SEO Pricing for Home-Service Businesses: Three Plans, Every Deliverable Listed

How this compares to what the market charges

Published surveys put the typical retainer well above my Starter plan. Ahrefs' pricing survey reports average monthly retainers of roughly $1,300 to $1,400 for freelancers and around $3,200 for agencies, and Clutch's survey lands in the same $3,000 range for agencies. Local-only work is usually quoted lower: SEO.com and WebFX both describe local SEO retainers in a range of about $500 to $3,000 a month.

So $750 to $1,500 is on the lean side of agency pricing. The reason is simple: there is no account manager, no sales team, and no junior writer between you and the work. I do it myself. I break down the local numbers in more detail on the local SEO pricing page, including what automated $300 packages leave out.

What drives the price of SEO

When any agency quotes you, these are the five things that should move the number. If a quote does not change based on any of them, it is a template.

1. How competitive your city is. "Roofer Dallas" is a different fight from "roofer Tyler, TX." More competitors with strong sites means more links and more pages to catch up.
2. How many service areas you want to win. Each town you want to rank in usually needs its own page and its own local signals. One city fits Starter. Six towns is a Pro job.
3. Where your site starts. A site with broken tracking, duplicate titles and no service pages needs fixing before new content pays off.
4. Number of locations and Google Business Profiles. Each real location is its own map-pack battle. That is why extra profiles are priced separately.
5. How fast you want to move. Fifteen links and ten pages a month move faster than five links and two articles. Same direction, different speed.

What should not move the price: the word "guaranteed," a bigger dashboard, or a fancier report. None of those put the phone to your ear.

What $750 vs $1,500 gets a roofer or an HVAC shop

A roofer on $750 a month

Say you run a three-person roofing crew in one mid-sized city. On Starter, month one goes to your Google Business Profile (categories, services, photos, service area) and one strong "roof replacement in [city]" service page. Months two and three add a "roof repair" page or two articles answering the questions homeowners ask before they call, such as whether insurance covers hail damage. Five links a month come from local suppliers, associations and directories that matter in your area.

That is enough to compete in one city's map pack over several months. It is not enough to also win the four suburbs around you. For how the full roofing playbook looks, see my page on SEO for roofing companies.

An HVAC shop on $1,500 a month

Now take an HVAC company with five trucks covering a metro and its suburbs. On Pro, each month adds four service-area pages (for example "AC repair in [suburb]"), six articles that match seasonal searches like "furnace not turning on," and fifteen links. Every two months I audit your Google Business Profile, and I track whether ChatGPT and Perplexity name you when someone asks for an HVAC company nearby.

The difference is reach. Starter builds one strong location. Pro builds a footprint. The HVAC side is covered in detail on my HVAC SEO page.

How much does HVAC SEO cost?

For a single-location HVAC company, my plans put HVAC SEO at $750 to $1,500 a month. Starter fits a shop working one town. Pro fits a company covering several suburbs, which is most HVAC businesses I talk to, because the service area is where the money is. Multi-location HVAC groups start at $2,500. Other agencies commonly quote HVAC work in the $1,500 to $5,000 a month range, in line with the agency averages above.

Contractor SEO pricing vs paying per lead

The fair comparison for most owners is not "SEO or nothing." It is SEO or lead platforms. Lead-cost guides from firms that track Angi pricing put shared leads at roughly $15 to $120 each depending on trade, and those leads are often sent to several contractors at once. The FTC also documented an annual Angi membership fee of about $288 on top of per-lead charges.

A roofer buying 20 shared leads a month at $80 spends $1,600 and owns nothing when he stops paying. SEO costs similar money, is slower to start, and keeps producing after the work is done. If you are weighing the two, I cover contractor leads you own on a separate page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does SEO cost per month for a small business?

Local SEO for a small business usually runs $500 to $3,000 a month depending on the provider. My plans are $750 (Starter) and $1,500 (Pro), with Custom from $2,500 for multiple locations.

How much does HVAC SEO cost?

With me, $750 to $1,500 a month for one location, and from $2,500 for multi-location HVAC companies. Most HVAC shops covering several suburbs fit the $1,500 Pro plan.

Is there a contract?

No. Every plan is month to month and you can cancel anytime.

Do you guarantee first-page rankings?

No. Google does not let anyone guarantee rankings. I report the calls, rankings and AI citations every month so you can judge the work yourself.

How long before SEO pays off?

Map-pack movement for a single city often shows within a few months, and wider organic rankings take longer. The exact timeline depends on competition and where your site starts, which the free audit tells you.

Is a website included?

No. Websites are quoted per project, separate from the monthly SEO plan.