Guide
How much does local SEO cost?
A local SEO quote is hard to judge until you know what the fee should pay for. This guide lists that work, what the wider market charges, why quotes vary so much, and our own prices, plan by plan.
What should a monthly fee pay for?
Work that has to be done again every month, named so you can check it arrives. Most of it is upkeep, and that is where the money should go: Google says complete and accurate details make a business more likely to show in local results, and that reviews feed into how prominent it considers a business (how Google ranks local results). For a local business the recurring work comes down to five jobs:
- Upkeep of your Google Business Profile: hours, services, photos and regular posts.
- A review request after every job, and a reply to each review, the critical ones included.
- New or better pages for the services and towns you want to be found for.
- Fixes for technical faults on your site, such as broken links or slow pages.
- A monthly report that measures where you stand against where you started on day one.
What do our plans cost?
The table shows every plan that covers local search work, with its price and contents as the prices page lists them. Add-ons, such as extra locations, are listed there too. The monthly plans run month to month, and GBP Care and Review Engine are priced for each location. The two one-time plans are explained further down.
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| GBP Care | $395 a month per location | Your Google Business Profile kept complete and active: weekly posts, hours and attributes, photo requests and a monthly insights report. |
| Review Engine | $295 a month per location | Review requests after every job, drafted replies to every review within one business day, and monitoring. |
| Local | $1,250 a month | GBP Care and Review Engine, citation cleanup, two data-backed local pages a month, map-pack tracking and a monthly report against your day-one baseline. |
| Growth | $2,250 a month | Everything in Local, plus technical fixes, four articles a month, an AI-search visibility report and a quarterly roadmap refresh. |
| Authority | $3,750 a month | Everything in Growth, plus eight articles a month, a full AI-search program, a quarterly data study with local press outreach, and conversion fixes. |
| Roadmap Audit | $495 one time | A full crawl with your Search Console and Analytics data, a competitor and map-pack snapshot, and a written 90-day plan in 3 business days. Credited to your first month if a plan starts within 30 days. |
| Fix Sprint | $950 one time | Up to 12 hours of the fixes your scan found, shipped in 10 business days with before and after evidence. |
What does the rest of the market charge?
One public set of figures comes from a poll of 439 SEO providers. It found local SEO cost $1,557 a month on average, with agencies at $1,819 and freelancers at around $1,150. The most common hourly rate for local work was $75 to $100, and 78.2% of providers charged a monthly retainer (poll of SEO providers).
Read those numbers with care. Providers answered with a price band, and the averages assume each one charges the top of its band, which pushes every average up. The report does not say when the poll was taken either (same poll). Use it as a rough picture of the market rather than a price to expect, and set any quote against the five jobs above instead.
Why are some quotes so low, and others so high?
A very cheap monthly fee still has to pay for someone's time, so it may buy an automated report and little else. Google's advice on hiring an SEO tells owners to avoid anyone who talks about link popularity schemes or submitting a site to thousands of search engines, and says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google (Google Search Central). If a low quote rests on tactics like these, turn it down.
High quotes can have honest reasons. Several locations mean several profiles, several sets of reviews and more pages. A plan that writes a lot each month costs more than one that tidies a profile. Some agencies also fold in managing paid ads, a separate job with its own ad budget on top. Ask what drives the number before you decide it is too much.
What should a written quote tell you?
Our own terms, word for word: "Month to month. Cancel any month." "You own every account, page and piece of content." "No ranking guarantees. Anyone who promises a number one spot is guessing." They sit on the prices page, beside the delivery guarantee. Any quote should state the following in writing before you sign:
- What arrives each month, counted: posts, pages, review replies.
- Whose name the accounts are in. Your Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics and website should belong to you, with the provider added as a user.
- How to cancel, the notice you must give, and what you keep when you leave.
- What the monthly report measures, and against what starting point.
- Any setup fee or minimum term, stated before you pay.
Why will an honest quote leave out rankings?
Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking (how Google ranks local results). A price tied to a position in the map results is a price for something the seller does not control. What a provider does control is the work, its delivery dates and the report, and a fair quote prices those. The same measurements taken every month from the same starting point let you see the trend yourself, and stop paying if it stays flat.
What does one-time work cost?
Not every business needs a monthly plan straight away. The Roadmap Audit, $495 one time, suits an owner who wants a written plan before committing to anything monthly, or who is taking the work over from someone else. The plan arrives within 3 business days. If you then start a monthly plan within 30 days, the audit's price is credited to your first month.
The Fix Sprint, $950 one time, suits a site whose problems are few and already known, usually from the scan: up to 12 hours of work, delivered within 10 business days. If that clears the list, a monthly plan can wait until you want steady work on reviews and pages. The free scan shows which case you are in before you spend anything, and our guide on whether local SEO is worth it does the arithmetic for the monthly route.
Questions
Why do you publish your prices?
So you can set a price against the work before anyone calls you. A hidden price turns every quote into a negotiation and makes comparing providers close to impossible.
Is there a setup fee on top of the monthly price?
No, except on the AI chatbot, which has a one-time setup fee of $950 as well as its monthly price. None of the plans in the table above carries one.
Do I have to sign up for a fixed term?
No. Every monthly plan runs month to month and you can cancel any month, keeping every account, page and review.
What does each extra location cost?
On Local, Growth and Authority, each location after the first is an Additional location at $600 a month. GBP Care and Review Engine are priced per location, so each one you add costs the same again.
Related reading
Services
- Local SEO: Your Business Profile, reviews, listings and site worked on together for the map results and local searches your customers make.
- Google Business Profile management: Your Business Profile kept complete, accurate and active every week, from hours and categories to posts and photos.
- Review management: Review requests after every job and a drafted reply to every review, within the rules Google and the FTC set.
Guides
- Is local SEO worth it for a small business? How to tell whether local SEO can pay for itself, using your own numbers, and when it is not the right spend.
- Should you do local SEO in-house or hire an agency? What you can do yourself, what a hire costs, and when an agency is the better use of the money.
Related terms
- Map pack: The short list of local businesses Google shows with a map, and the three things Google says decide who appears.
- Google Business Profile: The free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in local results, and what keeping it accurate involves.
- Local citations: Mentions of your business name, address and phone on other websites, and which ones are worth your time.
Sources
- Ahrefs: SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost? 439 People Polled, updated August 15, 2024. Checked September 26, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google. Checked September 26, 2026.
- Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?, updated June 5, 2026. Checked September 26, 2026.