If you've ever hired an SEO agency, the script is roughly the same. They run an audit. They send you a 40-page PDF nobody reads. They quote you $3,000-$5,000 a month. Six months later, your rankings haven't moved meaningfully and the monthly report is a dashboard of metrics that don't connect to your inbound calls.
This is the dominant business model for SEO services aimed at small businesses, and it's mostly theater. The actual mechanical work that drives local rankings (technical SEO, schema, Google Business Profile, citations, on-site optimization) is a 30 to 60 day project. The ongoing work that drives long-term rankings (real content, real backlinks, real local relationships) is measured in articles published per month and partnerships built per quarter, not in retainer dollars.
JusCoding does the version where the deliverables are the work. No retainer required.
What I actually do.
Three buckets. The first is mostly mechanical. The second is content. The third is the ongoing stuff most agencies promise and don't deliver.
1. Technical SEO and schema
The foundation most templated sites get wrong. Proper title tags, meta descriptions, semantic HTML, JSON-LD schema for your business and content (LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Article, BreadcrumbList, the works), sitemap that's correct and submitted to Google Search Console, robots.txt that doesn't accidentally block the wrong pages, sub-2.5-second Core Web Vitals, mobile-first responsive layout that doesn't break. This work is done once, correctly, and then it's done.
2. Google Business Profile and citations
The biggest local-SEO lever, and the one most agencies skip because it's not glamorous. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile (categories, services, photos, posts, Q&A, the description that actually converts). Build NAP consistency across the 10-15 directories that matter (Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Clutch, The Manifest, Crunchbase, your local Chamber of Commerce, etc.). Set up the review collection workflow. This is what populates the Google Map Pack ("3-pack" of local results), and it's the single highest-leverage move for most service businesses.
3. Content strategy for industry and city pages
The piece that compounds. A specific industry landing page targeting "AI receptionist for dentists in Dartmouth" or "HVAC AI Acushnet" ranks for genuinely high-intent queries with low competition. A specific city page for New Bedford, with real local context (not Mad Libs), backs up the local relevance signal. A monthly long-form article on a related topic builds topical authority over time. This is where most "SEO retainers" disappear without producing anything; the actual work is writing, not measuring.
The 30/60/90 day plan.
Audit + technical foundation
Full audit of current site, GBP, citations, and competitor positioning. Fix everything mechanical: title tags, meta, schema, sitemap, GSC setup. You'll see indexing improvements in GSC inside 2-4 weeks.
Local SEO foundation
Google Business Profile fully optimized. NAP consistency across 10-15 directories. First 3-5 reviews collected with a real workflow. Citation cleanup. Local pack starts to populate for branded and high-intent local queries.
Content layer
Two industry landing pages and one city-specific page shipped, each 1,200-2,000 words of actually-unique content. First long-form article published. Internal linking tightened. Real organic impressions start showing in GSC.
Maintenance + content cadence
Monthly cadence: one new article or industry page, one round of GBP posts, one review push, one citation/backlink audit. This is where ranks compound. Most clients don't need me ongoing; the workflow runs on its own once it's set up.
Start with the $200 audit.
15 minutes on a call. I'll look at your site, your current rankings, your GBP, your top 5 competitors. You'll get back a written 30/60/90 day plan with specific work items, what they cost, and what to expect. The $200 credits if you hire me for the setup.
Book the audit →What it costs.
SEO audit
15-minute call plus written 30/60/90 day plan. Specific work items, costs, expectations. Credits toward setup if you hire me.
Technical SEO setup
Full technical SEO + GBP setup + citation cleanup + first reviews workflow. 30-45 day project. No retainer required.
Setup + content layer
Everything above, plus 3 industry/city pages and the first long-form article. 60-90 day project. The thing that actually ranks.
Optional ongoing content (one article or page per month) is $400-$800/month and is genuinely optional. Most clients who want to keep publishing handle it themselves once the workflow is set up; I review for them quarterly for $200 per review.
Three things most SEO retainers don't tell you.
"You need to keep paying us monthly or your rankings will drop."
Rankings don't decay because you stopped paying an agency. They drop when your competitors create better content, earn more backlinks, or you let your GBP go stale. None of that requires a $4,000/month retainer to address. It requires actual work, which you can do, hire piecemeal, or pay me a monthly content fee for if you want.
"We can guarantee you a #1 ranking."
Nobody can. Google's algorithm has roughly 200 ranking factors, dozens of which change every quarter. Anyone promising a specific rank for a specific query is either lying or buying it (paid placement, link schemes, or both, all of which are penalized eventually).
"Domain authority is the most important metric."
Domain Authority is a number invented by Moz, an SEO tool company. Google does not use it. It's correlated with ranking, not causal. A monthly report whose top metric is Domain Authority is a report optimized to make you keep paying, not to grow your business.
How I measure.
The metrics that matter, weekly or monthly:
- Impressions and clicks from Google Search Console, broken down by query. The signal that the work is being seen.
- Average position for the 10-20 queries you actually care about. Not "1,000 keywords." The 20 that drive money.
- Local pack appearances for high-intent queries in your towns ("AI consultant new bedford," "dentist dartmouth ma," whatever your equivalent is).
- Inbound calls and form fills tagged by source. The actual business outcome. If rankings go up but calls don't, something else is broken (usually the page itself).
- Referring domains from Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free). The compounding signal.
That's the dashboard. No agency-branded "SEO score." No "campaign score out of 100." Just the five numbers that connect to revenue.
The proof.
JusCoding ranks #1 and #2 in this region for "AI Solutions" within months of launching, on a brand-new domain, with zero paid promotion. The same techniques on this site work for client sites. The articles you can read here are the same kind of content I publish for clients. The technical setup on this domain is the same setup I deploy.
Who this is for.
- Service businesses with a real local market (dental, real estate, HVAC, legal, auto, contractors, accountants) where most leads come from Google searches
- Owners currently paying $1,500-$5,000/month for SEO with no visible results
- Small businesses launching a new site who want SEO done right from day one rather than retrofitted later
- Anyone who's tired of monthly reports they don't read
Not for: businesses with no website yet (build the site first), or businesses targeting national queries with massive competition (the math favors paid ads in that case). I'll tell you on the audit call which bucket you're in.
Get the $200 audit. Walk away with a real plan.
Tell me what you're currently paying for and what you're getting back. I'll send a written 30/60/90 day plan. If your current setup is mostly fine, I'll tell you that. If it's broken, I'll quote what fixing it costs.
Book the audit →Common questions.
Why no monthly retainer?
Because most monthly SEO work is theater. The mechanical setup is a project, not a service. Content and links are optional ongoing work that I'm happy to do monthly if you want, but you should know exactly what you're paying for: this many articles per month, this many GBP posts, this many citations audited.
How is local SEO different from "SEO" in general?
For a small business in New Bedford, the queries that drive revenue are local: "AI consultant new bedford," "HVAC fairhaven ma," "dental practice dartmouth." These are won with Google Business Profile, local citations, and city/industry pages. National SEO competing against $50M-funded SaaS companies for "best AI consultant" is a different sport with different math.
Will this work for a brand-new business?
Yes, if you have a website. The technical and GBP foundation can be done before you have many customers. Real organic ranking takes 6-12 months regardless, so the earlier you start, the better. For very new businesses, paid ads usually carry traffic in the meantime while the SEO compounds.
Can you fix what my previous SEO agency did?
Usually yes. The most common issues are bad backlinks, thin keyword-stuffed pages, and abandoned GBP. The audit identifies what to keep, what to fix, and what to remove. Sometimes the cleanup is half the project.
— Justin, from a converted spare bedroom in New Bedford