November 8, 2026 · 8 min read
Try to find out what a marketing agency around Alpharetta charges and you will mostly find contact forms. We went looking at the agencies ranking above us for local search terms, and the pattern is consistent: the better-ranked ones publish packages, tiers, even utilization “points” — and no dollar figures anywhere.
That is a problem if you are the one buying. You cannot tell an expensive quote from a fair one without something to compare it to, and the first real number you see arrives at the end of a sales call, attached to a person who now knows your budget.
So here is the landscape: what the common pricing models are, what each one quietly hides, roughly what a small local business should expect to pay, and the clauses worth arguing about. Our own numbers are at the bottom, published, because it would be strange to write this and not.
The Four Pricing Models You Will Run Into
Almost every quote you get is one of these four, or a blend. The model matters more than the number, because it decides who carries the risk when the work turns out harder than expected.
| Model | Typical range | What it hides |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $75 – $150/hr | You are buying time, not outcomes. A slow month and a productive month cost the same, and nobody can tell you in advance what the total will be. |
| Monthly retainer | $500 – $2,500/mo | What is actually included. Two agencies quoting $1,000 can mean wildly different amounts of work. Ask what happens in month four, when the obvious fixes are done. |
| Per project | $2,000 – $10,000 | Where the project ends. Common surprises: content you have to write yourself, a redesign that drops pages you were ranking for, and no plan for who maintains it afterwards. |
| Percentage of ad spend | 10% – 20% | That it pays the agency almost nothing on a small account. At $1,500/mo in ad spend, 15% is $225 — nobody manages an account properly for that, so it gets managed badly or subsidized by a setup fee you were not shown. |
These ranges are what we see quoted in the north metro Atlanta market, not a national survey. Treat them as a sanity check: a quote well outside them is not automatically wrong, but it should come with a reason.
What Actually Moves the Price of a Website
Page count is the obvious one and the least interesting. The things that genuinely swing a website quote:
- Who writes the content. “Client provides copy” is the single most common reason a cheap website never launches. If you have not written eight pages of service copy before, assume you will not enjoy starting now.
- E-commerce, booking, or logins. Anything that stores data or takes money is a different category of work, with ongoing security implications. Quotes that treat an online store as “a few more pages” are quotes to be careful with.
- Redesign versus new build. A redesign carries risk a new site does not: existing URLs that need redirects, and pages that already earn impressions and must not be dropped. We have written about how badly that can go wrong, on our own site.
- What happens after launch. Hosting, updates, backups, and someone to call when a form stops sending. If the quote does not mention it, you are buying it separately later.
Why SEO Is Monthly, and Why There Is Usually a Minimum
SEO is not a project with a finish line, which is why it is priced monthly. The minimum term is the part people push back on, and the honest version of the argument is about measurement, not commitment: you cannot fairly judge SEO in 60 days. Technical fixes can show up in weeks, but rankings and local signals depend on Google recrawling and re-evaluating your site, which takes months.
On our own site, a structural fix produced no visible movement for weeks and then a 16-position jump in average rankings across a month. Had anyone judged that work at day 30, they would have concluded it failed.
So a minimum term is reasonable. What is not reasonable is a minimum term with no defined deliverables, no reporting you can check yourself, and nothing you keep if you leave. Push on those three, not on the length.
The Ad Spend Trap
This one costs local businesses real money, and it is easy to miss. Two rules worth holding:
Your ad spend should never be on the same invoice as the management fee. Google should bill your own account directly. When the two are bundled, you cannot see what you pay for work versus what you pay for clicks, and if you leave, the account history usually leaves with the agency.
Pure percentage-of-spend pricing does not work on small accounts. Most local businesses here spend $1,000 to $3,000 a month on ads. Fifteen percent of that is $150 to $450 — which does not pay for competent management. Either the account gets neglected, or the real cost is hiding somewhere you were not shown. A flat fee at that level is the more honest structure, even when it looks higher.
Red Flags in a Quote
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google's results. A guarantee usually means targeting search terms with no volume, which is easy to win and worth nothing.
- You do not own the website. Some agencies keep the site on their own hosting and their own account, so leaving means starting over. Ask who the domain is registered to, too.
- No audit before the commitment. If nobody can tell you what is wrong with your site before you sign, nobody has looked.
- Reporting that counts the wrong things. Impressions, “keywords tracked,” and social followers are easy to grow and easy to confuse with results. Ask for calls, form fills, and where they came from.
- A price that only exists after a call. Not automatically dishonest, but it tells you the number is a function of what you seem able to pay.
Our Numbers
We publish ours. Partly because the advice above would be hollow otherwise, and partly because it filters out conversations that were never going to work for either side.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| SEO audit and setup | $750 one-time |
| Local SEO management | $800 per month |
| Business website, up to 8 pages | $3,500 one-time |
| Website care plan | $150 per month, optional |
| Google Ads setup | $750 one-time |
| Google Ads management, up to $2,500/mo spend | $600 per month |
Full details, including what each one covers and the larger Google Ads tiers, are on the SEO, web design, and Google Ads pages. Two things worth repeating here: the SEO audit is yours to keep whether or not you continue with us, and you own your website, domain, ad account, and analytics regardless of how the relationship ends.
Questions and Answers
How much does SEO cost in Alpharetta?
For a small local business, expect $500 to $2,500 per month for ongoing SEO, plus a one-time audit or setup fee somewhere between $500 and $1,500. Our own numbers are published: a $750 one-time audit and $800 per month for local SEO management. Anything under roughly $500 a month is usually either automated report-sending or a few directory submissions, and anything above $2,500 should come with a scope that clearly justifies it.
How much does a website cost in Alpharetta, GA?
A custom small-business website generally runs $2,000 to $10,000 depending on page count, whether you need e-commerce or booking, and who writes the content. Ours is $3,500 for up to eight pages with on-page SEO, forms, analytics, and launch redirects included. Template builds can come in under $1,500, and the tradeoff is usually speed, SEO structure, and the ability to change it later without breaking something.
Why do so few agencies publish their prices?
Because a number without context loses to a cheaper number, and because it makes it harder to charge different clients differently for the same work. There are honest reasons too: real scope varies. But the common version is simpler — the price is set in the sales call based on what they think you will pay.
Is a monthly SEO contract a red flag?
A minimum term is not a red flag; SEO genuinely cannot be judged in 30 days. An auto-renewing term with no exit, no defined deliverables, and no data you own is. Ask what you keep if you leave in month seven. If the answer is nothing, that is the problem, not the term length.
Should the agency manage my ad spend on their invoice?
No. Your Google Ads spend should be billed by Google directly to an account you own, separate from the management fee. When the two are bundled into one invoice, you lose the ability to see what you are paying for work versus what you are paying for clicks — and you usually lose the account itself if you leave.
What should I ask before signing?
Who owns the website, the domain, the ad account, and the analytics if we stop working together? What exactly happens in month one, and in month six? What do I keep if I cancel? Is the ad spend separate from your fee? Will you show me the audit before I commit? The answers tell you more than the price does.
Want a straight answer on what your situation would cost?
Call (470) 570-8470 or request a free consultation. If we think you do not need what you are asking for, we will say that instead.
Get a Free Consultation