Work out what to charge for local SEO from the work involved, not guesswork. Set your delivery cost, margin and services, and get a monthly retainer, setup fee and three ready-to-pitch package tiers.
Delivery cost is what one hour of work costs you: your own hourly value, or what you pay staff or freelancers.
Hours per location per month. Adjust to match how you work.
A simple three-option menu for your proposal.
| Starter | Growth | Dominate |
|---|
It adds up the monthly hours for the services you select, adjusts them for market competition and number of locations, multiplies by your delivery cost per hour, adds your hard costs, then applies your target margin. Prices are rounded up to the nearest 50.
Each extra location adds work, but some tasks like reporting, strategy and site-wide fixes are shared. The calculator scales hours a little less than one-for-one per location, so the per-location price drops as clients grow.
Many agencies target 40 to 60 percent gross margin on SEO retainers, so there's room for account management, sales and the unexpected. Use your own numbers: the calculator shows the profit per month so you can sanity-check it.
The initial audit, Google Business Profile optimization, fixing existing citations and on-site basics. It's front-loaded work, and charging for it separately protects you if a client leaves early.
No. The calculator prices from your costs and the work involved, not from industry averages. Compare the result against what competitors in your market charge before you send a proposal.
