subject matter experts, and a custom GPT trained on your materials keeps the brand voice consistent. This is particularly beneficial for technical categories, where outside writers usually miss the details.

Built for: Seed to Series B

Services:

• B2B and SaaS SEO
• Generative engine optimization (GEO)
• Interview-led content
• LinkedIn content and executive ghostwriting
• SEO audits and analytics

Hire them if: Your product is technical, your founders have opinions worth publishing, and you want SEO and LinkedIn working from the same source material.

Skip them if: You need development work handled for you, or you want results before an interview-led process has time to ramp.

Pricing: Starting at $3,000/mo.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Give us an hour with your smartest engineer. We'll turn it into content for Google, AI answers and your CEO's LinkedIn."

#4 SimpleTiger

SimpleTiger has worked only with SaaS and, more recently, AI companies since 2006. It's based in Sarasota, Florida, and has dedicated offerings for seed-funded startups, Series A companies and enterprises.

It's also one of the few agencies here that does SEO, paid search and web design under one roof, including Webflow builds and a design subscription.

Built for: Seed to Series B

Services:

• SaaS SEO and AEO
• Content marketing and link building
• Digital PR
• Paid search and paid social
• Web design, Webflow development and a design subscription

Hire them if: You want search and paid run by one SaaS-only team, and your site needs design work along the way.

Skip them if: You're not a software company, or you want a small team where the founder is on every project.

Pricing: Not published. Their Clutch profile lists a $5,000 minimum project size.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "SaaS only since 2006. SEO, AEO, PPC, and we'll redesign the site while we're at it."

#5 daydream

daydream is a San Francisco agency that describes itself as AI-native. It raised a $15M Series A in April 2026, led by WndrCo, First Round Capital and Basis Set, so it's a startup selling to startups.

The model pairs SEO agents that handle execution at volume with a dedicated human Growth Lead who owns strategy and results. The work follows its own framework, which covers seven organic growth levers from keyword strategy to AI visibility.

Built for: Seed to Series B

Services:

• Keyword and content strategy
• Technical and programmatic SEO
• AI search visibility
• Agent-driven execution with a dedicated Growth Lead

Hire them if: You want high output without paying for a large human team, and you're comfortable with a newer delivery model.

Skip them if: You'd rather work with an agency that has a long track record, or you need development and site builds handled too.

Pricing: Not published.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Agents do the volume, your Growth Lead owns the results. We just raised a Series A ourselves, so we get it."

#6 Grow and Convert

Grow and Convert was founded in 2015 by Benji Hyam and Devesh Khanal. It coined Pain Point SEO in 2018: prioritize the keywords closest to a buying decision, even when the volume looks too small to bother with.

The team consists of around 20 writers and strategists, and every client works directly with a strategist, with no account managers in between. Their newer framework, Prioritized GEO, argues that showing up in the web searches LLMs run matters more than on-site tweaks.

Built for: Seed to Series B

Services:

• Content, SEO and AI search
• Link building and AI citation outreach
• Technical SEO
• Paid search

Hire them if: You need leads and demos from content, not traffic, and your category has clear buyer pain points to target.

Skip them if: You need technical work, migrations or site builds as a core part of the engagement.

Pricing: Not published.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Skip the 50k-volume keyword. The one with 90 searches a month is where your buyers are. And you'll talk to the strategist, not an account manager."

#7 Skale

Skale is a London-based organic growth agency for SaaS and tech companies. It runs GEO and SEO as one system and reports on new MRR rather than rankings.

Its client list includes G2, Typeform, Flodesk and Personio. It also handles website migrations, which matters if you're about to rebuild the site you're trying to rank.

Built for: Series A to B

Services:

• SaaS SEO
• Generative engine optimization and AI brand mentions
• Content production
• Link building and outreach
• Website migrations

Hire them if: You're a funded SaaS company with an in-house marketer who needs an execution partner focused on revenue metrics.

Skip them if: You're pre-revenue and can't yet measure MRR from organic, or you need a full website built.

Pricing: From $4,500/month.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "We report on new MRR, not rankings. G2 and Typeform are on the client list."

#8 Rock The Rankings

Rock The Rankings is a founder-led B2B SaaS agency run by Justin Berg, who has been in SEO since 2007. It focuses on getting clients onto the shortlist in both Google and AI answers.

Every engagement opens with a 12-month pipeline forecast in three scenarios, and the program is graded against it. Most clients start with a 90-day program, and the site states plainly that pre-seed and pre-PMF companies are not a fit.

Built for: Series A to C

Services:

• AI search optimization (GEO)
• SaaS SEO and technical SEO
• Content strategy and production
• Link and citation building
• SEO and GEO consulting

Hire them if: You have product-market fit, a marketing leader who owns the number, and you want SEO judged on demos booked.

Skip them if: You're pre-seed, pre-PMF, B2C, or can't make on-page and technical changes yourself.

Pricing: From $5,000/month for strategy and $7,500 to $15,000+ for the full program.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "We'll forecast your demos before kickoff, and you grade us on them. Pre-PMF? Please don't book a call."

#9 Omniscient Digital

Omniscient Digital was founded in 2019 and has offices across the US, including Austin, New York and San Francisco. It works with B2B software companies and treats SEO, AEO and content as one revenue channel.

It's known for its published frameworks, like barbell content strategy and product-led content, and for running original research on AI search.

Built for: Series A to C

Services:

• SEO strategy and technical SEO
• Answer engine optimization (AEO)
• Programmatic SEO
• Content production
• Digital PR and link building
• CRO and analytics

Hire them if: You're a funded B2B SaaS company with a marketing leader in place and budget for a full program.

Skip them if: You're early enough that $10,000/month is a hiring decision, or you need hands-on development.

Pricing: From $10,000/month.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "We've published our whole playbook for free. Engagements start at $10k/mo when you'd rather we run it."

#10 Graphite

Graphite is a research-driven growth agency led by CEO Ethan Smith, who teaches at Reforge and has been a guest on Lenny's Podcast for both SEO and AEO. Its clients include Webflow, Notion, MasterClass and BetterUp.

The agency's core idea is that only a small share of SEO and AEO tactics actually move the needle. It publishes its research on which ones do.

Built for: Series B and up

Services:

• Editorial, technical and programmatic SEO
• Answer engine optimization (AEO)
• Content strategy

Hire them if: You're a high-growth tech company with a real content operation and want a data-heavy partner.

Skip them if: You need flexibility. Their listing in Peec AI's agency directory shows a one-year minimum engagement.

Pricing: Not published.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Most SEO and AEO work is noise. We researched the 5% that isn't. Notion and Webflow agreed."

#11 NoGood

NoGood is a New York growth agency that builds "squads" covering paid, organic, creative, AEO and analytics. Its client list runs from venture-backed startups to Nike, TikTok and MongoDB, and it reports an 84% client retention rate.

It was early to treat AEO as a named service, and it works with Goodie, an AI search visibility platform from its sister company.

Built for: Series B and up

Services:

• AEO and SEO
• Paid search and paid social
• Organic social and performance creative
• Content marketing and digital PR
• CRO, analytics and fractional CMO

Hire them if: You need paid and organic run together by one team and have a budget to match.

Skip them if: You only need SEO, or the retainer would be a big share of your monthly burn.

Pricing: Custom. Their own FAQ puts the average retainer above $20,000/month.

Their pitch in one Slack message: "Paid, organic, creative and AEO, run by one squad. Nike and TikTok are on the roster. Bring a budget."

The earlier organic starts, the longer it has to compound. Tell us about your company and where you want to be, and we'll give you real numbers on what's possible and how long it will take. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so and point you to someone on this list who is.

Either way, call us and let’s find out.

FAQ

How much does an SEO agency for startups cost?

On today’s list, starting prices range from $1,500/month for a productized content program to an average above $20,000/month for a full growth squad. Most agencies that genuinely fit a seed or Series A company land between $3,500 and $10,000/month.

A $5,000 retainer that includes implementation is often cheaper in practice than a $3,000 one that hands your engineers a to-do list.

When should a startup start investing in SEO?

Earlier than most founders think. A young domain needs time to earn trust, so every month you wait is a month of compounding you don't get back. What you do need first is clear positioning: if you can't say who you're for and what problem you solve, no agency can pick the right queries for you.

How long does SEO take to work for a startup?

Technical fixes can move things within weeks, but new content on a young domain usually needs three to six months to gain real traction, and pipeline impact tends to follow after that. Any agency promising meaningful results in the first month or two on a new site is trying to sell you something.

Should we hire an in-house SEO or an agency?

One in-house hire can own strategy, but they can't also cover technical SEO, content production, link building, development and AI search tracking. At seed or Series A, an agency usually gets you that whole bench for less than one senior salary.

The case for hiring in-house gets stronger once SEO is a proven channel and you need someone embedded full-time to scale it.

Do we need a separate agency for AI search (AEO/GEO)?

Usually not. AI answers lean heavily on the same signals SEO builds: a crawlable site, clear content, and mentions on sites the models trust. AI search is also still a small share of traffic for most sites, so it works best as part of one program rather than a separate retainer.

Look for an agency that runs both and can show you real AI-referred sessions in your own analytics.