Local SEO
Get found in search

Most of our clients invest between $500 and $2,500 per month for ongoing local SEO services, depending on their market, number of locations, and what's already in place.

Here's how our services are typically structured:

GBP Management — $195/month for a single listing
GBP Posting & Advanced Optimization — $395/month
GBP + Citations & Link Building — $500/month
Monthly SEO with Light Content — $800/month
Monthly SEO with Active Rank Building — $1,200/month

The right budget depends on how competitive your market is, how many services you're targeting, and how much foundational work needs to happen before the growth work can start. We'll tell you what we think makes sense and why — no pressure to take the largest option.

One thing that sets us apart: your budget can scale up or down as your needs change. No contracts, no long-term commitments.

SEO isn't dead. It's just constantly evolving — and it has been since the early days of search engines. That's when I founded Projects Plus, because the opportunity for small local businesses was huge and I wanted to help entrepreneurs compete online.

People have been making this claim since at least 2010, and it comes up again every time Google makes a significant change to how it ranks websites. When outdated tactics stop working, some marketers panic. Others go looking for clicks by publishing dramatic headlines about SEO's demise. Neither response is useful to you as a business owner.

Here's what's actually happening: Google updates their algorithm thousands of times per year. They are constantly refining how they evaluate websites, because better search results mean more users, and more users mean more revenue.

That's not a threat to your marketing strategy — it's Google (Alphabet, Inc.) doing what profitable advertising companies do.

The businesses that get hurt by algorithm updates are the ones relying on shortcuts or what's known as black hat techniques, trying to trick the system. The ones that hold steady and evolve as Google does are those who built their online presence the right way.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results is a losing strategy. But so is abandoning a solid long-term investment every time SEO shifts.

Local SEO done right — real content, accurate business information, a well-managed GBP listing, and a website that earns trust — has worked through every major Google update we've seen in 30+ years of doing this work. The tactics evolve. The fundamentals don't.

So no, SEO isn't dead. But some approaches to it probably should be.

For most service business owners, yes. Two straightforward reasons: expertise and time.

Local SEO takes years to learn and requires staying current with changes that happen constantly. Executing it well means regular audits, content updates, GBP management, citation monitoring, link building, and tracking what's working. It also requires investment in professional tools that don't make sense to purchase for occasional use. It's a marathon with no finish line, and that's before you've done a single hour of billable work in your own business.

Think about the most profitable things you do in a day. Delivering services, building client relationships, helping your team improve. That's where your time has the highest return. Local SEO almost certainly isn't on that list, and the hours you spend on it are hours you're not spending on what you're actually good at.

That said, outsourcing isn't the only option. If you have someone on your team with the capacity to learn, we're happy to train and oversee them over time. We also offer consulting for business owners who have a marketing manager in place. We can collaborate on strategy, use our tools to track rankings, troubleshoot problems, and provide guidance without taking over entirely.

The goal is to make sure the work gets done right; whether that's us doing it or supporting someone on your side who is.

Yes. If you keep it going even when times get tough.

Pausing SEO starts losing your business ground online almost immediately, and it can take months to recover. Google and AI platforms want to see activity, not outdated content. Consistency isn't just good practice; it's what protects the ground you've already gained.

Research shows almost 40% of local SEO campaigns see returns of 500% or more. Our clients average 647%. That's a number worth paying attention to, especially when most quick-hit marketing tactics don't come close.
The challenge is the timeline. Local SEO is not a switch you can flip. It takes time to build authority, earn rankings, and see those rankings translate into consistent lead flow.

Consider a recent search for plumbers in College Station, Texas. There are roughly 50 to 200 plumbers in the area spread across a few dozen companies, serving a city of around 125,000 people. That's real competition in a mid-size market. The question Google is always asking is why your business deserves to be near the top. The answer has to be earned over time, not manufactured overnight.

Business owners who quit after three or four months rarely see the return. The ones who treat it as a long-term investment almost always do.

There's also a compounding effect most people don't account for. A well-optimized website and GBP listing keep working for you around the clock without additional spend. Paid ads stop the moment you stop paying. Organic visibility built the right way holds and grows over time; that's the equity piece that makes local SEO worth the patience it requires.

For service businesses specifically, the math tends to work in your favor. A single new customer in HVAC, electrical, roofing, or painting can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. You don't need a flood of leads to get a strong return; you need a steady, reliable stream of the right ones.

So yes, local SEO is well worth it. The businesses that don't see a return are usually the ones who didn't give it enough time, worked with the wrong agency, or both.

I usually estimate three to six months before you start seeing meaningful movement in the rankings, and six to twelve months before you can accurately measure the return on your investment.

Sometimes we start seeing early ranking movement in a week or two. The range depends on a few things. If your website is new, your GBP listing is incomplete, and your competitors have been at it for years, you're starting much further back. Catching up takes time, and there are no shortcuts around that. If the foundation is already reasonably solid and your market isn't extremely competitive, you may see movement sooner.

You could think of local SEO like planting a garden. The work you do in month one doesn't pay off in month one. It pays off in month four, month eight, month twelve. The businesses that see the strongest returns are the ones that don't stop planting seeds and nurturing what's already growing.

So what you should expect to see in the early months isn't necessarily more calls. It's movement in the right direction. Rankings climbing. GBP views increasing. More people finding your business in search. The calls follow the visibility, and the visibility takes time to build.

One thing that accelerates the timeline is having a well-optimized website from the start. If your site is slow, thin on content, or doesn't clearly tell Google what you do and where you do it, that gets addressed first. It's foundational work, and it has to happen before the growth work can take hold.

There's no ethical agency that can guarantee a specific timeline. Google doesn't guarantee rankings and you can't pay for organic placement the way you pay for ads. Anyone who does is either overpromising or planning to use shortcuts that won't hold up. What we can tell you is what the work involves, what realistic progress looks like, and where you stand at every stage.

Regular SEO is focused on ranking in search results nationally or globally. A software company trying to rank for "project management tool" or a retailer trying to rank for "best running shoes" is doing regular SEO. The audience could be anywhere, and geography doesn't factor into the strategy.

Local SEO is different in one fundamental way. It's built around where you are and where you work. When someone in Phoenix searches for an electrician, Google isn't showing them results from Dallas. It's showing them the most relevant, trusted businesses in their area. Local SEO is the work of making sure your business is one of them.

For service businesses, local SEO is almost always the right focus. You don't need to rank nationally. You need to rank in your city, your service area, and the neighborhoods where your best customers live.

How we do local SEO is also different. Local SEO involves your Google Business Profile, local citations, service area content, and signals that tell Google exactly where you operate and what you do. Regular SEO tends to focus more heavily on domain authority, backlink volume, and broad content strategy. There's overlap between the two, but the priorities are different.

One thing worth knowing: Google has two distinct sets of results for searches with local intent. The map pack at the top of the page and the regular organic results below it. Local SEO targets both. Most national SEO strategies only address one. For a service business, showing up in both is the goal.

The clearest sign is more calls and form submissions from organic search. But before that happens, you'll see earlier indicators.

• Rankings moving up for your target keywords and service areas.
• More views on your Google Business Profile.
• More people clicking through to your website from search.
• Google Search Console will show you whether your impressions and clicks are trending in the right direction.

What you should not do is judge results by a single keyword or a single month. Local SEO moves in trends, not straight lines. A good agency will show you the data regularly and explain what it means in plain language, not hide behind vanity metrics.

It's usually one of a few reasons.

• Their website has more relevant content, more pages targeting specific services and locations, and has been building authority longer.
• Their GBP listing is more complete, more active, and has more reviews.
• They have more consistent citations and inbound links across the web.
• They have stronger brand recognition.

Or some combination of all four. An audit will tell us where the gaps are and what's worth addressing first.

More than most clients realize, and less than some agencies bill for. Here's what legitimate ongoing work looks like:

• Monitoring and reporting on rankings, GBP performance, and website traffic.
• Managing and optimizing your GBP listing, including posts, photos, Google feature updates, and spam hunting.
• Building and correcting citations across directories.
• Finding link opportunities for each of your important website pages.
• Creating or updating content on your website targeting your services and service areas.
• Identifying and fixing technical issues that affect how Google crawls and evaluates your site.
• Watching what your competitors are doing and adjusting strategy accordingly.

The mix shifts over time and we regularly review priorities to move the needle faster. Early months tend to be heavier on foundational work. Once the foundation is solid, the focus moves to content and authority building. A good agency explains what they're working on and why, every single month.

At the $800 and above investment level, our clients get a 60-minute strategy call every month. Most look forward to it. We use the time to brainstorm ideas, offer guidance on marketing decisions they're considering outside of our services, troubleshoot issues on their end, and talk through what's coming next. It's a status update and a strategy session rolled into one.

Not necessarily. Google allows service area businesses to hide their address and still maintain a GBP listing. If you serve customers at their location rather than yours, you can set a service area and rank within it without displaying a street address publicly.

That said, studies consistently find that a physical address ranks up to 60% better than an unpublished one. If your competitors have published addresses, hiding yours puts you at a serious disadvantage.

If you have a legitimate business address, using it is almost always the better choice.

Yes. The fundamentals are well documented and learnable. Nothing about local SEO is locked behind a professional license or restricted to agencies.

You've read above what doing it yourself actually involves. That's just the basics. You need to do all of this consistently, every month, without letting it slip when you get busy.

Most business owners start with good intentions and run out of time. The work isn't complicated but it is relentless, and it's easy to deprioritize when a job runs long or the phone is ringing.

If you have someone on your team with the capacity and interest to learn, that can work well. We've trained clients and their staff before and are happy to do it with the right oversight in place. We also offer consulting for businesses that have a marketing manager but want a more experienced eye on strategy, tools, and troubleshooting.

So yes, you can do it yourself. The question is whether you'll do it consistently enough and well enough to see results. That's a harder bar to clear than most people expect going in.

Each location needs its own GBP listing, its own set of citations, and its own set of pages on your website.

Google treats each location as a separate entity in local search, so the work is multiplied but the approach is the same. Each listing needs to be claimed, verified, fully optimized, and actively managed. Each location needs content on your website that speaks specifically to that market. Each set of citations needs to be built and kept accurate over time.

The advantage of multiple locations is that you can dominate a larger geographic area. The challenge is keeping everything consistent. Business name, address, phone number, and category need to match exactly across every mention of your business on the web. Inconsistencies confuse Google and dilute the authority you're trying to build.

This is where a lot of multi-location businesses run into trouble. One location gets attention and the others get neglected. Citations get built inconsistently. GBP listings sit incomplete or unmanaged. The result is uneven visibility across markets that should all be performing.

Multi-location SEO is one of our strengths. We've managed campaigns for businesses with a dozen or more locations and know where the common mistakes happen and how to avoid them. We've also worked with franchisees, which adds another layer of complexity around brand consistency and territory boundaries that we're familiar navigating.

We work with any service business that relies on local customers finding them online. That includes HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, landscaping, pest control, cleaning services, and similar trades. We also work with professional services businesses including accountants, dentists, and pet services.

What matters more than industry is fit. We work best with business owners who understand that marketing is a long-term investment, want a real partner rather than a vendor, and will help us help them.

No. We work month to month. You can cancel anytime.

We've operated this way since 1995 because we believe the work should speak for itself. If we're doing our job, you won't want to leave. A contract shouldn't be what keeps a client around.

Our average client retention is over 10 years. We think that says more than any contract ever could.

Fill out the contact form or call us at 602-619-9919. Leave a message if we don't answer; we're a small team and may be on a call with another client.

From there we'll schedule a consultation call, review your website, GBP listing, and overall online presence, and prepare specific observations before we ever get on the phone. That way the first conversation is productive and useful to you whether we decide to work together or not.

There's no obligation and no pressure to move forward. We're not salespeople and we don't have account reps. We're the ones in the trenches doing the work to grow your business.