How much does SEO cost for a contractor, and what do you get at each price?

One company says $99 a month. Another says $500 and promises page one. A third sends a $4,000 proposal full of words you have to look up. All three say they do SEO. So how much does SEO cost, and what should you get for the money?

This post gives you real price ranges from published surveys, what each tier should buy, what comprehensive SEO actually includes, and five questions that expose an empty quote.

One disclosure up front. I own Blue Collar Techy, and I also own Tekton Growth, a marketing agency for contractors. I use Tekton's published prices below as one example, and I tell you where they sit against the industry numbers. Judge them the same way you would judge anyone else's.

How much does SEO cost? Price tiers in one table.

There is no official price list for SEO. The best data comes from surveys of the people who sell it. Two of the most cited:

• Ahrefs polled 439 SEO providers (post updated August 15, 2024). Local SEO averaged $1,557 a month. Agencies averaged $3,209 a month and freelancers $1,348. The most common monthly retainer was $501 to $1,000.
• Backlinko, which is owned by Semrush, surveyed over 300 SEO professionals (updated December 29, 2025). It puts the average monthly cost at $1,000 to $2,500 and notes that plans under $500 a month are rare among US, UK, and Australian providers, at 7%.

Here is where my agency lands. On October 19, 2026, Tekton Growth's published plans were Visibility Starter at $1,250 a month (month-to-month), Growth Engine at $3,500 a month (12-month growth build), and Market Expansion at $6,500 a month (12-month market build), each with a $1,500 setup fee. Those plans are not SEO-only. Visibility Starter covers Google Business Profile work, citations, review basics, lead tracking, and Local Services Ads management. Growth Engine adds Tekton's Core 30 SEO program, website SEO and content work, and Facebook and Instagram ads. Each plan includes some ad spend. Against the survey numbers, that puts Tekton in the middle ground: above the cheap packages, below the big-agency enterprise retainers. You can see the full list on Tekton's pricing section.

What $99 a month gets you.

I bought a $99 "AI SEO" tool that is being sold to contractors and ran every feature. The short version: it writes articles fast, picks keywords that bring readers instead of local customers, and its generated article included a made-up case study. The full test is in I tested the $99 "AI SEO" tool contractors are being sold.

The bigger issue is the $500-a-month package. A lot of people claim to do SEO for about $500 a month and promise page one. In my experience, they are not doing comprehensive SEO. They do one or two things, like posting a blog or building some citations, and call it SEO. I have seen the same thing from really expensive agencies too. Price does not tell you whether the work is getting done. The checklist below does.

Think of it like base prep on a patio. Cheap SEO is pavers on unpacked dirt. It looks done until the first freeze.

What comprehensive local SEO actually includes.

Use this list to vet any provider, at any price, including mine. Ask them to show you which of these they do each month and where you can see the work. If a quote covers only one or two lines, you are buying a piece of SEO.

1. A technical check of your website. Google can find and index every important page, the site loads fast on a phone, there are no broken links or redirect loops, and schema markup tells Google your business name, services, and area.
2. Google Business Profile work. The right primary and secondary categories, every service listed, hours that match reality, real job photos added regularly, and posts that show recent work.
3. A review system. A steady way to ask every happy customer for a review, and replies to every review, good or bad.
4. A page for every core service. One strong page per service you want to be found for, written for homeowners, with photos of your own work and a clear way to call.
5. Pages for the areas you serve. Real pages for the towns you want work in, with local projects, so the pages are not copies with the town name swapped.
6. Citations and consistent business info. Your name, address, and phone the same everywhere, on the directories that matter for your trade.
7. Content that answers buyer questions. Cost, timelines, materials, and comparisons, in your voice, with no made-up stats.
8. Local links and mentions. Suppliers, manufacturers, associations, sponsorships, and local news. A few real ones beat a pile of junk links.
9. Competitor research. Who ranks in your market, why, and what it will take to pass them.
10. Call and form tracking. You can see which calls and forms came from Google search and from your profile.
11. Reporting on booked jobs. Rankings and traffic are early signs. The report should tie back to calls, signed jobs, and what they were worth.

Not every business needs every line every month. A provider should still be able to explain where each one stands for you.

When a bigger budget makes sense.

How much local SEO costs for you depends mostly on how much work it takes to pass the companies already ranking. Backlinko's survey ranks website size and industry competition as the biggest price factors. For contractors, a bigger budget usually makes sense when:

• You are in a competitive metro. If the top three companies on the map have hundreds of reviews and strong websites, it takes more work to pass them.
• You serve several towns or have more than one location. Each area needs its own pages, and each location needs its own Google profile work.
• Your website needs rebuilding. A slow site, or one with no service pages, needs a heavier lift up front.
• You want SEO and ads working together. Many contractors run Local Services Ads or Google Ads while SEO builds. That costs more each month and gets the phone ringing sooner.

A smaller budget can work if you are in a small town, have little competition, and are willing to do some of the work yourself, like getting reviews and taking job photos.

How long until SEO pays off.

Here is what I tell clients. How long SEO takes depends on your market and your competition. It usually takes six to eight to 12 months, if not longer. Google runs on trust. If someone in your market is already doing SEO that Google trusts, it takes a lot longer to earn that trust. If no one Google really trusts is in your market, it does not take very long.

That is why anyone promising results in 30 days should make you nervous. Backlinko's survey lists promises of results in under three months as a red flag too.

For higher-ticket hardscape and landscape installation contractors, SEO can pay for itself with an extra three to four jobs a year. Run that math for your own trade: take a year of SEO cost and divide it by your average gross profit per job. That is how many extra jobs it needs to bring in to break even.

Five questions that expose an empty quote.

1. "Which items on this checklist do you do every month, and where will I see them?" Vague answers mean vague work.
2. "Who owns the website, the Google profile, and the accounts if I leave?" The answer should be you, in writing.
3. "How will you report results?" Look for calls, forms, and booked jobs, not just rankings.
4. "What does month three look like, and what does month twelve look like?" An honest provider will tell you early months are setup and slow.
5. "Can I talk to a contractor you have worked with for more than a year?" Short-term clients cannot tell you if it worked.

Before you pay anyone, find out what your site and Google profile actually need. Tekton's free audit shows you where you stand, and you can take the results to any provider you want. For the bigger picture on what works in local search, read Contractor SEO in 2026.

Questions contractors ask.