Seotal Research

SEO, AEO & GEO Research

We crawl, test and count the web ourselves to see what works in search and AI answers, then publish the findings with the full method and the raw data.

Our own dataEvery figure comes from fetches, tests or counts we ran, dated to the day.

Method in fullEach study states its sample, funnel, tools and limits, so the numbers can be checked.

Free to citeDatasets are CC BY 4.0. Use the figures and charts with a link to the study.

Studies

October 15, 2026

SEO Agency Pricing: What US SEO Companies Cost in 2026

We read the sites of the top 100 US SEO companies on Clutch. 28 publish a price, and the median entry package costs $2,000 a month.

Sample: The top 100 US SEO companies on Clutch
Method: Published SEO prices, contract terms and guarantees read on each company's own website, plus each company's Clutch minimum project size and hourly band

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 14, 2026

How the Top 100 YC Startups Do SEO: 2026 Study

We crawled the 100 largest YC companies. 80% run a blog, 41% publish competitor comparison pages and only 3 block an AI crawler site-wide.

Sample: Websites of the 100 largest YC companies by team size
Method: Own crawl of each homepage, robots.txt, llms.txt, sitemaps, blog and feeds, plus a headless-browser render of every homepage

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 10, 2026

5 Best JavaScript Frameworks for SEO [2026 Research + Tested]

We built the same page in 8 JavaScript setups and checked what crawlers see. Astro, SvelteKit, Qwik, Next.js and Nuxt lead for SEO in 2026.

Sample: One test page built in 7 JavaScript frameworks plus a client-rendered React app
Method: Raw HTML fetched without JavaScript, then Lighthouse 12.8.2, three mobile runs per framework

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 8, 2026

How Fast Are Government Websites in Southeast Asia? A Lighthouse Study (2026)

We ran Lighthouse on 46 government homepages in six Southeast Asian countries. None met the 2.5 s LCP threshold and the median score was 34.

Sample: 46 government homepages in six countries
Method: Lighthouse 13.4.1, three mobile runs per homepage

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 6, 2026

How Much of the Web Is in Southeast Asian Languages? Common Crawl and Wikipedia Data (2026)

Indonesian is 1.1182% of Common Crawl's August 2026 pages and Vietnamese 1.0750%. Burmese, Tagalog, Khmer and Lao each sit below 0.02%.

Sample: 8 languages across 38 Common Crawl crawls and Wikipedia
Method: Common Crawl language statistics, Wikipedia APIs and national censuses

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 4, 2026

Structured Data on Southeast Asia's Top Websites: A Schema Markup Study (2026)

We read the raw HTML of 1,984 top Southeast Asian homepages. 48.8% carry structured data, and half of those still declare the retired SearchAction.

Sample: 3,000 top domains, 1,984 homepages analysed
Method: Raw HTML parsed for JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 2, 2026

How Many Websites Targeting Southeast Asia Get hreflang Wrong? (2026 Study)

We checked 2,300 top homepages with Southeast Asian hreflang. 53.1% break a Google rule, led by canonical conflicts and missing return links.

Sample: 83,000 homepages crawled, 2,300 with Southeast Asian hreflang
Method: Homepages and up to 50 alternates per site checked against Google hreflang rules

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 1, 2026

SEM Freelancer Rates by Country: Hourly and Day Rates [2026]

SEM freelancers list a median $20 an hour across 800 profiles in 16 countries, from $9.50 in India to $47.50 in the US. Our own data, plus UK day rates.

Sample: 800 SEM freelancer profiles, 50 per country in 16 countries
Method: Hourly rates read from the Freelancer.com public directory, filtered to SEM, PPC and Google Ads skills

Read the study → ↓ CSV

October 1, 2026

What AI SEO Costs a Small Business or Startup in 2026

AI SEO costs a small business $29 to $2,000 a month. Our study of 60 agencies, 17 tools and 1,460 freelancers shows where the money goes.

Sample: 60 agency price lists, 88 tool plans and 1,460 freelancer profiles
Method: Published AI SEO, GEO and AEO prices read on each seller's own site, plus Freelancer.com hourly rates

Read the study → ↓ CSV ↓ CSV ↓ CSV