🗺️ What This Article Covers
This guide helps agency owners set prices for managed white-label SEO services — where you personally take on client work such as technical SEO, Google Business Profile (GBP) management, Google Ads, content, landing pages, conversion tracking, and reporting. This is separate from reselling the Search Atlas platform as software. If you are looking for platform resale or white-label software pricing, please see the White-Label Setup guide under More Features → Agency Hub → White Label Setup.
📦 Understanding the Two Pricing Models
Before setting rates, it helps to distinguish the two models:
- Software resale (white-label SaaS): You rebrand and resell Search Atlas access to clients. Your margin comes from the difference between your agency plan cost and what you charge the client for platform access.
- Managed done-for-you (DFY) services: You personally perform SEO, ads, and digital marketing work on behalf of clients. Your pricing must cover your time, tools, ad spend, and deliverables.
The rest of this article focuses on managed DFY service pricing.
🧩 Breaking Down a Full-Service Monthly Package
A common agency retainer combines several service lines. Below is a breakdown of typical deliverables and the market rate ranges agencies use in 2024–2026.
🔍 Technical SEO — Site Health Audit and Maintenance
This covers crawl error fixes, Core Web Vitals, site structure, indexing, and ongoing health monitoring using tools like the Search Atlas Site Auditor.
- One-time setup or deep audit: $300–$800
- Ongoing monthly maintenance: $200–$500/month
Factors that raise the rate: large site with thousands of pages, e-commerce complexity, or custom CMS work.
📍 Google Business Profile and Local SEO
This includes GBP optimization, category and attribute updates, post scheduling, Q&A management, review response, and local citation building.
- GBP setup and optimization (one-time): $150–$400
- Monthly local SEO management: $300–$600/month per location
Multi-location businesses typically pay per location or receive a volume discount at 3+ locations.
📝 Content Assets
Content pricing depends on volume, word count, research depth, and whether you are writing, editing, or publishing.
- Blog post (800–1,200 words): $150–$400 each
- Monthly content retainer (2–4 posts): $400–$1,200/month
- SEO-optimized service or location pages: $200–$500 each
📣 Google Ads Management
Ad management fees are typically charged as a flat monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend, or a hybrid of both.
- Flat management fee: $300–$700/month
- Percentage of spend model: 10–20% of monthly ad spend
- Hybrid (flat + percentage): Common when spend exceeds $2,000/month
For a client with $500/month in advertising credit, a flat fee of $300–$400/month for management is typical, since the spend level is relatively small.
🛬 Conversion Landing Page
A single, professionally built landing page designed to convert visitors for a specific offer, service, or campaign.
- One conversion landing page (design + copy + build): $300–$800 one-time
- If offered as part of a recurring retainer, amortize this over 3–6 months or include it as an onboarding deliverable.
📊 Conversion Tracking and Reporting
This covers form tracking setup, Google Tag Manager configuration, goal setup in Google Analytics or Google Ads, and monthly performance reporting.
- Tracking setup (one-time): $150–$400
- Monthly reporting: $100–$250/month
You can use the Search Atlas Report Builder (Left sidebar → Reports) to create automated branded reports and deliver them on a schedule, which reduces your manual reporting time significantly.
💰 Sample Full-Service Monthly Retainer
Using the deliverables from this article, here is an example of how an agency might price a complete monthly package for a single local business client:
- Technical SEO monitoring: $250/month
- GBP and local SEO management: $400/month
- Content (2 blog posts): $500/month
- Google Ads management ($500 ad spend): $350/month
- Conversion tracking and reporting: $150/month
- Monthly retainer total: $1,650/month
- One-time onboarding (audit + landing page + tracking setup): $1,200–$1,800
This is a mid-market benchmark. Agencies in competitive metros or with strong case studies often charge 20–40% above these figures. Newer agencies or those targeting small local businesses may price 10–20% below.
📐 Pricing Tips for Packaging Your Services
- Bundle for simplicity: Clients prefer one flat monthly number over itemized line items. Present a package name (e.g., "Local Growth Plan") with bullet-point deliverables rather than a per-service invoice.
- Separate ad spend from your fee: Always make it clear in your contract that the $500 advertising credit goes directly to the ad platform and is not part of your management fee.
- Include a minimum term: SEO results take time. A 3- or 6-month minimum contract protects your agency and sets realistic client expectations.
- Charge for onboarding: Setup, audits, and landing page builds have real costs. A one-time onboarding fee between $500 and $1,500 is standard and expected by professional clients.
- Automate reporting to protect margin: Use the Search Atlas Report Builder to schedule automated email reports so you are not spending unbillable hours on monthly PDFs.
🏷️ White-Label Considerations
If you are delivering these services under your own agency brand, make sure your white-label setup is complete before sharing any client-facing reports or dashboards. Go to More Features → Agency Hub → White Label Setup to configure your logo, brand colors, and custom domain. This ensures all Search Atlas-generated reports and tools appear under your agency name, not Search Atlas.
🆘 Need Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.