SEO pricing isn't arbitrary — it's a function of how much work your market requires and how competitive your target keywords are. Two fencing companies in different cities can face completely different levels of effort to reach page one.
Market Competition
If you're in a mid-sized city where five fence contractors have invested in SEO for years, displacing them takes more content, more link-building, and more time than entering a smaller market where your competitors haven't touched their websites since 2019. This is the single biggest pricing variable.
Geographic Scope
A fence company serving a single city needs one optimized service-area page and a focused Google Business Profile strategy. A company serving twelve counties needs twelve well-built pages, broader citation coverage, and more content. Every additional service area adds scope — and cost.
Starting Authority
If your website is new, has thin content, or has never attracted any inbound links, you're starting from zero. Building domain authority from scratch takes longer than improving an established site. An SEO provider has to account for this in their pricing. A one-time audit (typically $500–$1,500) before engaging a retainer will tell you exactly where you stand.
Service Scope
Some retainers include only on-page optimization and monthly reporting. Others include content production, link acquisition, Google Business Profile management, and citation cleanup. The more comprehensive the scope, the higher the monthly cost — and typically, the faster and more durable the results.
Understanding these four factors lets you evaluate quotes accurately. A $500/month retainer that covers local SEO in a low-competition market may be entirely appropriate. That same price in a major metro probably means minimal effort that won't move rankings.