How much does local SEO cost for a home service company?

Two quotes for "local SEO" can differ by thousands of dollars a month and still sound the same on the phone. The difference is usually in what gets done each month, and that's often not written down.

This page explains what moves the price, what a fair monthly scope looks like and how to check whether it pays for itself. Our own prices are near the end, and they're the same as on our pricing page.

What drives the price of local SEO?

Mostly three things: how many locations you have, how many services you want calls for, and how crowded your market is.

• Locations. Each one has its own Google Business Profile, reviews and listings to keep right.
• Services. Each service you want calls for needs a real page, and more services means more pages to write and keep current.
• Competition. A roofer in a big metro faces more established companies than a plumber in a small town, so it takes more reviews and mentions to stand out.

Other things matter less than they're made to sound. The number of keywords in a report, the length of the report and the length of the contract don't tell you how much work gets done.

What should a monthly fee buy?

A list of work done each month that you can count and check. For a home service company, that usually means:

• New or improved pages for the services you want more of, written from your real jobs
• Listing fixes: wrong details corrected and missing listings claimed
• Google Business Profile updates, such as services, photos and posts
• Help asking for reviews, and replies to the reviews you get
• Mentions earned on local and trade sites
• A fixed set of buyer questions asked to AI assistants, with the answers written down

Each item should come with proof: a link, a screenshot or a before-and-after. If a quote says "ongoing optimization" and nothing else, ask what that means in a normal month. Our local SEO checklist shows what the work involves if you'd rather do it yourself.

Is AI search included, or an extra?

It depends on who you ask, so ask. Some agencies sell AI search as an add-on, and some fold it into local SEO. Buyers move between AI search and Google, so the two overlap:

So paying for AI search without the local basics rarely makes sense. Whoever you talk to, these questions show what you'd actually get:

• Which AI assistants do you check, and how often?
• Do you ask the same questions every month, so results can be compared?
• What do you change when an answer gets my details wrong?
• Will I see the exact questions and the dated answers?

All our plans include it: each month we run a fixed set of buyer questions across the AI assistants we test (currently ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity). We explain how on our methodology page, and our AI visibility benchmark is free to run.

Retainer, one-time fix or do it yourself?

That depends on how much you want done for you, and for how long.

• Monthly plan: for owners who want the work done every month. Ours start at $750/mo, month to month with no minimum term.
• One-time fix: a Found Sprint is $1,500 fixed: up to 10 prioritized fixes from your report, done within 30 days once we have access and an agreed scope, with one round of revisions.
• Do it yourself: the Expert Action Plan is $149: the complete report plus a 30-minute consultation on what to fix first. It's credited once toward your first plan month or a Found Sprint if you start within 30 days of buying it.

Book a free 30-minute strategy call if you can't tell which one fits. We'll say so when the honest answer is "none of them yet".

How can you tell if it pays off?

Work it out from your own numbers before you sign anything. You need four: your average job, what you keep from it, how many calls you close, and the monthly cost.

Then judge it over months, not weeks. Pages, reviews and listings take time to show up in search, and one slow month says little on its own.

How does that compare with paying per lead?

Google's Local Services Ads charge per lead rather than per month, and Google's help pages explain how that billing works.^[1] Paying per lead brings calls quickly once Google approves you, and it stops the day you stop paying.

Local SEO works the other way round: slower to start, but the pages, reviews and listings stay yours. For how we work with home service trades, see contractor marketing.

What do our plans cost, and what's included?

Here's what each plan includes every month:

Every plan runs month to month with no minimum term. Each item has a credit value, except optional items done as needed. If we miss one, its credit comes off your next invoice.

We publish our prices for the same reason owners should publish theirs:

Which pricing red flags should you watch for?

Walk away, or at least slow down, if you see any of these:

• A monthly price with no list of what gets done each month.
• Promised rankings or a promised spot in ChatGPT. Google says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.^[2]
• A long contract with no way out if the work isn't delivered.
• Reports full of traffic and ranking charts but no list of the work done.
• Packages built on dozens of near-identical city pages or bulk directory submissions.
• Reviews written or bought for you as part of the service.

What no price can buy

No budget buys a fixed spot on the map or in an AI answer. Google and the AI companies decide what they show, and distance to the person searching plays a part. What money buys is work: better pages, cleaner listings, review requests and new mentions, done every month and shown to you.