You’ve seen the ads. ‘$99 a month SEO! Rank #1 guaranteed!’ If you’ve been burned by one of these, you’re not alone. Here’s what’s actually going on, and why the cheap option is the most expensive option.
Where the $99 actually goes
Mostly an offshore VA spending 40 minutes a month on a template. Sometimes literally nothing — they just take the money and disappear after 6 months once you notice nothing’s changed.
The real cost
Six months of $99 = $594. Six months of zero rankings = zero leads = thousands in lost jobs. Plus you now have to start over.
What proper SEO actually costs (in NZ)
For a local service business, real SEO is $700-$1,500/month. That’s not because we want a Tesla — it’s because:
- Real keyword research takes 4-6 hours
- Each piece of optimised content takes 2-4 hours
- Citation building, GBP optimisation, technical fixes — all add up
- Plus actual reporting and a human you can ring
How to spot a cheap SEO scam
- They guarantee specific rankings (impossible — Google’s algorithm changes daily)
- They want a 12-month upfront contract
- They can’t tell you who’ll do the work or where they’re based
- They send you a ‘monthly report’ that’s just generic graphs
If you’ve been burned, tell us about it. We’ll give you an honest read on what to do next.