The Contractor SEO Pricing Breakdown — Before You Talk to Anyone

Contractor SEO isn't one service — it's a bundle of tasks that shift in scope depending on your market, your goals, and how much ground you need to make up. Understanding which levers move price helps you evaluate proposals without guessing.

Market Competition

If you're a roofer in a mid-sized city competing against ten other firms, your campaign is more straightforward than a general contractor in a major metro battling established brands with thousands of backlinks. Competitive markets require more content, more authoritative links, and more time — all of which cost more.

Service Area Size

Optimizing for one city is a different job than ranking across a three-county radius. Each additional town, suburb, or zip code you want to appear in adds content pages, citation work, and often additional Google Business Profile management.

Starting Authority

A brand-new contractor website with no existing traffic or backlinks needs foundational work before anything else compounds. An established site with decent history may only need targeted improvements. Providers will price this gap differently — and honestly, they should.

Service Mix

Contractors offering roofing, siding, and windows need separate content strategies for each vertical. Each service line has its own keyword set, its own search intent, and its own competitive landscape. More services generally mean broader scope and higher monthly cost.

Reporting and Communication Overhead

Some agencies include detailed monthly reporting, strategy calls, and competitor tracking. Others send a PDF and call it done. The difference in overhead is real and shows up in pricing. Cheaper retainers often mean less visibility into what's actually happening on your campaign.

The following ranges reflect what professional SEO services for contractors typically look like across the market. These are general benchmarks — your actual quote will depend on the factors covered above.

Entry Level: $750–$1,200/month

At this range, you're usually getting foundational local SEO: Google Business Profile optimization, basic on-page work, citation building, and light content. This works for contractors in lower-competition markets or smaller service areas who already have a functional website. Don't expect aggressive link acquisition or deep content strategy at this tier.

Mid-Range: $1,500–$2,500/month

This is where most established contractor campaigns live. You should expect a structured content plan, ongoing link building, full citation management, GBP posting, and monthly performance reporting. Many contractors in medium-to-large markets find this range sufficient to move from page two to the Map Pack and top organic results.

Growth Tier: $2,500–$4,000+/month

Competitive metros, multi-location contractors, or firms targeting multiple service verticals often end up here. Campaigns at this level typically include higher-volume content production, active digital PR or link outreach, technical SEO monitoring, and sometimes local landing page development. If your competitors are ranking for dozens of high-value keywords, matching their content depth costs real money.

One-Time and Setup Fees

Most reputable providers charge a setup or onboarding fee separate from the monthly retainer — commonly $500 to $1,500. This covers the technical audit, baseline keyword research, and initial on-page optimization. Be cautious of providers who waive this entirely; it often means the foundational work is skipped, not included.

Note: These ranges reflect professional services. Below $500/month, you're typically looking at templated, automated work with limited human strategy — which carries a real risk of doing more harm than good.

One of the most common budget mistakes contractors make is evaluating SEO on a 30-day or 90-day window. SEO compounds over time — it's structurally different from pay-per-click, where spend directly maps to impressions.

In our experience working with contractors, here's a realistic expectation:

• Months 1–2: Technical fixes, GBP optimization, foundational content. You may see minor ranking movement but no meaningful lead volume yet.
• Months 3–4: Content starts indexing, citations solidify, early Map Pack appearances for lower-competition terms. Some contractors begin seeing inbound calls at this stage.
• Months 5–6: For most markets, this is when the campaign starts generating consistent organic leads. Competitive markets may take longer.
• Month 6+: Compounding returns. Each piece of content, each link, and each review builds on the last. ROI tends to improve over time as the campaign matures.

The implication for budget planning: you need to be financially comfortable with six months of investment before you evaluate whether SEO is working. If your cash flow doesn't support that window, it may be worth building a paid channel first to stabilize lead volume while organic authority builds.

Industry benchmarks suggest that for every dollar spent on contractor SEO, the long-term return — measured in organic lead value — typically exceeds paid channels over a 12-to-24-month horizon. That said, this varies significantly by market, firm size, and how well the campaign is managed.

Price is one signal. How a provider structures and communicates their offer tells you far more about what you'll actually receive.

designed to Rankings

No ethical SEO provider guarantees specific Google rankings. Rankings depend on Google's algorithm, competitor behavior, and dozens of factors outside any agency's control. A guarantee is usually a sales tactic — and sometimes a setup for a misleading report showing rankings for irrelevant or zero-traffic keywords.

No Clear Deliverable List

If a proposal says "ongoing SEO" without specifying what that includes monthly — how many pages, how many links, what reporting format — you have no basis for accountability. Push for a documented scope of work before signing.

Long Lock-In Contracts Without Performance Milestones

Twelve-month contracts aren't inherently wrong, but they should include defined checkpoints. If a provider wants 12 months up front with no performance review clauses, that's worth questioning.

Very Low Pricing with Vague Scope

Contractor SEO for $199/month exists. It's usually automated citation submissions, spun content, or link schemes that can damage your site's standing with Google. The cost of recovering from a penalty typically exceeds whatever you saved on the cheap package.

No Access to Your Own Data

You should own your Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and GBP accounts. If a provider insists on owning these, or resists granting you admin access, that's a significant red flag. Your data belongs to your business.

A straightforward test: Ask any prospective provider to walk you through exactly what they'll do in month one. Specific answers indicate real process. Vague answers about "holistic strategies" indicate the opposite.

Marketing budgets for contractors are rarely unlimited, which means SEO needs to earn its place alongside paid ads, referral programs, and other lead sources. Here's a practical framework for deciding where SEO fits.

If You Have No Digital Presence

Prioritize a professional website and GBP setup before committing to a monthly SEO retainer. A well-optimized GBP alone can generate leads for local searches — and it's free. Once your foundation is in place, an SEO campaign has something to build on.

If You're Running Paid Ads and Want to Reduce Ad Spend Over Time

SEO is the right complement here. Organic rankings reduce cost-per-lead over time, while paid ads keep the pipeline full during the organic ramp period. Many contractors run both in parallel for six to twelve months, then gradually reduce ad spend as organic leads increase.

If You're Choosing Between SEO and PPC

This is the wrong frame for most contractors. The better question is: what's your timeline? PPC delivers leads faster but costs every month indefinitely. SEO takes longer to start but builds an asset that compounds. If you need leads in 30 days, SEO alone won't solve that. If you're thinking 12+ months ahead, SEO builds long-term value PPC can't replicate.

How Much of Your Marketing Budget Should Go to SEO

There's no universal answer. Industry benchmarks suggest contractors allocate somewhere between 5–12% of gross revenue to marketing, with the share going to SEO depending on how competitive their market is and how mature their other channels are. A contractor doing $500K/year in a mid-market city might reasonably invest $1,000–$1,500/month in SEO. A firm doing $2M+ in a major metro might justify $3,000–$4,000/month.

See our contractor SEO pricing and packages if you want to understand what a structured engagement looks like before committing to a scope conversation.