Local SEO for a UK trades business typically costs between £300 and £2,000+ a month, with one-off projects commonly running £1,000 to £3,000. The range is wide because it is driven by how many towns you want to win, how competitive they are, and how much content and technical work your site needs. Cheaper packages usually cut content and reporting; the expensive end is normally multi-location or heavily contested cities.
These are typical UK market ranges rather than a WELTO rate card. What you should pay depends on the work your business actually needs.
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What local SEO costs in the UK
Broad bands seen across the UK market for trades businesses:
| Band | Typical monthly | Usually suits | Normally covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | £300-£600 | One town, sole trader or small team | Profile management, basic on-site work, reviews |
| Standard | £600-£1,200 | 2-5 towns, established business | Above plus ongoing content, local links, reporting |
| Competitive | £1,200-£2,000+ | Cities, or a wide service area | Above plus technical work, heavier content, outreach |
| One-off project | £1,000-£3,000 total | Fixing foundations before committing monthly | Audit, profile rebuild, core pages, technical fixes |
Pricing models compared
| Model | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | Fixed fee, ongoing work | Most trades businesses | Long tie-ins; check the notice period |
| One-off project | Defined scope, fixed price | Fixing a poor starting point | Gains fade without follow-up |
| Hourly | Pay for time used | Small specific jobs | Hard to budget; little continuity |
| Pay per lead | Charged per enquiry | Rarely a good fit | Leads often shared; you build no asset |
| In-house | Hire or train someone | Larger firms | Salary plus tools usually exceeds a retainer |
What actually drives the price
- How many places you want to rank. Each town needs its own genuine page and its own signals. This is the single biggest cost driver.
- Competition in those places. Winning "electrician London" is a different job from winning "electrician Havant".
- The state of your website. A fast, editable site costs less to work on than a slow one on a locked platform.
- How much content is needed. Writing is usually the largest recurring line in any honest quote.
- Whether link work is included. Real local outreach takes time and is often what separates a £500 package from a £1,200 one.
- Reporting and account time. Someone actually looking at the numbers and explaining them costs money and is worth paying for.
What should be included
At any price, a local SEO engagement should cover:
- Google Business Profile setup, optimisation and ongoing management
- Keyword and competitor research for your actual service area
- On-page work across service and location pages
- Consistent business details across the directories that matter
- Technical basics: speed, mobile layout, indexing, structured data
- A review generation process, not just advice to ask for reviews
- Monthly reporting that shows enquiries, not only rankings
If a quote does not mention the Google Business Profile or reviews, it is not a local SEO quote.
Why the cheapest option usually costs more
Packages under roughly £300 a month rarely include enough hours to do the work. What tends to happen instead is thin auto-generated pages, directory submissions to sites nobody uses, and a report full of rankings for terms nobody searches. The cost is not just the wasted fee; it is the months lost and, occasionally, cleanup work to undo it.
Near-identical town pages are a common symptom, and they are actively risky: Google treats mass-produced location pages as a doorway pattern, which is a spam policy issue rather than merely ineffective.
Local SEO vs paid leads and Google Ads
| Local SEO | Google Ads | Lead directories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost shape | Fixed monthly | Per click, ongoing | Per lead, ongoing |
| Lead exclusivity | Yours alone | Yours alone | Often shared with rivals |
| Speed | Months | Immediate | Immediate |
| When you stop | Declines slowly | Stops that day | Stops that day |
| Builds an asset | Yes | No | No |
They are not mutually exclusive. Ads are a reasonable way to cover the gap while local SEO takes hold.
How to work out whether it pays
Use your own numbers rather than an agency's. You need four:
- Your average job value
- The share of enquiries you convert to work
- The monthly fee
- Your gross margin on a typical job
The break-even question is simply: how many extra jobs a month does this need to produce before it pays for itself? If your average job is worth £400 at 50% margin, a £600 retainer needs three extra jobs a month to break even. Whether three extra jobs is realistic in your area is the conversation worth having with any agency, and a good one will do that maths with you before you sign.
Red flags when comparing quotes
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google's results. A guarantee is either meaningless or about terms nobody searches.
- Twelve-month lock-ins with no exit. A confident agency does not need to trap you.
- Reporting that only shows positions. Rankings are a proxy; enquiries are the point.
- No named contact. If you cannot tell who does the work, you cannot tell whether it is being done.
- Vague deliverables. "Ongoing optimisation" is not a scope.
- Unverifiable case studies. Ask which business, in which town, and whether you can speak to them.
Questions people ask
How much should a sole trader spend on local SEO?
Most sole traders serving one town are served well in the £300 to £600 a month range, or a one-off foundation project if cash flow is tight. The deciding factor is whether the extra jobs needed to cover the fee are realistic in your area.
Is a monthly retainer better than a one-off project?
A project fixes the foundations; a retainer keeps building. If your profile and site have never been done properly, a project can be the sensible first step, but rankings drift without ongoing content, reviews and maintenance.
Why do quotes vary so much for the same thing?
Because they are usually not the same thing. The difference is normally hours: how much content is written, whether real link outreach happens, and whether a person reviews the account monthly. Ask each quote how many hours a month it buys.
Can I pay for local SEO once and be done?
No, though a one-off project delivers lasting value. Competitors keep working, reviews age, and Google changes. Position is defended rather than owned.
Is local SEO cheaper than Checkatrade or Bark?
Usually per lead, and always in terms of what you own at the end. Directory leads are typically shared with several trades and stop the day you stop paying. Local SEO builds visibility that keeps producing enquiries, though it takes months to get going. See how long local SEO takes.
Not sure what you should be paying?
We will look at your area, your competition and your site, and tell you what the work actually involves, and whether the numbers stack up for your business.