Local SEO runs $500–5,000 a month market-wide, with most legitimate local programs at $750–2,500. But the number that decides whether SEO pays isn't the fee — it's time. Search delivers close to nothing in months one through three, which is exactly why most SEO relationships die at month three: billed monthly, judged before results can physically exist.
What the fee actually buys
Legitimate local SEO maps to what actually ranks a local business in 2026: your Google Business Profile (32% of local pack influence), on-page content (19%), reviews (16%), and links (15%) (Whitespark 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors). The work: profile optimization, review velocity systems, real service pages Google can read, citations, and content. What no fee can buy: an unindexed page earns zero traffic forever, and AI Overviews now sit above the map pack on a growing share of local searches.
The month-three problem — why SEO pricing is broken
Monthly billing + delayed results = churn at exactly the moment compounding starts. The agency bills three months, shows a rankings screenshot, gets fired, and the next agency starts over. The honest structures are annual terms — or don't start. We built our price around that sentence.
Red flags in cheap SEO
$99/mo "SEO" (citation spam and a dashboard — nothing that ranks costs $99) · guaranteed #1 rankings (nobody controls Google) · ranking reports for keywords nobody searches · link schemes that earn manual penalties costing more to fix than the SEO cost to buy.
What GRIFFAIN charges
What GRIFFAIN charges
$750/mo · 12-month termFound-First. Annual only — or $7,650 prepaid (two months free) — plus a $497 one-time Jumpstart. Never month-to-month, because we won't bill you monthly for months we just told you deliver nothing. The written commitment: page one for the agreed local terms by month 12, or we keep working free until you're there.
$5,000 install + $3,500/moThe Growth Engine: Found-First running alongside every other system — the ads buy leads today while the SEO compounds toward free ones. Annual prepay: 12 for the price of 10.
The free version — do these first
If budget is the constraint, run the owner-doable basics before paying anyone, including us: complete every field of your Google Business Profile, pick the right primary category, ask every finished job for a review, and give each service its own page on your site. That's the same first 90 days we'd run — free. When you've done those and want the compounding, that's what the fee is for.
Questions owners actually ask
How long until SEO shows results?
Three to six months to real signal, twelve to compound. Anyone quoting weeks is describing ads, not SEO.
Why annual only?
Because monthly SEO billing sells you months we told you deliver nothing, and the month-three firing cycle wastes everyone's money. You commit to the year; we commit to page one in writing.
Can you remove bad reviews?
Only policy-violating ones — fake, off-topic, conflict-of-interest. Nobody can remove honest criticism, and anyone promising to is lying to you.
How do you report?
Indexation first, then impressions, clicks, and calls — from Search Console and analytics, never screenshots of hand-picked searches. If a number is flat, the report says so in line one.
More cost guides: websites · Google Ads · AI marketing.
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