Growing an online presence today is just as important for local business owners as it is for national ones. In order to increase your online recognition, it is important to have an efficient SEO strategy because Google’s algorithm favors business profiles that are well optimized. The local Google service pack sits at the top of a user’s search results page and displays 3 businesses nearby relating to your search. This group of local businesses found in the Google pack often drives a significant number of calls for service companies. With this invaluable component of your company’s healthy online marketing strategy, it is often asked how much does SEO marketing cost? Well, the answer varies depending on how large the business’s target area is.

How much is SEO Marketing (Local vs. National)

What are the different types of ads shown on Google?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 23 years, you have used Google to search for a specific service near you before. So if the page layout shown below looks familiar to you, it should! But little do you know, you’ve been seeing different types of Google Ads without even realizing it!

We have broken down the following ads that appear on each of Google’s search result pages: 

As seen above on the google search engine results page, there are often search ads at the top of the page. These search ads are a type of digital marketing strategy that allows companies to pay search engines to place their ads higher on relevant results pages with the goal of driving traffic to their site and getting leads.

The local off-site SEO section (map pack) generated by Google displays three local business listings organically. The businesses within the local map pack appear in response to search queries for products or services provided by local businesses. 

Organic on-site SEO tends to be at the bottom of the page underneath the paid ads and local pack section. This method of marketing is used by companies to strategically take advantage of free online search engine optimization.

Local SEO is targeted specifically to local service businesses while national (broad SEO) doesn’t have the same strategy and is much more competitive because there is no map pack or “off-site” SEO opportunities.

How long do search engine optimization strategies take to see ROI?

Local SEO increases your online presence to drive maximum traffic to your website from a specific area. Whereas national SEO reaches customers on a national or global level. Even though these two types of SEO marketing have contrasting goals and cost perspectives, one thing is certain; it will work.

Cost of Local SEO:

Local SEO marketing costs around $500-$700 a month. On the backend, Google will give you all of your data on website visits, calls, and clicks which will help determine your ROI. The average time to see ROI for local SEO is around 6-12 months. This is due to the general time frame of how long it takes pages to index so that visibility can increase and bring in leads.

Cost of National SEO: 

In order to have a good marketing strategy for on-site national SEO, you’re gonna have to be willing to spend a lot of money due to time-intensive analytic research. The average cost for SEO marketing at a national or international level is around $1,000-$5,000+. On-page SEO takes typically at least a year to pick up since Google may not index your content right away and it takes time to build rankings on google.

What can I do to increase my chance of being shown on Google’s local service pack?

Ranking on the Google Map pack can increase your search engine rankings, customer base, brand visibility, and performance against local competition. There are many factors that can contribute to achieving local service pack status. However, in order to be a well-optimized candidate, it is imperative to break down your Google My Business profile. With attention, dedication, and taking the right steps when it comes to your SEO, you can increase the overall chances of being part of the Google local service pack and coming out on top.

Local: 

If you don’t target a specific area within your search, Google will automatically pull nearby results based on your location settings and IP address. However, your business will not be displayed in a local pack finder outside of your location unless another physical location is embedded into your content. This is why it is important to create service area pages and case studies with your geo targets and backlinks inside them. Outside of your GBP profile, Google reviews are the next most influential way to increase your chance of being shown in the local service pack because it builds credibility and increases your search engine optimization. Tracking keywords is also a critical strategy in optimization because the higher your content ranks on keywords similar to your service the more Google will feature it in searches. For both local and national SEO marketing, responding to content and being active is incredibly important to building an honorable reputation.

National: 

Search engine optimization is very technical for national companies because the most impactful factor in ranking is on-page SEO. This means that content constantly has to be built out correctly using accurate title tags and meta descriptions, as well as meeting the minimum word count. We recommend using a platform like Google Analytics to track your keywords too because the goal of international marketing is to drive traffic to your website’s URL. Due to the constant keyword research, progress tracking, and content creation all while ensuring everything is correctly built on the back end, national SEO marketing is constantly evolving in order to use data to drive good decisions.

As you can see there are plenty of ways to raise your online visibility for free, it’s just a matter of taking action and devising a plan. At Phlash Consulting, we work with local service businesses to increase their online awareness by implementing digital marketing strategies unique to them. Our goal of local SEO is to rank high enough on keywords within our content so that we are one of the three businesses to be shown on the map pack. If you are interested in seeing ROI for your marketing efforts or ranking in the local pack finder, please schedule an appointment with us today and receive a free consultation!