The short answer: most small businesses pay somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars a month for SEO. In our 2026 review of published prices from 14 local and small-business firms, monthly plans ranged from $200 to $5,500, with a median of $1,625. Our own monthly SEO plans are $950, $1,750 and $3,200.
What do agencies charge for SEO?
- Budget plans ($200 to $600 a month): usually Google Business Profile upkeep and basic reporting, often with long contracts.
- Mid-market plans ($950 to $2,000 a month): local SEO, content, tracking and regular fixes.
- Top-tier plans ($3,000 and up): more content, more locations, link building and deeper reporting.
The price tells you less than the scope does. Two plans at the same monthly price can include very different amounts of work. One may only post to your Google Business Profile and send a report. Another may write new pages, fix problems on your site and track how you show up on the map across your service area. Always ask exactly what happens each month.
What should you get each month?
- Google Business Profile posts and upkeep.
- Pages on your site monitored and improved, with keyword rankings tracked.
- New content that answers what your customers search for.
- Map rankings tracked across your service area.
- A plain-English report that ties the work to calls and leads.
- AI visibility checks: are ChatGPT and Google AI naming you?
If a plan leaves out new content or never touches your website, it is mostly maintenance. Maintenance has value, but it rarely moves a business that is not showing up yet. If your report is full of charts but never mentions calls, form fills or booked jobs, ask for that connection.
How does AI search change SEO?
It adds to it rather than replacing it. AI tools build their answers from sites search engines already trust, so the basics still matter. What is new is the extra work to be quotable and recommendable: answer-first pages, schema, an llms.txt file and consistent details everywhere. We cover it in Getting Found When Customers Ask AI: The 2027 Playbook.
If you want AI visibility work on its own, our AI search optimization service starts with a free AI Visibility Snapshot. The AI Visibility Audit is $1,500, and the AI Visibility Plan is $1,500 a month, or $750 a month when added to a Foundation SEO plan.
What do we charge?
- Foundation, $950 a month: 10 of your pages managed, 4 profile posts and 1 new article or page a month, 25 keywords tracked and a 25-point map grid.
- Growth, $1,750 a month: up to 25 pages managed, 2 new articles or pages a month, 50 keywords, a 49-point map grid, AI visibility checks and a monthly strategy call.
- Acceleration, $3,200 a month: your whole site, 4 new articles or pages a month, 100 keywords, an 81-point map grid and the full AI Visibility program.
Plans start with 3 months, then go month to month. Local SEO also needs a verified Google Business Profile, the Data Aggregator Boost ($249 a year) and at least 10 directory listings ($149). Full details are on our SEO services and pricing pages.
Why the listings? Search engines and AI tools compare your name, phone and address details across directories. Consistent listings help them trust that your business is real and where you say it is. We recommend 25 listings ($299) for most businesses, and you can read how it works on our citation building page. If your Google Business Profile is not set up yet, setup is $450 one time.
How do you choose an SEO plan, step by step?
- Check your foundation. Is your Google Business Profile verified? Does your website have a page for each main service? If not, fix those first.
- Count your services and service areas. More services and towns usually mean more pages to manage and more content to write.
- Look at your competition. Search for your main service in your town. If the same few businesses own the map and the top results, plan for steady work.
- Match the plan to the gap. A small business in one town may only need Foundation. A business covering several areas usually needs more content each month.
- Ask how results are reported. You want calls, leads and map rankings, not just traffic charts.
- Check the contract. Know how long you are committed and what happens when that ends.
- Give it time. SEO builds over months, not weeks. Judge it on the trend.
Questions to ask any SEO company before you sign
- What exactly will you do each month, and how many new pages or articles does that include?
- Will you change my website, or only my Google Business Profile?
- How do you track map rankings across my service area?
- How will I see the connection between your work and my calls and leads?
- Do I own the content you write if I leave?
- How long is the contract, and what happens after that?
Common mistakes when buying SEO
- Choosing on price alone. A cheap plan that only posts to your profile will not fix a website that has no service pages.
- Signing a long contract with no exit. Ask what you are committed to and why.
- Believing guarantees. No one controls Google. A promise of page one is a warning sign.
- Ignoring your website. SEO works through your site. If it is slow, thin or missing pages, fix that or the monthly work has little to build on.
- Skipping listings. Inconsistent business details across directories make it harder for search engines and AI tools to trust you.
- Reports with no business numbers. If your report never mentions calls or leads, you cannot tell whether the money is working.
- Quitting too early. Stopping after a few weeks usually means paying for setup and leaving before the results.
A hypothetical example
Say you run a lawn care company in Fort Thomas, KY. This is a made-up scenario, not a client story. You have a verified Google Business Profile and a simple website with one services page. You want more calls from nearby towns.
The Foundation plan at $950 a month would manage 10 of your pages, add 4 profile posts and 1 new article or page each month, track 25 keywords and check your map rankings on a 25-point grid. For local SEO you would also add the Data Aggregator Boost at $249 a year and directory listings, starting at $149 for 10. In the first months, the new pages would likely be the services you already do but never described on their own, such as mowing, aeration or leaf removal.
If you served a wide area and wanted to move faster, Growth at $1,750 a month doubles the new content and adds AI visibility checks and a monthly strategy call. Either way, after the first 3 months you would go month to month and judge the plan on calls and quote requests. No plan can guarantee a ranking, and this example does not predict a result.
What results can SEO bring?
No one can promise rankings, and you should be wary of anyone who does. For a sense of what steady work can do: Jeannie’s Cleaning, on our local SEO plan, got 3 times more clicks from Google and 147 quote requests in a single quarter. See the Jeannie’s Cleaning project, and our guide to how long local SEO takes.
If your website itself needs work before SEO can help, our guide on how much a small business website costs breaks down what to expect.
Frequently asked questions
Is $200 a month enough for SEO?
It can cover basic Google Business Profile upkeep and reporting. It usually does not include new content or website fixes, which are what help most businesses that are not showing up yet.
How long before SEO pays off?
SEO builds over months. That is why our plans start with 3 months and then go month to month. Our guide on how long local SEO takes covers what to watch along the way.
Do I need local SEO or regular SEO?
If customers find you by searching for a service near them, you need local SEO. That includes your Google Business Profile, map rankings and consistent listings. Online stores and businesses that sell nationwide lean more on regular SEO.
Can I cancel an SEO plan?
With us, yes. Plans start with 3 months, then go month to month. Ask any agency the same question before you sign.
Want a straight answer for your business? Book a free strategy call, or start with a free AI Visibility Snapshot.
