That's the short answer. The rest of this post is the part most pricing articles skip: who's charging what, why the range is so wide, and what the number on the invoice actually buys. I run a local SEO company, so read this knowing where my bread gets buttered. My prices are public, and so is the reasoning behind them.
What the market charges
Industry pricing surveys and agency rate pages mostly land in the same place. Monthly local SEO retainers typically run $500 to $3,000. Hourly consulting goes $75 to $200 and up. One-time projects, like a citation cleanup or a Google Business Profile rebuild, usually fall between $500 and $5,000 depending on the mess.
The range is that wide because "local SEO" can mean twenty minutes of software a month or twenty hours of actual work by someone who knows your industry. Both get sold under the same name. That's how a $99 plan and a $2,500 plan end up side by side in the same search results looking like the same product.
The invoice number tells you less than what's behind it. So here's what's behind mine.
What I charge, and what the money buys
My pricing page is public, but I'll save you the click:
- Business Profiles Foundation, $397 a month. Your profiles on Google, Bing, and Apple, claimed, cleaned up, and actively managed. Most companies only touch Google. Your customers don't.
- Business Profiles Pro, $597 a month. The same coverage with more activity behind it: more posting, more review work, more attention.
- Local Search Growth, $1,500 a month. The complete system. Profiles plus on-page and technical SEO, citations, content, reviews, and links. This is the tier for taking ground, not just holding it.
- Local Search Domination, $3,500 and up. Multi-location businesses, brutal markets, or both.
Everything is month to month. If the work doesn't earn the next month, you shouldn't be locked into paying for it.
If you only want to know where you stand before committing to anything, I sell audits as standalone projects: $497 for an AI visibility audit, which gets credited toward your first month if you hire me, and $997 for the full local SEO and AI workup.
What actually moves the price
Two businesses can call me the same week and get quotes $2,000 apart. Here's what creates that gap:
- Your industry. A personal injury firm in Dallas is fighting firms that spend five figures a month on marketing. A lawn care company in a town of 40,000 is not. Same playbook, very different intensity.
- Your starting point. A business with a suspended profile, duplicate listings, and a website from 2014 costs more to fix than one that's simply been coasting.
- How much of the system you need. Some businesses just need their profiles run properly. Others need the profiles, the website, the content, and the links, all pulling together.
- Locations. Every location multiplies the profiles, the reviews, the citations, and the pages. Two locations is not the same price as one.
- Who does the work. A senior person's attention costs more than a dashboard's. It's also the part that works.
Price bands, translated
Here's how to read the market once you see it in bands:
- $99 to $250 a month: software. Automated posts, a directory submission, a monthly PDF nobody reads. If this is your real budget, keep the money and do the basics yourself instead. You'll do a better job than the robot.
- $400 to $700 a month: real maintenance. A human being managing your business profiles, reviews, posts, and listings across the platforms that matter. The right spend for a business that mostly needs to be findable, accurate, and active.
- $1,000 to $2,000 a month: growth work. Everything above plus the website itself: service pages, content, links, and tracking that ties it to actual calls. The right spend when you want to outrank someone, not just exist.
- $3,000 and up: scale. Multiple locations, cutthroat industries, or a market where page one is a knife fight.
Five red flags that matter more than the price
I've taken over accounts from a lot of agencies. The expensive problems were rarely about the fee. Watch for these:
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google. A guarantee is a marketing device, not a promise anyone can keep.
- Twelve-month contracts. Long contracts exist because the results wouldn't keep you on their own. Month to month keeps everyone honest.
- They hold your logins. If leaving the agency means losing access to your own Google Business Profile or website, that's not a service, that's a hostage situation. You should own every account, always.
- Vague reports. "Impressions up 40 percent" means nothing if the phone is quiet. Ask for the numbers that pay rent: calls, direction requests, form fills.
- They can't tell you what they did last month. Ask the question directly. A real provider answers in specifics within a minute. A software reseller changes the subject.
When you shouldn't hire anyone, including me
If your business is brand new and you have more time than money, do it yourself first. Claim your profiles, ask every customer for a review, build one page on your site for each service you offer. None of the basics are secret, and I write them up on this blog for free.
Hire help when the time cost passes the fee, or when you've stalled and can't tell why.
And do this math before any sales call, mine included: what is a customer worth to you? If a new customer brings you $60 once and never returns, $1,500 a month is hard math. If a customer is worth $2,000, or comes back every year for a decade, the math forgives a lot. Local SEO prices only make sense next to your numbers, not anyone else's.
The honest bottom line
Budget $400 to $700 a month to be managed properly. Budget $1,000 to $2,000 to grow. Walk away from anything with a ranking guarantee, a long contract, or a login you don't control.
Want to know what your business actually needs before spending anything? That's what the audit is for. I'll look at your profiles, your site, and your market, and tell you what I'd fix in what order. It's free, it's specific, and it doesn't come with a contract to escape.
Questions owners actually ask
How long before local SEO pays for itself?
Profile fixes can move calls within weeks, especially if your listing had wrong hours or a weak category. Ranking gains usually take three to six months of consistent work. Treat the first 90 days as build, and judge the investment at month six, not month one.
Do I have to sign a contract?
With many agencies, yes, commonly six to twelve months. With me, no. Everything at Keith Local is month to month, because the work should earn the renewal.
Can I do local SEO myself?
A lot of it, yes. Claiming profiles, gathering reviews, and building service pages are all learnable. The catch is consistency: most owners do a cleanup weekend, then nothing for a year. The businesses that win treat it like a routine, whether that routine is theirs or someone they hire.
What's the difference between $500 a month and $1,500 a month?
Roughly: $500 maintains your visibility and $1,500 builds it. The lower band keeps your profiles, reviews, and listings healthy. The higher band adds the website work, content, and links that move rankings in competitive searches.
Is local SEO a one-time project?
Some pieces are, like a citation cleanup or a profile rebuild. Visibility isn't. Google keeps changing, competitors keep working, and reviews keep aging. You can pause the work, but the results don't hold still while you do.
George G. Keith
George G. Keith is the founder of Keith Local, a Texas-based local search company for service businesses. He has spent more than a decade running local SEO for criminal defense firms, therapists, contractors, auto transport companies, and other service businesses across the country. Clients work with him directly, month to month, without contracts.