No state licenses this trade. Anyone can sell search marketing tomorrow morning with no qualification of any kind, and that single fact shapes every other decision here. Budget $500 to $5,000 a month for a retainer, with purely local work at the bottom of that and regulated sectors at the top. What protects you is not a credential, because none exists. It is a written scope, a reporting cadence you can actually read, and knowing which federal rules a marketing firm can put you on the wrong side of.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| SEO monthly retainerNational range | $500 to $5,000 per month |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
There is no exam, no board and no license for internet marketing anywhere in the United States. Someone who sold cars last week can sell search engine optimization this week, legally. Every other question about picking a firm follows from that.
What exists instead is a federal rule that reaches marketing agencies by name.
On 21 October 2024 the FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials took effect, at 16 C.F.R. Part 465. The FTC's own guidance says "advertising agencies, public relations firms, review brokers, or reputation management companies" can be liable under it, while "ordinary consumers can't be liable under the rule for what they say or don't say in reviews or testimonials." Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations.
Section 465.4 is the shortest way to see what changed: it is unlawful "for a business to provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative."
Section 465.2 goes after fake reviews, and the phrasing is what reaches an agency that did not write them. Buying or disseminating a review the business "knew or should have known materially misrepresented" that the reviewer exists, or used the product, or had the experience described, is a violation. Not knowing is not a defense if you should have known. Section 465.5 covers reviews written by a firm's own officers, employees or their immediate relatives. Section 465.7 covers using unfounded legal threats to stop a review being written.
Asking your own customers to leave reviews is expressly outside all of this. So is simply hosting them.
Separate instrument, different force. The FTC Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255 are interpretive rather than independently enforceable. They describe how section 5 of the FTC Act applies, and section 255.5 sets the core duty: where a connection between endorser and seller "might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement, and that connection is not reasonably expected by the audience, such connection must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously." Influencer campaigns, affiliate content and paid posts all run through that sentence.
CAN-SPAM sits at 15 U.S.C. 7701 to 7713 with FTC rules at 16 C.F.R. Part 316. Four obligations carry most of the weight: no materially false or misleading header information, no subject line the sender knows would mislead about a material fact, a functioning opt-out mechanism clearly and conspicuously displayed, and a valid physical postal address in the message.
Because there is no license, the substitute is a written scope. Ask what specifically will be done each month, in what quantity, and what the reporting will show. An agency that will not put deliverables in writing before you sign is telling you something.
Check where the price sits against the market rather than against your budget. A 2026 survey of more than 300 agencies puts almost every retainer inside the band in the table above, with only a small tail charging more. A quote far below that band usually means the work is thin; far above it, the agency should be able to say what the extra buys.
Ask who actually does the work and where. Roughly a quarter of agencies bill under $50 an hour, which almost always means the delivery team is not the team you met.
Ask what is excluded. Link building, content production and technical audits are commonly outside the retainer and priced separately, and a retainer that looks cheap is often a retainer with those stripped out.
Finally, ask directly about reviews and endorsements. Under Part 465 an agency that arranges incentivised or fabricated reviews can expose the business it works for, not only itself. Any firm that offers to "get you reviews" as a service should be able to explain exactly how, and how that survives 16 C.F.R. Part 465.
On a 2026 survey of more than 300 agencies, 43 percent charge under $1,500 a month, 48 percent between $1,500 and $5,000, and 5.5 percent above $5,000. Purely local work runs $500 to $1,500. Enterprise work starts around $5,000 and runs past $15,000.
There is no such thing. No state licenses internet marketing, there is no board and no exam. That is why a written scope of work and a clear reporting cadence do the job a credential would do in a licensed trade.
Link building at $500 to $3,000 a month, content creation at $100 to $500 a piece, generative-search optimization at around $900 a month, Google Business Profile management for multi-location businesses at $200 to $800 a month, and a full technical audit as a $1,500 to $5,000 project fee. Ask which of these are in the number you were quoted.
Yes. The FTC rule at 16 C.F.R. Part 465, in force since 21 October 2024, names advertising agencies, PR firms, review brokers and reputation management companies as parties that can be liable. Disseminating a review the business knew or should have known was fabricated is a violation, and not knowing is not a defense if you should have known.