What providers charge today
The largest public survey we found is from Ahrefs, which polled 439 SEO providers. It reports an average of $1,557 a month for local SEO, with agencies at about $1,819 and freelancers at about $1,150. Across all SEO retainers, the most common range was $501 to $1,000 a month, and the most common hourly rate was $75 to $100.
Averages hide a wide spread. A single-location plumber in a small town and a multi-location dental group in a large metro are different jobs. Use the survey as a sanity check, not as your price list. If your number is far below the common range, ask whether you are underpricing; if it is far above, be ready to explain what the client gets for it.
Use the survey as a sanity check, not as your price list.
Find your floor first
Your floor is the lowest price at which a client still makes sense for you. It comes from time, tools and the margin you need, not from competitors.
For example: profile posts, review replies, a monthly report and one call add up to five hours a month. At an internal cost of $40 an hour that is $200. Add $60 in software per client and $40 for overhead such as bookkeeping and insurance, and the cost is $300. With a target margin of 50%, the floor is $600 a month.
- Hours per client per month, honestly counted, including calls and email
- Internal hourly cost: your own pay target or the cost of a contractor
- Software per client: profile management, reviews, rank tracking, reporting
- Overhead share: bookkeeping, insurance, payment fees
- Target margin: for example, 50% on recurring work
Price against the value of one customer
Business owners rarely buy hours. They compare your fee with what a new customer is worth to them. Ask in the first call: what is an average job worth, and how many new customers a month would make the retainer obviously worth it?
For example, if a roofing company earns $2,000 in gross profit on an average job, a $900 retainer pays for itself with one extra job every two months. A hair salon with a $60 average ticket needs many more new customers for the same fee, so the retainer has to be smaller or the scope narrower. This is why pricing by industry works better than one price for everyone.
Do not promise the number of new customers. Google states that no one can guarantee a top ranking, and local rankings depend partly on where the searcher is. Use the value math to set the price, not as a forecast in the contract.
Business owners rarely buy hours.
Build two or three tiers
Tiers let the client choose scope instead of negotiating price. Keep them clearly different and make the middle tier the one you want most clients on.
- Essentials: profile management, review requests and replies, monthly report
- Growth: everything in Essentials, plus local pages or articles on the client’s site and weekly map rank tracking
- Market leader: everything in Growth, plus citation cleanup, more keywords, a second service area and a monthly strategy call
Setup fees, per-location pricing and contracts
Charge a setup fee for the first month’s extra work: fixing categories and services on the profile, photo uploads, review request setup, collecting access and the baseline audit. For example, a setup fee equal to one month’s retainer is simple to explain and covers most of that work.
Price per location, not per client. A business with three locations has three Google profiles, three sets of reviews and three map grids to track. A per-location price, often with a discount from the second location, keeps the work and the fee in line.
Contract length is a trade-off. Month-to-month terms are easier to sell; a minimum term such as three months covers the setup period before results show. Whatever you choose, write down the cancellation notice and what happens to accounts and content when the client leaves.
Price per location, not per client.
Example: margin at ten clients
Software cost grows with each client, so check your margin at the client count you plan for, not at one client. Here is a worked example with our own partner pricing: a $97 monthly membership plus $42 per client location on the Core tier. At 10 clients the software costs $517 a month.
If each of those clients pays an example retainer of $600, monthly revenue is $6,000 and the software takes about 9% of it. The rest pays for your time, sales and profit. Run the same math with any platform you consider, including per-seat and per-feature charges, before you set a client price.
Turn it into a rate card
Once you have a floor, tiers and a setup fee, write them on one internal page: a rate card. It keeps your quotes consistent, makes it easy for a second salesperson to quote, and stops you from inventing a new price on every call.
Review the rate card every quarter against two numbers from your own books: the real hours each tier took, and the share of proposals that closed at each tier. If a tier regularly takes more hours than planned, either raise its price or cut its scope. If almost every client picks the cheapest tier, the middle tier probably does not show enough extra value.
- Tier names, monthly price per location and what each includes
- Setup fee per tier and what it covers
- Discount for additional locations
- Minimum term and cancellation notice
- Add-ons with fixed prices: extra service area, extra keywords, website work
- Floor price below which you do not go
Raising prices without losing clients
New clients should get your current price; existing clients can be moved up once a year with notice. Tie each increase to a change the client can see, such as an added service area, more keywords tracked or more content.
Give at least thirty days’ notice in writing, explain the reason in one paragraph, and offer a smaller tier for clients who want to keep their current spend. A monthly report with real work in it makes a modest increase much easier to accept.
- Do not price on ranking guarantees or “pay per first-page keyword” deals; you cannot control the outcome.
- Do not discount the first months below your floor to win a deal; raise the scope later instead.
- Do not hide software or ad costs inside the retainer without saying so in the proposal.
Questions
How much should a small agency charge for local SEO?
Start from your floor (time, tools and margin) and check it against public surveys. Ahrefs reports agencies averaging about $1,819 a month for local SEO, but single-location clients in small towns often pay less.
Should I charge hourly or a monthly retainer?
Local SEO is recurring work, so a monthly retainer fits better. Hourly billing is useful for one-off projects such as a profile cleanup or a website migration.
Is a setup fee normal for local SEO?
Yes. The first month has more work than later months, and a setup fee pays for it. For example, one month’s retainer is a simple amount to explain.
How do I price a business with several locations?
Price per location, because each one has its own profile, reviews and rankings. A discount from the second location keeps multi-location deals attractive.
Sources: Ahrefs: SEO pricing survey of 439 providers, Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?, Google: How to improve your local ranking.