SEO pricing for UK trades, 2026
How much does SEO cost for trades businesses in the UK?
What agencies charge plumbers, builders, electricians and roofers, what a fair retainer should include, and a quick sum to see whether it’ll pay for itself on your own jobs.
How much does SEO cost for trades businesses?
Most local trades firms pay between £300 and £1,200 a month for an agency retainer. Across all sectors, UK agencies that publish their prices run from £99 to over £5,000 a month, with a median around £800. A one-off audit is quoted at £500 to £7,500, and the basics, like setting up your Google Business Profile, cost nothing but your time.
Construct Virtual does SEO for UK construction and trades firms and prices each job after a free diagnostic call. Whoever you speak to, the test is the same: will the gross profit from the extra jobs beat the fee?
UK SEO prices by route, 2026
There are six ways to buy SEO, and they don’t compare like for like. A free profile set-up and a £3,000 a month campaign are doing different jobs.
| Route | Typical UK cost | Best for | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Free, plus your time | Sole traders starting out | Time, and mistakes you can’t see |
| Google Business Profile set-up | Free to set up, or about £100 to £300 one-off for help | Every trade with a local area | Needs reviews and updates to keep working |
| One-off SEO audit | £500 to £7,500 | Firms with a website that isn’t pulling in work | You get a list of fixes, not results |
| Freelancer | About £500 to £2,500 a month, or £40 to £100 an hour | Small firms with a clear brief | Capacity, and cover when they’re away |
| Local SEO retainer (agency) | £300 to £1,200 a month | Most local trades firms | Quality varies a lot at this price |
| Competitive or national campaign | £3,000 to £8,000+ a month | Larger contractors and multi-area firms | Slow payback unless job values are high |
Figures are agency and commercial-publisher prices published in 2026: mainly Whito (median of 45 UK providers’ published prices, June 2026), WhiteHat SEO and Limelight Digital (both April 2026) and Whito’s plumber marketing costs page (July 2026). None is an independent survey, and agencies that don’t publish a price are left out. Read the table as the shape of the market, not a quote.
Published UK SEO monthly prices in one June 2026 study. The middle half sat between about £410 and £1,500.
Whito UK SEO pricing study (45 prices)Local SEO retainer for plumbers in one compilation of provider prices, rising to £600 to £1,200 for growing firms.
Whito plumber marketing costs, July 2026The quoted cost of building a trade website, which often needs sorting before SEO can pay back.
Whito plumber marketing costs, July 2026What moves the price of SEO for a trade?
Competition
A plumber in a market town is cheaper to rank than a roofer in Manchester. Agencies price low-competition local niches at £800 to £1,500 and tougher sectors well above that.
Service area
One town, one county or a whole region changes how many pages, profiles and reviews you need.
Your website
A slow, thin or template site needs fixing first. SEO on a weak site just sends people to a page that doesn’t convert.
Job value
A bathroom fit-out or heat pump install can justify a far bigger spend than a one-off call-out.
Content and reviews
Proper service pages, job write-ups and a steady flow of Google reviews take time, and are often priced on top.
Reporting
Some quotes include call tracking and monthly reports. Without them you can’t tell whether it’s working.
What should you get at each price level?
| Monthly spend | What’s realistic | What to see in writing |
|---|---|---|
| £300 to £600 | Google Business Profile upkeep, basic on-page fixes, citation clean-up and light reporting | A named task list with hours, and full access to every account |
| £600 to £1,200 | All of that, plus new service pages, a review process and local content. Agencies quote roughly 5 to 10 hours of work a month at this level | Monthly targets for pages, reviews and calls, not just rankings |
| £1,500 and above | Several areas or services, link building, technical work and conversion improvements | A written plan, tracked leads and a clear way out of the contract |
The hours and task mix are agency claims, not an industry standard. Get whatever you’re promised in writing.
Ask this before anything else
How many calls and enquiries has the work produced for other trades customers, and can you speak to one of them? Rankings don’t pay the wages.
Break-even calculator: how many jobs does SEO need to win?
Jobs needed per month = monthly SEO fee ÷ gross profit per job. Take £400 gross profit a job as an example (swap in your own). A £500 fee needs about 1.25 extra jobs a month, £800 needs 2, and £1,500 needs nearly 4. A boiler install or a loft conversion clears that quickly. A run of low-margin call-outs won’t.
Extra jobs needed each month: 0
Extra enquiries needed each month: 0
Total spend before it pays back£0
The starting figures are examples, not benchmarks. SEO is paid for up front and pays back later, so the last box matters as much as the first.
SEO versus lead sites and Google Ads
SEO is one of four ways to get found. They differ most on speed, and on what happens when you stop paying.
| Route | How you pay | Speed | If you stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Monthly fee, results build over months | Slow | Rankings usually hold for a while, then slip |
| Google Ads and Local Services Ads | Per click or per lead. One compilation quotes £15 to £40 per qualified Local Services lead | Fast | Leads stop straight away |
| Lead sites: Rated People, MyBuilder, Checkatrade | Per lead or membership. One compilation quotes £5 to £20 per lead on Rated People | Fast | Leads stop, and each one is shared with other firms |
| Word of mouth and reviews | Your time | Slow | Carries on while you keep doing good jobs |
Cost-per-lead figures come from a commercial compilation (Whito, 2026) with no stated sample, so use them as a rough guide and check your own invoices. A cheap lead isn’t a cheap job: shared leads convert less often.
Most firms end up with a mix, a lead source for work this month and SEO for work next year. Our pages on digital marketing for plumbers and marketing for HVAC companies show how that works in practice.
How long does SEO take to work for a trades business?
Months, not weeks. Ahrefs looked at millions of new pages and found only 1.74% to 6.11% reached Google’s top 10 within a year, depending on the dataset. That’s new pages in general, not local trades searches, but it’s a fair warning that nobody can promise page one by a set date.
Local results can move faster than national ones. A verified Google Business Profile, recent reviews and a proper service page can earn a place in the local results without a long link-building campaign. Even so, judge any campaign on what reaches your phone:
- Calls from your Google Business Profile
- Quote requests from your website
- Enquiries that say they found you on Google
- Booked jobs, and what they were worth
Does SEO still pay now that AI answers questions?
Yes, but the job has widened. Pew Research found people clicked a link in 8% of visits when Google showed an AI summary, against 15% without one, and just 1% clicked a source cited in the summary (68,879 searches, 2025, US). Ahrefs linked AI Overviews to a 58% lower click-through rate for the top result on informational searches (300,000 keywords, December 2025, US desktop). Neither study covers UK local trades searches.
For a trades owner, the split is fairly clear. “Emergency plumber near me” is local and urgent, so reviews, your Business Profile and answering the phone matter most. “How much does a heat pump cost” is an informational question, and that’s where AI answers take the clicks, so being named in those answers counts. Ask any SEO supplier how they handle AI search. Our guide to ranking in AI search covers the basics, and the free AI search visibility check shows whether ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini recommend you today.
Red flags and questions to ask any SEO supplier
Google’s own advice on whether you need an SEO and how to choose one warns against several of the claims below.
Walk away if you hear
- A guaranteed first-page ranking, or a guaranteed number of leads
- A “special relationship” with Google
- A demand for admin access to your accounts when read-only would do
- A fixed price with no list of tasks
- A cold email promising instant results
Eight questions worth asking
Who owns the website, the domain and the Google Business Profile?
You should. Get it in writing, with the logins in your name.
What exactly do I get each month?
Ask for tasks and hours, not a list of buzzwords.
How will you measure success?
The right answer is calls, quote requests and booked jobs.
What’s the minimum term and notice period?
Prefer a short term, and know the cost of leaving before you sign.
Who actually does the work?
In-house, a freelancer, or outsourced overseas?
Can I speak to a trades customer?
A supplier with real trades results will put you in touch.
How do you handle reviews?
You ask every customer. Buying or faking reviews is banned in the UK.
What happens to my site if I leave?
You should keep the content, the site and the accounts.
Why UK SEO price guides disagree
We read the main UK price guides published in 2026 side by side. They contradict each other, and in places themselves. That matters, because an “average SEO price” is only as good as the sample behind it.
- One study gives a median of £799 a month from 45 published prices. A later reading of the same page gives £837.50 from 38.
- One agency guide lists local SEO from £300 a month in its table and £500 to £800 in its conclusion.
- Another puts a minimum at £800 in one place and £1,500 for a “meaningful” campaign in another.
- None of the general guides mentions a single trade, and none ties the price to what a job is worth.
- We found no independent survey of what UK trades firms pay for SEO. Anyone quoting a precise national average for trades is guessing.
So work from ranges, get scopes in writing and run the break-even sum above with your own numbers.
SEO guides for UK trades
Plumbers can start with digital marketing for plumbers, web design for plumbers and SEO for London plumbers. Heating and ventilation firms have SEO for HVAC contractors and AI for HVAC businesses. Builders and contractors can read SEO for construction companies and websites for contractors. Once the enquiries start arriving, the AI receptionist for trades (and what it costs) and the AI quote follow-up system stop them leaking away. Reviews are covered in how to get more Google reviews.
SEO costs for trades: common questions
How much does SEO cost for a plumber, builder or electrician in the UK?
Most local trades firms pay about £300 to £1,200 a month for an agency retainer. One compilation puts plumber SEO at £300 to £800 a month. A published-price study of UK providers found a median of about £800 across all sectors.
Is SEO worth it for a small trades business?
It can be, if your average job is worth enough that a few extra jobs a year cover the fee. Divide the monthly fee by your gross profit per job to see how many extra jobs you need. If the sum looks tight, start with a free Google Business Profile and a steady flow of reviews.
How long does SEO take for a trades business?
Plan for several months. Ahrefs found only 1.74% to 6.11% of new pages reached Google’s top 10 within a year. Local results can move faster, but nobody can honestly promise a date.
Can I do SEO myself?
For the basics, yes. Setting up a Google Business Profile is free, and you can add service pages, ask every customer for a review and keep your details consistent. Pay for help when time or technical fixes are holding you back.
Is SEO better than Google Ads for trades?
They do different jobs. Ads and lead sites bring leads quickly and stop when you stop paying. SEO is slower and builds up. Many firms use ads for work this month and SEO for work next year.
What should an SEO contract include?
A list of tasks and hours, who owns the website and accounts, how results are measured, the minimum term and notice period, and what happens to your site if you leave.
How much does Construct Virtual charge for SEO?
We scope the price to your trade, area and website on a free diagnostic call, so you get a written plan before you commit. No obligation.
Keep reading
Why isn’t your trades website showing on Google?
A five-minute check across four gates.
Best SEO companies for trades and construction
Seven routes compared, with a ten-point scorecard.
How to get more Google reviews as a trades business
Copy-and-use scripts and the rules to follow.
See what SEO would cost, and return, for your trade
In thirty minutes we look at your website, your Google Business Profile and the searches your customers actually use, then tell you what’s worth fixing first and what it would cost. If SEO isn’t the right next step, we’ll say so.
- What’s holding your enquiries back, in plain English
- A price tied to what your jobs are worth
- A break-even sum you can check yourself
Free AI search check
Does ChatGPT recommend your company?
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to recommend a builder or contractor, is your company named? Find out where you stand today.
See how AI engines answer about you