How much does local SEO cost?

Most small businesses with one location pay somewhere between $500 and $2,000 a month for local SEO, although you'll find plans below and well above that range. One-time projects such as an audit or a Google Business Profile cleanup usually cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Where a business lands depends on how many towns it wants to rank in, how competitive its trade is, and what the provider actually does each month.

What local SEO usually costs

• Monthly plans for a single location: commonly $500 to $2,000 a month.
• Businesses with several locations: several thousand dollars a month and up.
• A one-time audit: often $500 to $3,000, depending on how deep it goes.
• Google Business Profile setup or cleanup: often a few hundred dollars per location as a one-time job.
• Hourly consulting: commonly $100 to $250 an hour.

These ranges come from published agency pricing guides and vary by region, so treat them as a starting point rather than a quote.

What the monthly fee should pay for

Local SEO is mostly about showing up in the map results when someone nearby searches for what you do. The monthly work that improves those rankings usually includes:

• Keeping your Google Business Profile complete and accurate, with the right categories, services, service area and photos.
• Building a real page on your website for each service and each town you want work from.
• Getting a steady flow of new reviews and replying to them.
• Correcting your business name, address and phone number on the directories that still matter.
• Checking where you rank across your service area and reporting what changed.

If a provider can't tell you which of these they'll do in a given month, it's hard to know what you're paying for.

Why prices vary so much

A plumber who wants to rank in two towns faces a very different job from a roofer who wants to rank across a whole metro area. More towns means more pages and more ranking work, and crowded trades like roofing and HVAC take longer to move than less competitive ones. Some providers also bundle ads, a website or content into the same fee, which makes a low price and a high price hard to compare directly.

Warning signs in a local SEO quote

• A guarantee of the number one spot, since nobody controls how Google ranks businesses.
• A long contract with no way out if the work isn't showing results.
• Reports that show traffic and keywords but never mention calls, form fills or booked jobs.
• Weekly Google Business Profile posts sold as the main service, since posts on their own rarely change rankings.
• Hundreds of directory listings or links bought in bulk.

How long it takes to see results

Google Business Profile fixes can show up within a few weeks. Rankings across a wider service area usually take three to six months to build, and they keep improving after that if the work continues. Ask for a map of where you rank before the work starts, so you can see the change for yourself instead of relying on the provider's word.

What local SEO costs with SiteHike

Local SEO is included in every SiteHike plan, and the plans are $247, $347 and $597 a month with no build fee. The Visible plan covers the core local SEO work and your Google Business Profile setup. Ranked adds ongoing pages for your core towns, ongoing profile management and a review request system. Booked adds a page for every town you serve and Google Ads management. Every plan comes with a website built for your business and a monthly report of calls, form fills and booked jobs. You can read how our local SEO services work or compare the plans on our pricing page.