Most local SEO is simple, steady work. An owner can do most of it.
A few jobs are different. They come up rarely, they are easy to get wrong, and a mistake can cost you calls for weeks.
So plenty of owners do the steady work themselves. They pay someone only for the rare jobs.
We sell the agency side, so keep that in mind. Every price on this page is one we publish.
When each option makes sense
Hiring an agency makes sense if
- The weekly work keeps slipping.
- Your time is worth more than the fee.
- The businesses above you on Google Maps are clearly working on their profiles.
- You have more than one location.
- You have done it yourself for a few months and nothing has moved.
Doing it yourself makes sense if
- You have a few hours a week.
- Money is tight right now.
- The businesses above you have few reviews and thin profiles.
- You want to learn how it works first.
- You only need one thing fixed.
Which jobs to do yourself, and which to hand over
Most rows are weekly work you can keep. The last few are rare, and that is where mistakes cost the most.
| The job | Hiring an agency | Doing it yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Asking for reviews | Requests go out after every job, by text and email. | You meet the customer, so you ask best. The hard part is never skipping it. |
| Replying to reviews | We can draft the replies. | Better fit. You know the customer and the job. Your reply reads better. |
| Photos, posts and hours | Part of the plan, but the photos still come from you. | Better fit. A few minutes a week from your phone. |
| Primary category | Better fit. We check what the businesses above you use first. | Easy to get wrong. It decides which searches you show up for. |
| Listings on other sites | Better fit. 50 on Starter and 150 on Professional, checked every month. | Slow. Many old listings were made by someone else. |
| Location pages on your site | 4 on Starter and 12 on Professional. | Fine if you can edit your site and write plainly. |
| Stuck verification or suspension | Better fit. A one-off fix. Verification is from $299 and a suspension is $499, refunded if it doesn't work. | Most owners face it once, so there is no practice run. |
| Duplicates that come back | Better fit. Cleanup from $799, priced after a free check. | Deleting the copy rarely works. A data company keeps feeding it back. |
| Checking progress | A plain-English report every month. | Check the same few searches from the same spots each month. |
“Better fit” marks the side that usually does that job better. No mark means it is about even.
What each path costs
Our side is our published prices. Your side is mostly your time.
| Line item | Hiring us | Doing it yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | Starter is $499 and Professional is $1,299. Both cover one location, month to month, with no setup fee. | Nothing. |
| Your time | Calls, approvals and your photos. | A few hours a week, and more in the first month. |
| Extra locations | $400 a month, plus $250 for each location. | Each one is another profile to keep up. |
| When something breaks | Fixes from $299, paid upfront and refunded if they don't work. | Free if it goes well. You can also buy just the fix. |
| Tools | Included. | Optional. Most owners end up paying for rank tracking and a listings checker. |
| Knowing what to fix first | A free audit. | The same free audit. You can then do the fixes yourself. |
Plan prices are on our pricing page, and each fix has its price on its own page. We don't price third-party tools, because their prices change.
Is it worth paying for local SEO?
Doing it yourself is paid for with your time. So compare your time with the fee.
Here is a quick way to check:
- For two weeks, write down how long the weekly work takes you.
- Multiply the weekly hours by what an hour of your time is worth.
- Multiply that by 4.3 to get a month.
Say it takes you three hours a week, and your hour is worth $50. That comes to about $650 a month. Starter costs $499.
At one hour a week, it comes to about $215. Then doing it yourself is clearly cheaper.
Then look at the other side. Say a new customer is worth $250 to you. Starter then needs two extra customers a month to pay for itself.
Nobody can promise you those customers, including us. Treat it as the bar the work has to clear. All our plans and fixes are on the pricing page.
SEO agency vs doing SEO yourself: what changes when it's local
Most DIY SEO advice is written for websites that want to rank across a whole country. That is why it talks so much about blog posts and links.
Local results work differently. Google picks the businesses in the map results mainly from:
- your Google Business Profile and its categories
- your reviews
- how close you are to the person searching
- whether your name, address and phone match everywhere online
Most of that is steady work an owner can keep up. That is why doing it yourself is more realistic for a local business.
The rare jobs are the exception. The primary category, verification, suspensions and duplicates come up once or twice. We price those per job: verification, suspended listing recovery and listing cleanup. You can buy one without starting a plan.
Where doing it yourself usually stalls
Three things tend to stop owners who do it themselves. None of them is about skill.
The review habit slips
Asking every customer is easy to skip in a busy month. Once it slips, it rarely comes back.
That hurts, because reviews matter more than almost anything else on the list.
A suspension
The profile goes down, and the calls from Google stop. The appeal then asks for evidence most owners never kept.
Our suspension guide walks through the appeal step by step.
Duplicates
Old and duplicate listings keep turning up, on Google and on other sites. You remove one, and a few weeks later it is back.
Google can even mark your own profile as a duplicate. Our guide to the Duplicate status shows how to appeal it.
If one of these has happened to you, you don't need a monthly plan. Each one is a one-off job with its own price.
What to check before you hire anyone
If you decide to pay someone, ask these questions first:
- What will you do each month? Can I have it in writing?
- Who owns the accounts and pages you build?
- How do I stop, and how much notice do you need?
With us, everything stays in your name. You can stop with 30 days' notice.
Be careful with anyone who promises a ranking, offers to buy reviews, or wants a long contract before looking at your profile.
Google has a short guide called Do you need an SEO?. It is worth ten minutes before any sales call, including ours.
So should you hire someone for local SEO?
If you have a few hours a week, and the businesses above you aren't doing much, start yourself.
Get the free audit first, so you know which fixes matter most. Then do the weekly work, and buy a one-off fix if something breaks.
If the weekly work keeps slipping, or your time costs more than the fee, a monthly plan makes more sense. Starter covers one location for $499 a month.
Weighing other options? Read Moz Local vs a managed local SEO service or Local SEO agency vs an in-house hire.
Common questions
Can I do local SEO myself?
Yes. Most of it is steady work on your Google Business Profile: reviews, replies, photos, posts and accurate details. The hard parts are the rare ones, like the primary category, verification and suspensions.
Do I need an SEO agency for a small local business?
Not always. One location in a quiet market can do well with an owner who keeps up the weekly work. An agency makes more sense in a competitive market, or with several locations.
How long before I see results?
Nobody can honestly give you a date, and we don't promise rankings. Map results also change with where the person searching is standing. Check the same few searches from the same spots each month.
Can I do some of it myself and pay for the rest?
Yes, and many owners do. Keep the weekly work, and buy a fix when something breaks. Verification is from $299, a suspended profile is $499, and listing cleanup is from $799. Each fix is paid upfront and refunded in full if it doesn't work.
What if I have more than one location?
Each location has its own profile, reviews and listings, so the work adds up fast. Our multi-location plan is $400 a month, plus $250 for each location.