An SEO company for small business owners who want the receipts.
What SEO means for a business your size
| Where your buyers look | What wins there | What we build |
|---|---|---|
| The Google map listing | The business that looks real: reviews, photos, hours, a phone number that gets answered | The profile, the review engine behind it, and the pages that back it up |
| Google search | The page that answers the question, better than the other ten | One page per service, per town you sell in, written to the buyer’s question |
| ChatGPT and Gemini | The business the assistant names when a customer asks who to call | Clear answers under your real name that an assistant can quote with proof |
Same body of work, three rooms. An agency selling you three separate products for these is selling you the same pages three times.
Dated, named, and checkable
What it costs
Open the retainer bands by revenue
| Your revenue | Typical monthly retainer | What it covers | Billed separately |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M to $3M | $5,000 to $7,500 | One constraint at a time. Usually search, offer, or paid. | Ad spend, software |
| $3M to $6M | $7,500 to $12,000 | Full channel mix plus the measurement rebuild. | Ad spend, software, production |
| $6M to $10M | $12,000 to $15,000 | Full marketing ownership plus team direction. | Ad spend, software, production |
A $10,000 retainer with $8,000 of media behind it is an $18,000 month. Any operator who will not split those two lines is hiding one of them from you.
What happens after you sign
The diagnosis
The plan
Changes ship
Measurement
What lands in your inbox every month
One scorecard, one written recommendation with a decision attached, and one review call. The same five numbers every month so the trend is legible. Impressions never appear on it.
For a local service business, the map is the shelf
Your customers ask ChatGPT who to call
Jason Spencer
When a small business needs an SEO company, and when it does not
Hire me if
- You are between $1M and $10M with proven demand.
- Buyers in your market search for what you sell.
- You are already spending and cannot tell what it produced.
- You can take the extra work when it arrives.
- You want the receipts to be checkable, by client name and date.
- You will act on what the data says, even when it contradicts you.
Do not hire me yet
- You are pre-revenue. You need customers, not an SEO program.
- You are under $1M without the margin for the floor. Take the free list instead.
- Delivery is the constraint and more demand would bury you.
- You want a listings service for a small monthly fee.
- You need page one in 90 days. That promise is a sales tactic.
- You want to own the strategy and have someone type the pages.
Five questions to ask any SEO company, including me
Open the red-flag list
- ⚠They guarantee page one. Nobody selling that controls the index.
- ⚠Their case study is a rankings screenshot with no revenue on it.
- ⚠The monthly report leads with impressions.
- ⚠No published price anywhere and no range on the first call.
- ⚠They cannot name the person who writes the pages.
- ⚠The contract leaves your domain or pages in their name.
- ⚠They quote traffic from a tool instead of leads from a CRM.
- ⚠They sign a second business like yours across town.
Two of those eight are ones I would fail if I let things slip. A checklist that cannot indict the person publishing it is a brochure.
Questions small business owners ask first
How much does SEO cost for a small business?
At ROI.LIVE it starts at $5,000 a month and most engagements land between $5,000 to $15,000, scaling with scope, because search is built inside the full marketing engagement rather than sold as a standalone line. Ad spend and software are billed separately at cost. The bands by revenue are published on this page.
Is SEO worth it for a business my size?
It is worth it when buyers in your market search for what you sell and you can take the work the day it arrives. Under those two conditions it is the only channel you still own if the ad budget has a bad quarter. If either condition fails, the first call is where we say so.
How long until I see results?
My honest calibration: the first readable movement inside 60 days, and the compounding 6 to 12 months in. Paid starts the day you turn it on, which is why the two run together while search builds. Anyone promising page one in 90 days is selling something he cannot control.
What is the Google map pack?
The map results with three businesses beside the map when someone searches a local term, like a service plus a town. For a local service business it is the most valuable shelf in the market, and the way onto it is a complete profile, a working review engine, and pages that prove the work.
Do I need SEO if all my work comes from word of mouth?
Word of mouth now ends at a search. A referral types your name, looks at the map, and checks the reviews before calling. The work makes the referral stick, and it catches the buyer who got the same recommendation from a neighbor two towns over.
Should I do SEO or Google Ads first?
Both, on one plan. Ads buy data and booked work today while search compounds underneath. The capture is running them as one budget with one owner, which is how they are run here. Paid at Windows Source of Houston returned 4.9x beside organic at 25.7x; two engines, both profitable.
What do you need from me?
Access to the accounts, your numbers, and an hour of your expertise in week one. The pages carry your jobs, your proof, and your voice, because the engines are hunting for the real expert. I set the plan; you are never asked to write.
Can you guarantee page one on Google?
No, and neither does anyone who offers that guarantee, because none of us controls the index. What I commit to in writing is the work on this page, shipped on dates, and measured on a scorecard you can check.
Do you take my competitor across town?
No. A hard cap of 6 clients and no two direct competitors in the same market at the same time. If a competitor in your market signs, you hear it from me before the contract.
What happens to my website if we stop working together?
Everything is yours: the domain, the pages, the analytics property, the Google Business Profile, and the files, transferred in working condition. If an agency cannot tell you who owns the assets on the day you leave, assume the answer is that they do.
Can you work with my existing web person or marketing person?
Yes, and it is a common setup at this size. Your people keep doing what they do and gain someone senior setting direction and unblocking decisions. I direct rather than replace, and I will say so straight if the role and the person are mismatched.
How do we start?
Book the free growth plan. Thirty minutes on my calendar. We open your accounts together, find the leaks live, and you leave with a written plan you keep whether we work together or not.