How do you choose who does local SEO for you?

What does a local SEO vendor actually sell?

One or more of four areas that have almost nothing to do with each other: the Google Business Profile, the business's own website, listings and citations on third-party directories, and reviews. Google describes local placement as relevance, distance and prominence, and a vendor's real proposition is which of those they touch. A quote that does not name its area is a quote for an unknown thing.

How much does local SEO cost?

Anywhere from tens to thousands a month, because the word covers four different jobs. What separates vendors is not the number but whether it is published at all: a firm quoting per client is pricing the client, not the work. Maps Agent publishes three — $39 a month for Autopost, $99 for the AI Team, $149 for Partner — and each one names its contents.

What does the Maps Agent AI Team include at $99 a month?

The whole body of profile work, run by AI agents with human researchers above them: 4 posts a month with original images, 100 keywords mapped to intent and to a specific service, 4 new Google products, 4 Q&A posts and 4 Q&A services, business description optimization, a rank report with competitors, and images matched to the trade and city. Research of the business happens once, before the first post.

What is deliberately not included?

Maps Agent does not do review management, review responses, citation building, directory listings, call tracking, social media management or website building. It publishes no live dashboard and no approval workflow, and it guarantees no ranking position. Those exclusions are the shape of the product rather than a gap waiting to close, and a page selling local SEO without naming them would be selling the whole category.

What should you ask before hiring anyone?

Four questions, in this order. Which of the four areas does this price cover? What access do you need, and in what role? What happens the month I stop paying? And is the price on your website? A vendor who answers all four plainly is a different kind of vendor from one who moves the conversation to a call.

Why does access matter more than the contract?

Because access is what survives the relationship ending. A manager invitation lets a vendor do every part of the profile work and lets the owner withdraw it in one click; an owner invitation hands over the power to delete the listing. Maps Agent asks for manager access, and any vendor who insists on ownership is asking for something the work does not require.

How is an AI team different from a local SEO agency?

An agency sells the whole category with people doing the work and a price that reflects the hours. Maps Agent sells one bounded part of it, produced by AI agents that human researchers supervise, at a published monthly price and with no salespeople. The Partner tier at $149 adds a partner human team directing and verifying the same work, with your own photos instead of generated ones.

What does the buyer actually have to do?

Everything the client does happens once, after payment: a short content form and profile access by a manager-role invite. There are no calls to book on the AI tiers, no dashboard to learn and no approvals to click. The work then runs monthly, and a public report page shows what shipped and what is next.

Common questions

Can a small business do local SEO itself?

Yes. Every action in the profile composition is available free to whoever owns the listing, and none of it is gated behind a vendor. What a subscription buys is that the work still happens in the months the business is busy — which is exactly when profiles go quiet and competitors do not.

Does Maps Agent guarantee a ranking position?

No, and nobody can. Google states there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and a guarantee of position is a claim the Federal Trade Commission treats as requiring substantiation. The rank report shows measured positions on your keywords against named competitors — evidence of movement rather than a promise about it.

Is $99 a month enough for local SEO?

It is enough for the Google Business Profile work listed above, which for a business whose customers arrive from a phone map search is the surface that decides. It is not enough for a website rebuild, a citation campaign or review handling, none of which are included at any tier.

What happens if you cancel?

The work stops at the end of the paid month and the profile stays exactly as it is, under the owner's own Google Account. There is no cancellation call, no notice window and no charge afterwards. Access granted by manager invite can be withdrawn by the owner at any moment, with or without telling anyone.

What does the Partner tier add at $149?

A partner human team on the account with a personal manager, your own photos on the profile instead of generated ones, manual quality control of everything the AI team ships, and a meet-your-team call before you buy. It is the same composition of work with people directing and verifying it.