Monthly SEO for Small Business, With Every Hour Logged

Here's a fair question to ask before you pay for SEO services for small business: if you stopped paying tomorrow, what would you still own, and could you prove what was done? With a lot of monthly SEO, the honest answer is "not much" and "not really."

I run monthly SEO the other way around. Every hour I spend on your site goes into a log you get each month: the date, the task, the page or account it touched, and the time. Every account the work lives in (your domain, Search Console, Google Analytics, your Business Profile) stays in your name, with me as a guest.

If that sounds like how it should have worked all along, you can tell me about your site in a short questionnaire. I reply with a plan and a fixed quote within one business day. No pressure either way.

Starting at $1,000 a month for a local business, or $2,000 a month for a business that sells nationally. That covers strategy, on-page fixes, a content plan, technical monitoring and a monthly report with the hours log. Three-month minimum, then month-to-month.

What you get with BigRed's monthly SEO

• A written strategy. Which pages and searches matter for your business, in what order, and why. One page, not a slide deck.
• On-page fixes. Titles, meta descriptions (the short summary that can appear under your link in Google), headings, internal links and content gaps on the pages that bring in customers.
• A content plan. What to write next and what to improve, based on what people actually search for in your trade.
• Technical monitoring. Indexing problems, broken pages, redirect mistakes and speed regressions caught early, usually before they cost you calls.
• A monthly report with an hours log. What changed, what moved, what didn't, and where every hour went.
• One person. You talk to me, and I do the work. No account manager relaying messages.

How it works

1. You fill in the questionnaire. Your site, your market, your goals, and what's been tried before.
2. I reply with a plan and a fixed quote within one business day. If monthly SEO is the wrong fit, I'll say so and suggest what is.
3. Access check, week one. I confirm you own the accounts (more on that below) and ask to be added as a user, never as the owner.
4. Month one: baseline and quick wins. I record where you stand in Search Console and analytics, fix the obvious problems, and agree the priority pages with you.
5. Every month after: work, log, report. Typical early movement shows up within two to four months. Competitive trades, new domains and sites with old technical debt take longer, and I'll tell you which one you are at the start.

Google's own starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours, others could take several months. Anyone promising faster is selling something else.

Why small business SEO needs an hours log and your own accounts

This is the whole point of the service, so here's the detail.

The hours log

Google publishes a list of questions to ask before you hire an SEO. One of them is "Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site". An hours log is that question, answered every month without you having to ask.

Here's what a few lines look like (a sample, not a real client):

At $1,000 a month and my $100 hourly rate, a local retainer buys about 10 hours of senior time. That's fewer hours than some cheaper retainers promise. The difference is that you can see mine, line by line, and check each one against your site.

The accounts stay yours

Paying for SEO shouldn't mean renting your own website. Before I touch anything, I check that you hold the top role in each account:

I ask to be added as a full user, editor or manager, a step below you everywhere. If we part ways, you remove me in a few clicks and keep everything, including the content I wrote. If you're not sure who holds what today, my six-account ownership checklist walks you through it with the exact role names.

Who this is for (and who it isn't)

This fits owners who want search handled steadily, month after month: contractors, clinics, law firms, local retailers and SaaS startups across the US and Canada. It works best when your site already gets some traffic and you have a few hours a month to answer questions about your business. I work remotely by video call, email and shared docs, so where you're based doesn't matter.

It isn't for you if you only need a one-time fix. A technical audit with a fix list costs less and may be all you need. It also isn't the best start if you have time but no budget. A couple of hours of one-on-one SEO advice can point you at the right work, and you do it yourself. And if a handful of pages need attention, per-page optimization is cheaper than a retainer.

SEO services for small business: pricing detail

For context, an Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers found local SEO averages $1,557 a month, and 79.1% of US and Canadian providers charge at least $1,001 a month. Mine starts at the low end of that range, as of October 2026:

Articles and link building aren't bundled in. If you want them, they're priced separately so you can see what each costs. Prices are in USD, and Canadian clients can pay in CAD at the day's exchange rate. Everything else is listed on BigRed's prices page.

Why hand it to me

I've worked in search marketing for 20+ years, starting with SEO in the mid-2000s, plus paid ads and affiliate marketing along the way. I've run technical SEO audits, moved whole sites between hosts, set up GA4, Tag Manager and Search Console from scratch, and worked on sites in 14 languages.

That mix matters for a small business, because ranking problems often turn out to be server, redirect or tracking problems. I can fix those myself instead of opening a ticket with your web person and waiting.

I've also trained and led junior SEO specialists. So I know exactly which tasks need senior judgment, and I don't pad an hours log with busywork.

Monthly SEO FAQ

How much do SEO services for a small business cost?

At BigRed, monthly SEO starts at $1,000 for a local business and $2,000 for a national one. Survey data puts the typical local retainer around $1,500 a month, and most US and Canadian providers charge over $1,000. The number matters less than what it buys. Ask any provider how many hours your fee covers, who does them, and whether you'll see a log.

How long before monthly SEO shows results?

Small fixes can show in Search Console within weeks. Meaningful movement in calls and leads typically takes two to four months for an established local site. New domains, competitive trades and sites with technical problems take longer. Google itself says some changes take several months to show. I'd rather tell you that up front than promise a timeline nobody controls.

Why is there a three-month minimum?

Because month one is mostly baseline and cleanup, and Google needs time to recrawl what changed. Judging SEO after four weeks usually means judging the setup, not the results. After three months the contract runs month-to-month, and you can stop with notice. Your accounts and content stay with you either way.

Do I own the content and accounts if I cancel?

Yes. Every account stays in your name with you as owner or administrator, and I'm added a level below. Content I write for your site is yours. If you cancel, you remove my access and keep everything. If an earlier provider still holds ownership of something, I'll help you get it back as part of the first month.

Is BigRed an SEO agency for small business or a freelancer?

BigRed is a small remote agency, and I'm the person doing the work. You get one senior specialist rather than a team with handoffs. That suits most small businesses well. It doesn't suit companies that need ten people working at once, and I'll say so if that's you.

Next step

If you'd like monthly SEO you can check line by line, send me the basics through the SEO questionnaire. I'll come back with a plan, a fixed quote, and an honest view on whether a retainer is the right call for you.