There is no single published average cost of local SEO that you can trust, so build the figure yourself from hours, an hourly rate and the number of locations. Google charges nothing for a profile, so what you pay for is work.
This guide shows what Google does and does not charge for, how to build a first-year figure for one location, how to test it in jobs, and which quote mistakes cost the most.
What is the average cost of local SEO?
No primary source publishes one. The average cost of local SEO changes with scope, competition and who does the work, so a blended figure from a survey tells you little about your own quote.
What is certain is where the money does not go. Google lets you add or claim a Business Profile at no charge, and its guide on hiring an SEO says Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results. Google’s local ranking tips add that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Adding the profile costs $0, and so does verifying it, so the budget starts at the first hour of work. That is why the local SEO cost is the cost of the work: your own time, a freelancer, an agency or a consultant. We don’t state a market range here because the ranges we found come from vendor surveys, not from a source that can be checked. The 3 numbers that matter instead are your setup hours, your monthly hours and the hourly rate they work out to. For published figures with their sources, see our guides to local SEO packages and the average price of SEO.
What does local SEO include?
Three groups of work: a complete, accurate Business Profile, a website with real pages for what you do and where, and signals that make you well known, such as reviews and mentions.
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. You can’t change distance, so the work is relevance and prominence:
- Relevance: verify the business, fill in the category, hours and service area, and keep them current.
- Prominence: Google ties it to how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, so asking for genuine reviews and replying to them counts.
- Pages: one page for each main service and area you really cover, written from your own jobs.
- Reporting: calls, messages, direction requests and booked jobs, not rankings alone.
Google charges $0 for any of this, but each step takes your hours: a full profile review can take 2 hours, and writing a service page can take 4 hours or more. Those hours are invented round figures for planning, not measurements.
Each item is hours of work, which is why the local SEO pricing you are quoted should name the items and not just a monthly total.
How much does local SEO cost per month?
Hours times a rate. The local SEO cost per month is the monthly hours a quote buys multiplied by the hourly rate it works out to, so ask for both numbers.
The example above is invented: one location, 14 setup hours (4 for the audit, 2 for the profile, 8 for service pages), 8 hours a month and a $90 hourly rate. That makes a monthly total of $720 and a first-year total of $9,900, then $8,640 for each later year once setup is done. Swap in the hours and rate from your own quote to get your own average cost of local SEO.
Two quotes can show the same monthly total and buy different work. A quote of $720 that buys 8 hours at $90 is not the same as one that buys 6 hours at $120. Divide each quote by the hours it names before you compare the local SEO cost of one with the other.
Setup is why month 1 looks expensive. If a quote has no setup line, the profile and page fixes are either inside the monthly fee or not included, so ask which.
The local services marketing page has our starting price cards, and your exact cost is fixed in writing before any work begins.
What is the average cost of local SEO for a small business?
For a small business with one location, it is the first-year formula above with your own hours. The average cost of local SEO for a small business rises mainly with the number of locations and how crowded the market is.
Locations matter because Google’s business guidelines give a service-area business one profile. A business with separate service areas and separate staff at each location is allowed one profile per location. The overall service area shouldn’t extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where the business is based. Each extra profile adds its own profile work, pages and reporting, so a second location is closer to a second budget than to a small add-on.
Take a business with 3 locations, each with its own staff and service area: with 3 profiles, 3 sets of pages and 3 reports, a rough planning figure is 3 times the one-location hours, before any shared work is netted off.
A market with many similar businesses needs more page and mention work to stand out, which pushes the monthly hours up. A quiet market needs fewer. This is why two businesses on the same package can pay very different totals, and why a single average cost of local SEO says little about either. Our local business marketing page shows how this plays out for trades and local services.
How long does local SEO take to show results?
Some changes show in hours, others take months. Google’s SEO starter guide says some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks to assess the work.
That timing shapes the cost. A fixed profile can change visibility sooner than new pages or new reviews, so judge a local SEO cost per month over a quarter, not week by week.
For our own local work, we send the audit within 2 workdays and finish setup and fixes in about 1 week, as published on the local services marketing page. Whoever you hire, ask for a timeline that specific, with dates.
Ask for a dated fix log in the first month, and for the local SEO cost per month to be stated with the hours it buys. If the audit and the first fixes haven’t arrived by the end of month 1, the plan is already running late, and it is fair to ask why before paying for month 2.
Is local SEO worth it?
It is worth it when the first-year total is covered by the jobs it brings, and you can test that with 3 numbers: your profit per job, your enquiry-to-job rate and the first-year figure.
Here is a break-even with invented numbers. Say your profit per job is $450. Divide the $9,900 first-year total from the example by $450 and you need 22 jobs. If 1 enquiry in 3 becomes a job, that is 66 enquiries a year, or 5.5 a month.
If you can’t see 5 or 6 more enquiries a month from search, the local SEO cost isn’t the problem; the scope is. Google also says a small local business can probably do much of the work itself, so a lighter scope, such as profile upkeep and review replies in-house, may fit a thin margin better.
The same test works in reverse. If your profit per job is $1,500, the same 22-job budget shrinks to about 7 jobs; if it is $150, you would need 66 jobs and a lighter scope is the better buy. The average cost of local SEO matters less than the size of a job in your trade.
Our free audit gives you the problems in order and a written estimate before you decide, and the sample report shows what a monthly report should contain.
Which quote mistakes make local SEO cost more?
Five mistakes cost the most, and each one is visible in the quote or the first call. Check for these before you sign, whatever the monthly fee.
- A ranking promise. Google’s hiring advice says that if an SEO promises first place in search results, find someone else.
- Many town profiles. A service-area business gets one profile, and its area shouldn’t extend beyond about 2 hours of driving, so a package of profiles for every town is paying for what the guidelines don’t allow.
- A virtual office address. A rented mailing address where you don’t operate isn’t eligible for a Business Profile.
- Keywords in the business name. Google says unnecessary information in the name isn’t permitted and could lead to suspension; the name should match the real-world name.
- Write access for an audit. Google advises granting only read access to Search Console at that stage.
A suspended profile costs far more than any fee, because the work stops until it is fixed. If a quote includes any of the five, ask for it to be removed or walk away. For more on comparing quotes, see our buying guides.