How much does local SEO cost? The most common price is $500 to $1,000 a month, and 30% of agencies charge less than $500. The number matters less than what gets done for it each month. Below are the real ranges, what each one buys, and what the work did for three home service businesses.
How much does a local SEO agency typically charge?
Most agencies sell local SEO as a monthly retainer. In SE Ranking's 2025 pricing survey of 260 agencies, 94% of which serve small or local businesses, the most common range was $500 to $1,000 a month.
| Monthly price | Share of agencies |
|---|---|
| Under $500 | 30% |
| Under $1,000 (including the row above) | 64% |
| $1,000 to $2,000 | 20% |
| $2,000 to $5,000 | 13% |
| Over $5,000 | 2% |
Agencies in the US and Canada sit higher: 22% of them charge over $2,000 a month. Around Louisville, $2,000 a month is what a bigger shop would quote.
Local SEO pricing models: monthly, hourly or per project
The survey gives a common range for each way you'll be charged.
- Monthly retainer: $500 to $1,000 a month is the most common range.
- Hourly: $50 to $100 an hour is the most common rate. In the US and Canada, 40% of agencies charge over $125 an hour.
- Per project: $500 to $2,000 covers most single jobs, with 66% of agencies in that range.
Is $300 a month a good price for local SEO?
It can be. It depends on what gets done for it. At this price, ask one question first: will they write and publish pages on your website, or only work on your listings and send a report? A plan that never touches your site can't add a page for each service you sell.
I can answer this from the inside: I charge $297 a month for local SEO in Louisville, with no contract, and the website is included. That puts me in the under-$500 band, where 30% of the agencies in the survey sit. Here's what a plan at that price should cover, using mine as the example.
What a $300 a month plan should include
- Your Google Business Profile built out and kept active every month.
- A real page for every service you sell and every area you cover.
- Steady review requests, so reviews keep coming in.
- The technical side: fast pages, clean structure, schema, and your name, address and phone matching everywhere Google looks.
- One short monthly report: what moved and what's next.
Why it can cost less than an agency
It's just me. No account manager, no sales team, no office. That's most of the difference between $297 a month and the $2,000 a bigger shop would quote. The trade-off is focus: I only work with Louisville home service businesses, so online stores and businesses outside Louisville aren't a fit.
Is local SEO worth it for a small business?
It's worth it when the work turns into calls you can count. Here is what the work did for three home service businesses.
- ER Landscaping, a lawn care company in Shelby County, went from 3 visitors from Google to 166 in six months, on the same five monthly jobs listed above. Calls from its Google profile went up 1,000%: 11 calls from January to May 2026, against the same months a year before. Six of its 21 quote requests became paying customers in the first three months, worth about $10,000 in booked work. The full lawn care SEO case study has the screenshots.
- Base Basements, an owner-operated basement remodeler in Louisville, went from not being in the map pack to #1 for basement remodeling and basement finishing. 25 pages were built, and 2 leads came in during the first two weeks. See the home remodeling SEO case study.
- A family auto body shop started from zero: Google had no record of them showing up for anything. In the 27 days after tracking went live, 41 people called or messaged, from 53 website visitors. See the auto body shop case study.
Is local SEO free?
Partly. Google calls it "a free Business Profile", so the listing itself costs nothing. You also can't pay Google for a better spot. Its own help page says: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, in Google's words.
What costs money is the work that builds those three, or your own hours if you do it yourself. If you can't find your business on the map at all, start with why is my business not showing up on Google Maps before paying anyone.
Can I do SEO on my own?
Yes. Most local SEO is a few hours a month, done steadily: asking for reviews, keeping the Business Profile up to date, and adding one new page. I broke down how much time local SEO takes, hour by hour.
Doing it yourself swaps money for time. The question is whether those hours are worth more to you on the job.
| Option | What it costs | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | No fee, just your hours each month | You |
| A solo SEO (me) | $297 a month | Me, every month |
| A typical agency | $500 to $1,000 a month | An agency team |
| Bigger Louisville shop | About $2,000 a month | An agency team, with an account manager |
How much should I pay for SEO services?
Pay for the work you need. A trade with a good site and a busy profile may only need its listings kept tidy. A trade with no service pages needs pages written, which takes more time each month.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What will you do in a normal month? Ask for things you can count, such as pages, posts and review requests.
- Will you write and publish pages on my website?
- Who owns the website and content if I leave? With me, you keep the website whether you stay or leave.
- Is there a contract, and how long is it?
- Can you show me a real client's Search Console numbers? If you're not sure what you're looking at, here's how to read Google Search Console.
- Do you guarantee #1? If yes, walk away. Google's own advice: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."
Is SEO dead now with AI?
No. Ask ChatGPT for lawn care or landscaping in ER Landscaping's area and it names ER first, ahead of everyone else in town. More and more people start their search there. Here's how to show up in ChatGPT for a local business.
AI search is now a line on some price lists too. In the same survey, 61% of agencies are considering adding optimization for AI search, and the ones that have set a price charge, or plan to charge, about $937 a month on average. Before paying extra for it, ask what it does that the local SEO work doesn't.
More local SEO cost questions
What is the average cost of SEO services?
$500 to $1,000 a month is the most common range, and 64% of agencies charge under $1,000 a month (SE Ranking, 2025). WebFX says most businesses spend $2,500 a month.
How much does local SEO cost per hour?
$50 to $100 an hour is the most common rate. In the US and Canada, 40% of agencies charge over $125 an hour.
How much does on-page SEO cost?
Most agencies bundle on-page work (titles, headings, page copy, schema) into a package: 85% sell SEO as packages. Bought as a single project, most agency projects cost $500 to $2,000.
What is the 80/20 rule for SEO?
It's the idea that a small part of the work drives most of the results. For a home service trade, that part is usually the Google Business Profile, a page for each service and area, and steady reviews: the same few jobs listed above.
If you'd like to know what your own business needs before you pay anyone, I'll send you a free local SEO growth plan: where you show up now, what's holding you back, and what I'd fix first.
Where these numbers come from
- Price ranges and shares: SE Ranking, "SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost In 2025 [Agency Survey]", 260 agencies (170 surveyed plus 90 from its agency catalog). The survey's authors say the sample may not be large enough for statistical significance, so treat it as a guide.
- WebFX average: WebFX, "SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost?".
- Google quotes: Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google"; Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?"; google.com/business.
- Client numbers: Google Search Console, Google Business Profile and Google Analytics for ER Landscaping Solutions and the auto body shop; Google Maps, checked by hand, for Base Basements; booked work and leads as reported by the clients.
- My price: $297 a month, no contract, from my own services page.