Curious about the cost of local SEO in 2025? This guide covers the average costs and factors that influence local SEO pricing.
We also asked marketers which local SEO services they think are worth paying for.
Which can help you make more informed decisions for your business.
How Much Does Local SEO Cost?
Local SEO costs come into play when you hire an agency or freelancer to help your local business rank in organic search results.
Unlike general SEO services, local SEO targets a specific geographic area. It helps your business appear for searches made by people in your location.
But local SEO pricing is not always consistent. Because improving local SEO typically includes a wide range of possible tasks like:
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile
- Managing local directory listings and citations
- Responding to online reviews
- Adding local business schema markup
- Content creation
- Local link building
- And more
However, several studies have explored the average costs of local SEO. Here’s a summary of their key findings.
Overall, these studies draw similar conclusions on the average cost of local SEO. Which ranges from $100-$3,000 per month or $50-$100 per hour.
What Local SEO Services Are Worth the Cost?
We asked marketers which local business SEO services they believe are worth paying for. And which strategies they prefer to do themselves or skip entirely.
Some of the primary services they mentioned (both in favor and against) included:
- Google Business Profile optimization: Optimizing Google Business Profiles for higher rankings in the Google Local Pack
- Automated citation building: Building local citations in online directories via automation platforms
- Local content creation: Creating content on local or regional topics that your target audience is interested in
- On-page SEO: Optimizing on-page elements (e.g., title tags, meta descriptions, etc.) to improve rankings for a topic or keyword
- Technical SEO: Optimizing a website for crawling, indexing, and technical performance
- Link building: Earning backlinks to a website to improve authority and credibility
- Keyword research: Identifying relevant terms and topics your target audience is searching for
Four local SEO services were frequently mentioned as “worth the cost”:
- Google Business Profile optimization
- Local content creation
- Community-focused link building
- Local citation building
And here’s what marketers said about each.
1. Google Business Profile Optimization
Google Business Profile optimization was the top-mentioned local SEO service in our survey, and 43% of respondents said it’s worth paying a professional to manage it.
Kate Ross, an SEO Specialist for Irresistible Me, said they hired an agency to fine-tune their listing.
“We didn’t have the time or know-how to get it done ourselves,” she says. “And we saw a noticeable bump in foot traffic and online engagement.”
But 19.6% of marketers said GBP optimization could be easily DIY-ed.
Digital Marketing Manager at Shewin, Jazz Su, specifically mentioned the cost savings his brand experienced by bringing this task in-house.
“We saved roughly $500/month,” he says. “It’s relatively straightforward once you understand the basics. The key is consistently updating business hours, responding to reviews, and posting regular updates.”
2. Local Content Creation
Nearly half of the respondents mentioned the role of quality content in local SEO, and in particular, hyper-local content that explores topics relevant to your business and region.
Founder of PressHERO, Maurizio Petrone, said paying for this service is well worth it:
“Neighborhood guides, local event coverage, and area-specific service pages help users and search engines understand your service area … This typically costs $500-1000 per month, but the long-term benefits outweigh the investment.”
Marketers like Raviraj Hegde, however, have preferred to tackle content creation on their own.
“We’ve experienced big organic boosts by making city-targeted guides or event pages with explicit local content,” Raviraj says. “Nothing trumps content composed with true community intelligence.”
3. Community-Focused Link Building
Community-focused link building received the third most mentions as worth paying for, primarily because of the time demands of the task.
Dennis Shirshikov from Growth Limit says, “It’s the kind of work you should invest in if you don’t have the time and resources to form relationships with local media or other businesses.”
Important: Many marketers distinguished between this type of “local” link building versus generic (or automated) link building services. In fact, 25% of respondents said to skip the latter entirely.
Sean Clancy, Managing Director of SEO Gold Coast, says that instead of paid link building, “I focus on building relationships locally and generating organic backlinks through collaboration with local blogs or community sites.”
4. Local Citation Building
One out of four marketers mentioned positive results from local citation building, but disagreed on whether to pay for automated services or take a more hands-on approach.
Brian Futral, Head of Content Marketing Management at The Marketing Heaven, says he prefers to skip automated services.
“After the first 80 quality listings, the marginal gain flatlines, yet the invoice keeps coming,” he says.
But Jayson DeMers, CEO at EmailAnalytics, emphasized quality over quantity:
“Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information across quality directories still matters. Focus on authoritative platforms relevant to your industry … [you can] outsource it for around $300-500 for initial setup.”
What Affects the Costs of Local SEO Services?
The following factors can influence the cost of local SEO and what a potential provider may quote your business:
- Number of locations: The more locations your business has, the more you can expect to pay. For example, if your local business has five brick-and-mortar locations across your city, most providers will charge you for each location (or GBP Profile). Because improving the rankings of each one may require an individual scope of work.
- Level of competition: If there is more competition in your niche or region, you may need to be more aggressive to get to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Let’s say you start a plumbing business. You’re likely competing against other plumbing companies that have been doing SEO for years. To outrank them in local search, you’ll likely need to pay for more content, links, citations, etc., or support your organic marketing with paid search ads.
- Types of services you need: Some SEO services are more expensive than others, such as link building, content creation, and review management. But your provider may suggest specific services based on your website or the competitive landscape of your region. For example, earning high-quality backlinks may be the fastest way to increase your business’s visibility. Therefore, your provider may suggest that service to get you results faster.
- The size of your website: The larger your website, the more SEO tasks that may be required. For example, SEO tasks like schema and on-page SEO require manual changes to many pages of your site. If you have 30 website pages, that will require more time and labor than a website with only 10 pages. In their study of local SEO pricing, Backlinko gave this factor the highest rating for most likely to impact local SEO pricing.
- The number of your products or services: The bigger your service offering, the more you may have to pay. For example, a local spa typically offers multiple types of services (e.g., massages, facials, manicures, etc.), and ideally, should have a separate landing page for each service. So in general, the more products you have, the more content you’ll likely need on your site.
- Pricing model: Your provider may structure their local SEO cost as a monthly subscription, hourly fee, or on a deliverable-based pricing model. All of which can impact the total cost you pay. Some agencies may list out local SEO packages on their sites at specific price points. While others require you to submit a form to get a custom quote.
- Type of provider: According to data from the Backlinko study, agencies charge about 30% more than freelancers. That’s because freelancers generally have less overhead. Although working with a freelancer can be more affordable, a local SEO agency may have more resources or a broader range of expertise.
Can You Do Local SEO Yourself?
You can do many local SEO tasks yourself if you can’t find a local SEO provider who fits your budget.
In our qualitative survey, marketers mentioned on-page optimization, local content creation, GBP optimization, and local listing management as good options for DIY.
For example, you can use GBP Optimization to optimize and manage your Google Business Profile.
Start by connecting your Google account. Select your profiles from the list, and then click “Continue.”
Once connected, you can:
- Get custom recommendations to optimize your profile
- Monitor key metrics like site visits, direction requests, and phone calls
- Create GBP posts using AI and schedule them well in advance
- Manage and reply to customer reviews (or automate review responses)
You can also reduce your local SEO costs by creating quality content in-house.
Topic Research helps you get content ideas by showing you what other businesses are writing about.
And the Content Toolkit will help you draft local content that is readable and optimized to appear prominently in organic search engine results.
Tailor the AI to your brand voice, so any text you generate sounds like your business. Then, follow the AI suggestions to improve your content. As with any AI-generated content, make sure a human reviews the output before publication.
You can explore both tools with a Semrush trial.
