The straight answer: for a local service business, legitimate SEO runs about $500 to $1,500 a month as a retainer, or roughly $1,000 to $5,000 as a one-time project, with hourly consulting around $75 to $150. Big-brand national campaigns go far higher, but that is the honest band a contractor or local shop should expect. Anything dramatically under it is usually not a bargain. It is a different product wearing the same name.
I am writing this because “how much does SEO cost” is one of the most-searched questions in this industry, and most agencies answer it with “it depends” and a contact form. It does depend. But you deserve the actual ranges and the reasons before anyone asks for your email.
What you are actually paying for
SEO is not a switch someone flips. The monthly invoice covers labor across several jobs:
- Your Google Business Profile. For a local business this is the highest-leverage work there is: categories, photos, posts, review flow, and keeping the listing healthy. It is why we sell GBP and local SEO as its own service.
- On-site work. Page titles, service pages that actually answer what people search, site speed, and fixing whatever the last builder left broken.
- Content. Pages and posts targeting the questions your customers type, written to be useful instead of stuffed.
- Citations and consistency. Your name, address, and phone matching everywhere Google looks.
- Reviews. A steady flow of real reviews with real replies, which is both ranking fuel and sales copy.
When a quote is $99 a month, ask which of those five you are getting. The math only works if the answer is roughly none of them.
The three pricing models (and typical 2026 ranges)
- Monthly retainer. The standard for ongoing work. Industry surveys, including Ahrefs’ agency pricing study, consistently put the most common retainer band at roughly $500 to $1,000 a month, with experienced agencies and competitive markets above that. Local service businesses usually land between $500 and $1,500.
- One-time project. A defined fix: site rebuild, local SEO setup, content package. Commonly $1,000 to $5,000 for local scopes.
- Hourly. $75 to $150 for most legitimate consultants. Useful for audits and second opinions, inefficient for ongoing work.
None of these buy a guaranteed ranking. Nobody legitimate sells one. Google does not take reservations, and any pitch built on a promised position is a red flag, not a deal.
Why cheap SEO usually costs the most
The $99 packages have to make the math work somehow, and it is usually one of three ways: software blasts your info to directories and calls it a campaign, offshore content gets pasted onto your site with your city name sprinkled in, or nothing much happens at all and the report is the product. The first two can actively hurt. Spammy links and thin doorway pages are exactly what Google’s spam systems target, and cleaning up after a bad SEO can cost more than doing it right the first time would have.
The tell is always the same: they talk about deliverables (“50 backlinks, 10 keywords”) instead of outcomes (calls, booked jobs, direction requests). Volume of stuff is easy to fake. A phone that rings is not.
What a local business should buy first
If the budget is tight, spend in this order: a clean, verified Google Business Profile with a steady review flow, then a website that loads fast and says what you do and where, then content and citations on top. That order follows where local customers actually look. Most of the calls a contractor gets from Google come through the map results, and the map runs on the profile, not the website.
That is also the honest reason our own packages start with the profile work: it is the cheapest dollar-for-dollar win in local marketing. The full menu is on the Web and Marketing page with prices listed, because if I am going to write a post like this, our own numbers should not hide behind a contact form either.
FAQ: the cost questions owners actually ask
How long until SEO pays for itself?
Local SEO is a months game, not a days game. Profile and on-site fixes often show movement in 4 to 8 weeks; content and reviews compound over 3 to 6 months. If cash is tight and you need calls this week, paid ads or a missed-call fix beat SEO. SEO is what makes next year cheaper.
Can I do SEO myself?
The basics, absolutely: claim your Google Business Profile, keep your name, address, and phone identical everywhere, post real job photos, and ask every happy customer for a review. That is a real fraction of local SEO and it is free. Where owners stall is consistency and the technical site work, which is exactly what a retainer buys.
Is $99-a-month SEO ever worth it?
If it is a software subscription that manages your citations and you know that is all it is, it can have a place. As “SEO services,” no. The labor that moves local rankings does not exist at that price, so either the work is not happening or it is the kind of work you will later pay to undo.
Does a bigger city cost more to rank in than a small one?
Usually, yes. Competition drives the price more than population. Ranking a plumber in a competitive metro against a dozen established competitors takes more ongoing work than ranking in a smaller Southwest Washington town where three businesses are actually fighting for the map pack. That is part of why local pricing here tends to sit toward the lower end of the national ranges above.
Get a number for your actual business
Ranges are useful, but your market, your competition, and your website’s current state decide the real number. If you run a service business in Southwest Washington, book the free audit and I will tell you what needs doing, what it costs, and what I would skip. If the honest answer is “fix your profile yourself and call me next year,” that is the answer you will get.
Castle Rock, WA · Published July 21, 2026 · About the Founder · Say hello