SEO in Malaysia costs roughly RM650 a month at the published floor and RM9,500 a month at the published top. Most SME work sits between RM1,500 and RM4,500 a month — plus 8% service tax that almost nobody quotes you upfront. A one-time website build runs about RM1,200 to RM12,000.
Our own numbers, since a pricing article that hides its pricing is worthless: website build RM900 for one service, RM1,800 for three, or RM4,900 for five across three languages — one-time, and you own it either way. Monthly: RM690 Momentum (1 article a month), RM1,290 Growth (2 articles, two languages), RM2,290 Full Growth (4 articles, three languages, AI search). On 20 July 2026 we deleted two of our own tiers — the RM6,900 build and the cheapest monthly plan. Both reasons are below.
This article does four things no other page on this search result does: it names eight competitors and their real published prices, it sources the 8% SST to the actual gazette, it quotes what Google itself said about GEO six days ago, and it publishes our own traffic data — including the part that's embarrassing.
How much does SEO cost in Malaysia in 2026?
Quick answer: RM650–RM9,500 a month across published Malaysian rates, with the SME middle at RM1,500–RM4,500 — before 8% SST.
Every page ranking for this question gives you a range. The problem is that the ranges contradict each other: Shinjiru says the market is RM500–5,000, Hypercharge says RM800–12,000, VeecoTech says RM900–10,000+, Adam SEO says RM880–10,000 with a middle of RM2,300–4,800. Six sources, six answers, and a floor that moves by 700%.
None of these pages is wrong. They're describing different amounts of work and calling all of it "SEO".
The same split runs through the build itself: what a website costs in Malaysia spans RM388 to RM60,000+, and for the same reason — different products, one word.
What eight Malaysian agencies actually charge
Quick answer: here are the real published numbers, side by side, with the annual-only pricing converted to monthly so you can actually compare.
This table doesn't exist anywhere else on this search result. Prices verified 16 July 2026 from each agency's own page — and re-checked 19 July 2026, which is when we found three rows of our own were wrong. They are corrected below, with what was wrong stated in the row itself. A table that claims every figure is sourced has to survive its own audit.
| Agency | Published price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maximus | RM7,800 / 13,600 / 18,500 per year → ≈RM650 / RM1,133 / RM1,500 per month | Priced annually — the only one. 1-year minimum. "+8% SST." Sells ranking guarantees. |
| Shinjiru | RM945 / RM1,050 / RM1,750 per month (promo; "normally" RM1,350 / 1,500 / 2,500) | Audit RM500. Sells ranking guarantees. |
| ZenWeb | RM1,299 / RM1,999 per month — two tiers on their own pricing page; enterprise is "custom quotation". 6-month minimum | ⚠️ Corrected 19 July 2026. We first published their blog's RM800–15,000 range as if it were their price. It isn't — that is their estimate of the market. Their own page charges RM1,299 and RM1,999. Same blog says "under RM800 → little movement; sometimes harm" |
| Hypercharge | Cannot be verified. Their pricing page returned 403 to fetchers and an in-site 404 in a real browser on 19 July 2026 — we couldn't reach it that day | ⚠️ Corrected 19 July 2026. We first published RM800–12,000 as their four tiers. That figure came from their blog's view of the market, not a price list of their own. Lists guarantees as a red flag |
| VeecoTech | Market RM900–10,000+/mo; own plan from RM2,899/mo; audit RM3,000–5,000 | The only page on the SERP that cites outside sources |
| Adam SEO | RM3,500 / RM4,500 / RM9,500 per month; audits from RM2,500 | "All prices exclude SST." Refuses per-keyword pricing |
| MYSense | No package page exists. Their blog gives market bands of RM1,000–2,500 / 2,500–6,000 / 6,000–15,000+, plus unit prices: an article RM250–800, one backlink RM300–1,500, local SEO RM500–2,000/mo | ⚠️ Corrected 19 July 2026. We first published those bands as their tiers and wrote "prices by industry". Neither is on the page — the bands are their read of the market, and the industry line was our characterisation |
| FoundlyAgency | RM690 / RM1,290 / RM2,290 per month; build RM900 / RM1,800 / RM4,900 one-time | See the honest breakdown below — including why we deleted our own cheapest monthly tier |
Read the billing period, not just the number. Maximus's RM650/month looks like the cheapest thing here. It's RM7,800 paid annually on a one-year minimum. Shinjiru's RM945 is a promotional rate against a "normal" RM1,350. Both are stated accurately on their pages — but neither is comparable to a month-to-month RM945 either, and no page on this result does the conversion for you.
Does SEO cost the same in KL, Penang and Johor Bahru?
No — and the difference is not mainly the price. It is whether anyone will tell you the price at all.
Over 14–15 August 2026 we opened every agency on the first page of seo penang, seo johor bahru and seo price kuala lumpur on google.com.my, and read what each one publishes on its own page.
How many agencies publish a price you can act on
| City | Publishes their own price | Only publishes what a free thing is "worth" | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penang | 3 of 7 | 1 | 14 Aug 2026 |
| Kuala Lumpur | 1 of 7 | 3 | 15 Aug 2026 |
| Johor Bahru | 0 found so far | 1 | 15 Aug 2026 |
In Penang, three firms name a figure: RM11,888 for twelve months, RM1,800 a month, RM2,899 a month. In KL, one does: Hypercharge at RM1,980 a month. In JB we have not found one yet.
⚠️ We are listing JB as "none found", not "none exists" — two of those pages we could only read partially. That is our limitation, not a claim about them.
The one KL agency that publishes a number also publishes a warning
Hypercharge's page carries both:
"Starting from: RM1,980/month" "SEO in Kuala Lumpur typically ranges from RM1,500 to RM8,000 per month for SMEs" "Avoid any package priced below RM800 per month — the work volume is rarely sufficient to move rankings in a KL market."
That last line is a competitor telling you where the floor is. We are quoting it because they wrote it, and because it is the most useful sentence on any of these pages.
The same agency, three cities, one sentence
MySense has a page for each city. On all three, the only RM figure anywhere on the page is identical:
"Claim Your FREE Digital Marketing Strategy Session Now! (Worth RM3000)"
Same words, same number, three cities. Three URLs you can open and check.
Where the actual price differences show up
ZenWeb publishes a tier table for each city, sourced from its own client retainers. Comparing them:
| Tier | Penang | Johor Bahru |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap package reseller | RM450–1,200 | RM399–1,200 |
| Freelance consultant | RM700–2,200 | RM700–2,200 |
| Full-service agency | RM2,000–6,500 | RM2,000–6,500 |
| Boutique specialist | RM2,800–8,000 | RM2,500–8,000 |
Same template, two cities, only the top and bottom tiers move. The middle — where most SMEs land — is identical.
What this means when you are collecting quotes
The city changes how hard it is to get a number, more than it changes the number. If you are in JB and nobody will quote you before a call, that is normal for JB — it is not a signal that you are being handled badly. Ask in writing anyway.
📌 City-by-city detail: SEO Price in Penang 2026.
Is SST charged on SEO in Malaysia? The 8% nobody quotes you
Quick answer: 8%. Charged once the provider's taxable turnover passes RM500,000 in a rolling 12 months — and most published prices exclude it.
This is the most expensive detail missing from every competing page. Only two of the eight mention SST at all.
| What you want to know | The answer | The legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| What's the rate? | 8% | Service Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2025, P.U.(A) 173/2025, in operation 1 July 2025. Only a closed list gets 6% — F&B, telco, parking, logistics, healthcare, construction, education, leasing. Advertising isn't on it |
| Is advertising / digital marketing taxable? | Yes | Service Tax Regulations 2018, First Schedule, Group I Item 8: "all advertising services" (excluding promotion outside Malaysia) |
| From when does a provider charge it? | Once taxable turnover passes RM500,000 (rolling 12 months) | Same schedule, threshold column |
| What about Google Ads? | Also 8% | Google's own help page: "Beginning March 1, 2024, All Google Ads sales in Malaysia will be subject to a sales and services tax (SST) of 8%." |
So a small agency's quote may genuinely have no tax on it (under the threshold) — a larger one's will.
A detail we couldn't source, and won't pretend to know. RMCD's guidance never uses the word "SEO" anywhere. Whether a pure SEO retainer is taxed as advertising (Group I item 8) or consultancy/IT (Group G items 7–8) isn't something we can source — but both land at 8% with an RM500,000 threshold, so your invoice is the same either way.
Two questions worth asking any provider: which group are you registered under, and does your quote include SST?
One more thing worth knowing. RMCD's own Guide on Advertising Services (V4, 19 January 2022) still shows worked examples at 6% and has never been reissued. The gazetted order overrides the guide — but a business owner who Googles the official guide reads the wrong rate off a government PDF.
Is SEO dead in 2026? And do you need "GEO" or "AEO"?
Quick answer: Google says GEO and AEO are not a separate product — they're SEO. It said so on 10 July 2026, and it named the tactics that don't work.
This is the part that costs us money to publish, so read it carefully.
From Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features, last updated 10 July 2026:
"What about 'AEO' and 'GEO'? ... From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."
"While terms like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are common online, many suggested 'hacks' aren't effective or supported by how Google Search actually works."
And specifically on the file that half the GEO industry sells:
"LLMS.txt files and other 'special' markup: You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search... Doing so will neither harm nor help your site's visibility or rankings in Google Search, as Google Search ignores them."
We sell an AI Search service. We have an llms.txt on this very site. We published an article recommending one. So here is the precise, uncomfortable truth:
- Google ignores llms.txt. If anyone — including our own earlier article — implied that file helps you in Google, that was wrong, and we're correcting it.
- ChatGPT and Perplexity are not Google. Google's guidance governs Google; being cited inside a ChatGPT answer is a genuinely different surface with different mechanics, and this document doesn't speak for it.
- What survives is unglamorous, and it's what Google actually recommends: "Creating content that people find unique, compelling, and useful will likely influence your website's presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions in this guide."
- So what should you pay for? Not a file. Not a magic schema. If an agency's "GEO package" is llms.txt plus markup, you are buying something Google explicitly says it ignores.
Google even tells you how to vet the pitch: "If they have advice on optimizing for AI experiences (also known as 'AEO' 'GEO' services), is their advice aligned with Google Search's official guidance on optimizing for generative AI features?"
How long does SEO take to work? Google just deleted its own answer
Quick answer: expect 3–6 months for first movement and 6–12 months to judge return. Google used to say "four months to a year" — that line no longer exists. It was removed in an edit dated 5 June 2026, and the same edit added the GEO guidance above.
For years, every SEO article — including Malaysian agency pages — quoted Google saying results take "typically from four months to a year." We checked. That sentence is gone from Google's hiring-an-SEO page. Archived snapshots still carry it as late as 20 May 2026; by 9 June 2026 it had been removed, on a page dated 5 June 2026. The current page contains zero occurrences of the word "month".
Anyone citing "Google says four months to a year" in 2026 is quoting a deleted line.
What's left is the industry's own consensus, which is at least honest about being an estimate: three to six months for first movement, six to twelve months to judge return — published independently by VeecoTech, ZenWeb, Hypercharge, GC Tech, Aimode, Hashmeta and Mackyclyde.
The global data is harsher than any Malaysian page admits. Ahrefs studied 1.3 million keywords and found only 1.74% of newly published pages reach the top 10 within a year, and the average number-one page is about five years old. That's global data, not Malaysian — we'd rather say so than pass off foreign numbers as local.
Does schema markup improve rankings? (No — and this SERP proves it)
Quick answer: Google says structured data does not affect ranking, and the page ranking #1 for this keyword has none at all.
Google's structured data policies state plainly that a structured data manual action means a page loses rich-result eligibility, and "it doesn't affect how the page ranks in Google web search." Its introduction to structured data never once claims a ranking benefit — it frames the payoff entirely as rich results and engagement. Google also says: "Using structured data enables a feature to be present, it does not guarantee that it will be present."
We checked whether the live results agree. They do:
| Page | Structured data | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Maximus | None at all | #1 |
| VeecoTech | BlogPosting, WebPage, Person | #2 |
| ZenWeb | BlogPosting + FAQPage + HowTo + 4× Dataset + Speakable + AggregateRating | #4 |
The most heavily marked-up page on the result loses to a page with zero structured data. Schema earns you rich snippets — it is not the lever anyone selling you a "schema package" implies.
Why the cheapest SEO usually costs more
Quick answer: at Malaysian content rates, four articles a month costs RM1,000–3,400 — so an RM800 package cannot contain a real campaign.
Do the arithmetic with the market's own published numbers. Aleph Media prices a blog article at RM250–850 (600–1,700 words). A typical mid-tier package promises four articles a month. That's RM1,000–3,400 in content alone — before anyone looks at your site, your competitors, or your Google Business Profile.
Put RM800 a month against that. The maths doesn't work, and sales language doesn't fix maths. Something has to give — usually automation, recycled content, or bulk links, which Google's spam policies name directly: "Buying or selling links for ranking purposes" and "Using automated programs or services to create links to your site." The stated consequence: "Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all."
The nuance most red-flag lists get wrong: Google does not say paid links are always spam. Verbatim: "Google does understand that buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes. It's not a violation of our policies to have such links as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute." The violation is buying links to manipulate ranking, unmarked.
And the red flag isn't the low price — it's a low price sold as a full campaign. A few hundred ringgit a month for genuine upkeep is honest. The same money sold as "we'll get you ranking" is not.
"Guaranteed page 1" — Google says no; two page-one agencies say yes
Quick answer: Google's own words are "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google" — and two agencies ranking for this exact keyword sell guarantees anyway.
From Google's hiring-an-SEO guidance, updated 5 June 2026:
"No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a 'special relationship' with Google, or advertise a 'priority submit' to Google."
Now look at this search result. Maximus (#1) advertises guaranteed first-page keyword rankings with a cash-back promise. Shinjiru (#5) advertises "Minimum 3 Keyword, Guaranteed 1st Page Ranking." Meanwhile Hypercharge (#3), ZenWeb (#4), Adam SEO (#6) and VeecoTech (#2) all list ranking guarantees as a red flag. Google is ranking both sides of the argument.
We're not accusing anyone of bad faith. We're putting Google's sentence next to the advertisement and letting you hold them side by side. The mechanism worth understanding: a guarantee is only safe to give when the guaranteed keywords are ones nobody competes for. Ask which keywords are guaranteed, then search them.
What Google actually says about hiring an SEO
Quick answer: Google publishes no pricing guidance at all — and tells small local businesses they can probably do much of it themselves.
We searched the full text of Google's hiring page for pricing language. The words pricing, contract, budget, month and pay appear zero times. There is no "Google says SEO should cost X". Anyone telling you otherwise is inventing it.
What Google does say, and we're quoting it against our own commercial interest:
"Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results."
"If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself."
"Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do."
Google's suggested questions for any SEO you're interviewing: "Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?", "What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?", "Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site?", "Do you cite official Google documentation as supporting evidence for their recommendations?"
If the honest answer for your business is "do it yourself" — do it yourself. We'd rather tell you that than sell you a retainer you don't need.
Why Malaysian businesses need this: 94.6% search, only 57% own a website
Quick answer: 94.6% of Malaysian internet users search for information on goods and services — but only about 57% of Malaysian establishments own a website.
- Statcounter recorded Google at 93.31% of Malaysian search referrals in June 2026 (Bing 4.06%, Yahoo 1.68%). Note the methodology: that's page-view referrals tracked by Statcounter, unweighted — not "93% of Malaysians".
- DOSM's ICT Use and Access Survey (reference year 2025, reported by The Edge) found 94.6% of Malaysian internet users searched the internet for information on goods and services — up from 93.0% the year before.
- DOSM's establishment survey (reference year 2023) puts social media at 79.1% of establishments and own website at just 57.2%. (Note: "establishments", not specifically SMEs — no public size-band split exists.)
Read those together: almost everyone is searching for businesses, and nearly half of Malaysian businesses don't own the asset they're being searched for on. They're renting an audience on social instead. That's the actual argument for a website — not a statistic about "near me" searches, which, we should say plainly, has no Malaysian data behind it. Every local agency quoting "near me searches up 200%" is recycling a US figure from around 2016.
What we charge — and our own numbers, including the bad ones
Quick answer: builds are RM900 / RM1,800 / RM4,900, priced by how many services need finding on their own and in how many languages; RM690 / RM1,290 / RM2,290 a month. And our own site currently ranks around position 75.
| Plan | Price | What it honestly is |
|---|---|---|
| Build — Focus | RM900 one-time | For a business that does one thing. One long-scroll home page built deep against that one search term, written by us. Google Business Profile set up and verified, free first-year hosting. The technical foundation is identical to the top tier. |
| Build — Starter | RM1,800 one-time | Three services, each with its own page aimed at one search term. Everything else goes on an index page with no limit. We price by service topic, not by page — Google's own docs say page count does not make a site more relevant (updated 10 July 2026). |
| Build — Complete | RM4,900 one-time | The one most businesses actually need. Five service topics across all three languages (EN · 中文 · BM) — 24 separate URLs, hreflang linked, copy written by us in each language rather than machine-translated. Of the thirteen Malaysian firms whose price pages we read, none published a trilingual build. Local SEO setup, map-pack targeting, GBP fully set up. |
| All three builds | — | Schema, heading hierarchy, meta, sitemap, mobile and speed are in all three tiers at no extra charge. They are structural decisions made while building; adding them later means rebuilding the site. Once you're live you can verify both yourself with Google's Rich Results Test and PageSpeed Insights. |
| Extra service page | RM450 each · extra language RM1,100 | One more service that needs finding on its own. We show you the term we are aiming at before we start: 600+ words, internally linked, yours to edit. On Complete, all three languages are included. Where it ranks is Google's call and we do not promise it. |
| All three builds | — | You own it — site, content, domain registered in your name. Free first-year hosting. No lock-in, and a private editor link so you can change text yourself, forever, at no charge. |
| Momentum | RM690/mo | 1 article a month, 1,200 words minimum, published in one language — so one new page a month. Indexed within 14 days or that month is free. Plus a review system, a monthly technical check, and a report before the 5th. Hosting, domain and SSL included. |
| Growth | RM1,290/mo | 2 articles a month, each published in two languages — four pages live a month. Everything in Momentum, plus Google Business Profile corrected monthly and every review answered inside 48 hours. |
| Full Growth | RM2,290/mo | 4 articles a month in three languages — twelve pages a month. Plus AI search work, one new city page each quarter, and one conversion change each quarter that we actually measure. |
We deleted our own cheapest monthly plan on 20 July 2026. It was RM249, and on this very page we used to defend it — "upkeep, not an SEO campaign." That defence was accurate, and it was still wrong. A plan that produces no content produces no new traffic. Calling it a growth tier, and standing it beside two tiers that do produce content, invited exactly the confusion this article spends three thousand words complaining about. Pure upkeep still exists: RM480 a year, listed on the pricing page under its own name, making no claim to grow anything. The monthly plans now begin where content begins.
All prices exclude SST where applicable. Full details on our pricing page.
Now the part no agency publishes. Here is our own Google Search Console data for foundlyagency.com, read on 16 July 2026:
| Metric | Our actual number |
|---|---|
| Impressions (3 days) | 339 |
| Clicks | 4 |
| Average position | 75.6 |
| Queries we appear for | 78 — including "seo penang", "seo agency penang", "local seo malaysia" |
Position 75.6 is page eight. We are, by our own article's standard, functionally invisible — and Backlinko's analysis of 4 million results says the top three take 54.4% of clicks while page two gets 0.63%. We're not on page two. We're on page eight.
We publish this for two reasons. First, it's the honest evidence for everything above: SEO is slow, new sites start invisible, and anyone promising you otherwise is selling. Second, we think you should be able to check whether the agency you hire is winning at its own game. Ours isn't yet. We'll update this page with the same numbers as they move — at this URL, not in a "2027 edition".
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost in Malaysia per month? RM650–RM9,500 across published rates; SME middle RM1,500–RM4,500; plus 8% SST where the provider is registered.
Is SST charged on SEO in Malaysia? In practice 8%, once the provider passes RM500,000 taxable turnover in a rolling 12 months. Advertising services are taxable under Group I item 8; advertising isn't on the 6% list. RMCD's own advertising guide still shows 6% and hasn't been reissued since 2022.
Is SEO dead in 2026? Do I need GEO/AEO? Google (10 July 2026): optimizing for generative AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO." It says Google Search ignores llms.txt. Being cited by ChatGPT is a separate goal — but nobody should sell you a magic file.
Can an agency guarantee #1? No. Google: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Two agencies on this very result sell guarantees anyway.
How long does SEO take? Google deleted its "four months to a year" line on 5 June 2026 and now publishes no timeframe. Industry consensus: 3–6 months for movement, 6–12 to judge return. Ahrefs (global): only 1.74% of new pages reach the top 10 in a year.
Does schema improve rankings? No. Google: a structured data manual action "doesn't affect how the page ranks". The #1 result here has no structured data at all.
Why is cheap SEO risky? Four articles alone cost RM1,000–3,400 at Malaysian rates. Below that, something gives. The red flag isn't the low price — it's a low price sold as a full campaign.
Should I just do it myself? Google says: "If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself." Sometimes that's the right answer.
Before you pay anyone — find out where you actually stand
Most people ask "how much does SEO cost" when the more useful question is "am I findable at all, and what's broken?" You can't price a fix you haven't diagnosed — and if your business isn't showing on Google Maps, that's a cheaper, faster job than any national campaign.
We'll check your visibility free — where you show up on Google, whether your Maps listing works, and whether AI engines can find you. Request your free visibility check. If the honest answer is that you don't need us, we'll say so.
Verified 16 July 2026. Prices, tax rates and Google's documentation all change — if you find something here out of date, tell us and we'll correct it at this URL. Google's guidance quoted from Search Central pages dated 5 June, 10 July and 15 May 2026. Ahrefs and Backlinko figures are global, not Malaysian.