For a small business such as a trade, published UK prices for local SEO mostly sit between about £350 and £1,000 a month. There’s no official price list. Budget offers run up to about £300 a month. Established agencies often charge £1,500 a month or more. Those figures come from UK providers’ own published prices, so treat them as a guide, not a quote.
Here’s where the figures come from, what pushes the price up or down, and what you should get for the money.
What UK providers charge
| Source | What it covers | Figures |
|---|---|---|
| Whito, UK marketing prices study (2026) | 45 published monthly prices from 16 UK providers, taken from their own pricing pages | Budget £99 to £300 a month. Mainstream £350 to £1,000. Established agencies £1,500 to £5,000 or more. Median of all published prices £799 a month |
| Whitehat SEO, UK SEO package prices (2026) | One UK agency’s published guide | Local or start-up businesses £500 to £1,200 a month |
| Ahrefs SEO pricing survey (August 2024) | 439 SEO providers worldwide, in US dollars | Providers who only do local SEO charged an average of $1,557 a month |
The Whito study says its sample leans towards the budget end, because cheaper providers are more likely to publish prices. It calls £350 to £1,000 a month the realistic floor for proper local SEO. Whitehat SEO’s guide is aimed more at business-to-business firms and sits higher overall. The Ahrefs survey is global and in dollars, so it’s a sense check rather than a UK figure.
Whitehat doesn’t say whether its prices include VAT, and Whito says treatment varies across the market. Check on any quote you get. VAT adds 20%.
Monthly, hourly or one-off
Most local SEO is sold as a monthly service. In the Ahrefs survey, 78% of providers charged a monthly retainer.
You’ll also see:
- Hourly rates. Whitehat SEO’s guide puts UK freelancers at £40 to £100 an hour and agencies at £70 to £300.
- One-off projects. The same guide puts SEO audits at £500 to £7,500, depending on how deep the audit goes.
A one-off fix can help, but local SEO is ongoing work. Reviews, your Google profile and your pages need keeping up month after month.
What makes it cost more or less
- How busy your market is. Whitehat SEO’s guide says competitive sectors such as legal, finance and ecommerce cost 30 to 50% more. The same logic applies when lots of trades chase the same work in your towns.
- Local or national. Whito found that where providers price both, national work costs 1.5 to 2 times the price of local work.
- Where you’re starting from. Whitehat SEO’s guide says older sites may need fixing up front before the monthly work starts.
- Who does it. In the Ahrefs survey, freelancers charged less on average than agencies.
- Where they’re based. Whitehat SEO’s guide says London agencies charge 30 to 50% more than agencies elsewhere.
What you should get for the money
In our view, monthly local SEO for trades should cover the things that decide who shows up when people search in your towns:
- your Google Business Profile, kept complete and accurate
- a steady routine for getting and replying to Google reviews
- pages for your main jobs and towns, built and kept up to date
- your name, address and phone number the same everywhere you’re listed
- a plain report on what came in: calls, form enquiries and where they came from
If a provider can’t tell you which of these they’ll do each month, ask.
Red flags
Google publishes its own advice on hiring an SEO. We’ve set out its red flags, the questions to ask and who should own your accounts in how to choose an SEO company for a trade business.
Can you do local SEO yourself?
Often, yes. Google says “If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself.” The cost is your time rather than money. Our checklist on how to rank higher on Google Maps is a good place to start.
What usually goes wrong isn’t knowing what to do. It’s keeping it going every month around your jobs.
How long before it pays off?
Nobody can honestly give you a date, so judge local SEO on what comes in over months, not weeks. We’ve set out what Google says about how long SEO takes.
If you need calls sooner, Google Ads can run alongside it. Here’s the cost of Google Ads for the biggest trade searches.
Questions about the cost of local SEO
Is cheap local SEO worth it?
Be careful at the bottom end. Whito’s study puts budget offers at £99 to £300 a month. Whitehat SEO’s guide treats anything under £500 a month for more than basic local SEO as a warning sign. Ask exactly what you get each month.
Do I pay VAT on top?
Often, yes. Check whether a quote includes VAT. If it doesn’t, add 20%.
Is local SEO a one-off cost?
Usually not. Setting up your profile and pages can be a one-off job, but the work that keeps you showing up, like reviews and keeping details accurate, is ongoing. A website is closer to a one-off cost. Here’s how much a website costs for a trade business.
What does SearchHawk charge?
It depends on what your trade and towns need. Start with a free forecast. We look at the searches for your work in your towns and who’s showing up for them now. Then we tell you what the work would involve and give you a clear cost for it. No hidden costs.