Local SEO Audit Checklist (40 Points)
The audit we run for every new client: profile, website, citations, reviews, links and tracking, in the order that finds problems fastest.
Updated 18 September 2026
Strategy
How Much Does Local SEO Cost in the UK? (2026 Prices)
What UK agencies, freelancers and tools charge for local SEO, what you get at each price, and how to tell a real service from a directory-submission package.
Local SEO in the UK costs anywhere from £0 and a few hours a month to £2,000 a month per location, and the price tells you surprisingly little about what you get. This is what the market actually charges in 2026, what each price band typically includes, and how to tell a real service from a directory-submission package with a retainer attached.
The price bands
| Band | Typical monthly cost | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| DIY | £0–£100 (tools) | Your time, a grid tracker, a citation checker. Perfectly viable for a single-location business in a quiet market. |
| "Local SEO packages" | £50–£200 | Automated directory submissions, a monthly PDF from a tool, sometimes posts scheduled by software. Not SEO in any meaningful sense. |
| Freelancer / small specialist | £250–£600 | Profile management, reviews process, citations, reporting. Quality varies enormously with the individual. |
| Specialist agency | £300–£1,000 per location | Everything above plus landing pages, local links, grid tracking, competitor monitoring, suspension handling. |
| Full-service agency | £1,000–£2,500+ | Local SEO as part of a broader retainer, often with content, PPC or web work bundled. Good when you need all of it; expensive if you only need local. |
| Enterprise / multi-location | £150–£500 per location, on scale | Bulk profile management, locator and location pages, listings platforms, consolidated reporting. |
Our own plans sit in the specialist agency band at £299–£499 per month; the pricing page lists exactly what each includes.
What drives the price
- Competition. A dentist in central Manchester needs more work — links, content, reviews velocity — than a farm shop in Shropshire. Quotes should reflect the pack you are trying to enter.
- Starting state. A suspended profile, duplicates, a decade of inconsistent citations and a slow website all add setup work.
- Number of locations. Per-location pricing falls with scale, but never to zero: each location has its own profile, reviews, citations and page.
- Scope. Profile-only management is cheaper than profile + website + links. Be clear which you are buying.
- Reporting. Grid tracking and manual reporting cost more than a tool export. They are also the only reporting worth having.
What should be included at £300–£500
- An audit against the businesses actually in your pack
- Category, services, attributes and description set properly, then maintained
- A review generation process and responses
- Citation audit and corrections on the sources that matter
- Grid rank tracking for your core keywords
- Monthly photo and post cadence
- A monthly report that references your Business Profile Performance data
- Someone you can message who is doing the work
Red flags at any price
- "Guaranteed #1 ranking." Local rankings vary by the searcher's location. Nobody can guarantee a position, and Google does not sell them.
- Reviews included. "15 five-star reviews per month" is a description of a crime under the DMCC Act and a policy breach that removes profiles.
- Hundreds of citations. Volume submissions create duplicates. Thirty correct listings beat three hundred.
- Twelve-month contracts. Local SEO needs three to six months to judge; it does not need a year's lock-in.
- Reports without your Google data. If the report is a tool's "visibility score" and never mentions calls or direction requests from your Performance page, nobody is looking at what matters.
- No access handover. You should own the Business Profile and every directory login. An agency that keeps ownership is holding a hostage.
The DIY calculation
A single-location business in a moderately competitive market needs roughly: half a day for the initial profile and citation work, then two to four hours a month for reviews, photos, posts and checking the grid. At an owner's time value that is often £200–£400 a month in opportunity cost — comparable to a specialist retainer, without the expertise. DIY makes sense when you have a marketing person with time, or when the market is quiet enough that the basics win. Our guide is written to make that possible.
Return on the spend
The honest answer is "it depends on the pack". A trades business that moves from outside the pack to inside it for its main search typically sees calls from the profile rise by a multiple, not a percentage — that is the difference between three businesses shown and everyone else. Work out what one extra job a week is worth to you and compare it with the retainer. If the number is close, local SEO is probably not your best marketing spend; if it is not close, it usually is.
If you want a quote based on your actual pack rather than a price list, send the business name and postcode on WhatsApp. The free check tells you what you are up against before anyone talks about money.