What SEO should cost in Cincinnati

I went and looked at more than fifty agencies serving the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky market to see what they charge. Fewer than ten of them publish a number anywhere on their own website. Everybody else wants you on a discovery call first.

That is the main reason this is hard to research, so here is what I found.

The actual numbers

Across a survey of 439 providers, agencies averaged about $3,209 a month, consultants $3,250, and freelancers $1,349. Local SEO specifically averaged $1,557 a month, with local agencies at $1,819 and freelancers at $1,150. The most common hourly band for local work is $75 to $100.

In this market the published numbers I could find ranged from $500 a month at the bottom to $2,800 and up at the top, with most of the transparent ones clustering around $1,400 to $1,500 as a starting point.

What each band actually buys

Under $300 a month. Realistically this is one service done properly, usually Google Business Profile management, or it is an automated tool with a person's name on it. That is fine if that is what you want and you know that is what you are buying.

$500 to $900 a month. The local fundamentals. Profile work, structured data, cleaning up your listings, a page for each area you serve, and a monthly report. For a lot of local businesses this is genuinely all they need.

$1,000 to $1,500 a month. The above plus ongoing content and some link work. This is where you should be if you are in a competitive trade where the basics alone will not get you there.

$2,500 and up. Reasonable for a firm in an expensive vertical, personal injury law being the obvious one where a single case is worth five figures. Harder to justify for a two van plumbing outfit.

How to tell you are being overcharged

Ask what you are getting for the money, itemised, and see whether the answer is a list of deliverables or a list of adjectives. "Ongoing optimisation" is not a deliverable. "Four pages a month, structured data implemented, and a report showing what moved" is.

Ask whether you own your Google Business Profile, your domain and your hosting account. If the answer is anything other than a clear yes, walk away, because that is how agencies keep clients who want to leave.

Ask what happens if it does not work. Anybody who tells you they guarantee first page rankings is either lying or does not understand how this works, and that answer alone tells you most of what you need to know about them.

What it should cost you in time

Whatever you pay, expect Google Business Profile work to show movement in four to six weeks and organic rankings for competitive terms to take three to six months, sometimes longer. Anybody promising faster than that is selling you something.

My own prices are published on this site because I think making you sit through a sales call just to find out what something costs wastes your afternoon and mine. Go and look, and if your situation does not fit one of them then tell me what you need and I will quote it!