FlashCrafterGuide
October 2026: compare local SEO, AI visibility and costs, including free Google Business Profile and 20 service-area entries.
Owners of independent local service businesses in the United States.
Local SEO helps customers find a business through local search. AI marketing adds another set of terms, including AI citations, answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization. For a service business, these terms matter when they describe a real task: keeping a Google Business Profile accurate, explaining services clearly, requesting reviews fairly or measuring whether inquiries become booked work.
Start by separating profile requirements, visibility measurements and paid purchases. A service area describes where you work; it does not promise rankings across that territory. A profile call-button click records an interaction; it does not prove that a customer reached you. A software subscription, professional SEO service and advertising budget pay for different things, even when a proposal groups them together.
The definitions and comparisons below reflect information checked October 10, 2026. They explain Google's current requirements alongside published software prices, advertising benchmarks and consumer surveys. Historical figures retain their dates, and survey results retain their limits. Use the glossary to understand a provider's proposal, check your own marketing setup and connect reported activity to the jobs your business actually books. Google does not publish a special AI ranking formula or guarantee inclusion in an AI answer.
At a glance
Google's business listing product has no subscription charge. Paying an agency to manage the profile is a separate service purchase. Google says there is no way to request or pay for better organic local ranking, so a management fee should be understood through the work it buys rather than a promise of purchased placement.
Google permits cities, postal codes or other service areas, with overall boundaries generally within about two hours' driving time. A business that visits customers without receiving them at its address should hide that address. These settings describe operations; distance remains a separate ranking factor, and the settings do not guarantee visibility throughout the territory.
Among 1,002 US adults, 97% said they read local-business reviews and 41% said they always read them while browsing for businesses. The survey was published February 11, 2026. These are self-reported consumer behaviors, useful for understanding customer habits, rather than numerical weights in Google's ranking system.
Respondents reported using ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local recommendations. The publisher compared this with 6% the previous year. Its 2025 report described AI use to find reviews, so the different wording should remain visible when interpreting the apparent increase.
Ahrefs reported this figure from an international survey of 439 SEO providers, updated August 15, 2024. Agency and freelancer figures were $1,819 and approximately $1,150 per month. It is a service-pricing reference, not a current US-only quote for your trade, location or business.
Google's guidance requires supporting pages to be indexed and eligible for a snippet. It specifies no additional AI requirements, special schema or new AI text files. Meeting these conditions does not guarantee an AI citation or inclusion in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
A practical path
Check your Google Business Profile against how the business actually operates. Use the real-world business name and the fewest categories needed to describe the core business. Verify the profile, complete the information, keep hours current and add appropriate photos. These are actions Google lists for owners; they do not come with a guaranteed ranking position.
Set the address and service areas correctly. Hide the address if customers do not visit you there. Do not use a virtual mailing office as an eligible location. Select up to 20 cities, postal codes or other areas, keeping the overall boundaries generally within about two hours' driving time. Treat the resulting territory as an operational description.
Make review requests fair and easy to complete. Obtain the profile's review link or QR code and share it with customers. Avoid incentives, requests for particular wording, pressure to review on the premises or a process that asks only satisfied customers to post. Google prohibits selective positive solicitation and discouraging negative reviews.
Check service descriptions and city pages before publication. Google allows AI to help with research and structure, but calls for manual fact-checking and review. Make sure each page gives customers useful information. Generating many pages without user value may violate spam policy, even when the text is grammatically clean.
Ask providers to separate software, professional work, citation submissions and advertising in a proposal. Compare monthly billing with the actual annual bill, and examine keyword, competitor, grid and credit limits. A free profile can still require paid management work, while a tracking subscription measures visibility without itself buying organic placement.
Connect visibility reports to business outcomes. Keep profile call-button clicks, advertising conversions, qualified inquiries, booked jobs and revenue distinct. Read AI-feature traffic within Search Console's Web performance data, and interpret advertising CPC and CPL benchmarks using their dates, categories and median-based methodology rather than treating them as guaranteed costs.
Watch for these
Adding an area tells Google where your business provides service. It does not establish that customers throughout that area will see you at a particular position. Google separately identifies distance as a local-ranking factor and publishes no guaranteed ranking radius. Use the permitted areas to represent your operations accurately, while interpreting location-based visibility as a separate measurement.
AEO and GEO are useful names for work related to AI answers, but Google's guidance does not require a special certification, special schema or a new AI text file. It also supplies no numerical AI-ranking formula or guaranteed inclusion timeline. Ask what concrete work a proposal includes and whether any claimed requirement appears in Google's current documentation.
Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, discouraging negative reviews and offering review incentives. It also prohibits pressure to review on the premises and requests for particular content. A request system should not route unhappy customers away from the public review opportunity. The FTC's treatment of neutral incentives does not override Google's stricter platform policy.
The Google Business Profile calls metric counts clicks on the call button. It does not show that a call connected, became a qualified inquiry or led to a booked job. Advertising conversions also do not independently establish completed jobs or revenue. Keep the measurement's definition attached to the number before using it to assess business results.
Software subscriptions, SEO services, directory submissions and advertising leads are different purchases. Ahrefs' broad SEO range of $250–$10,000 per month should not be relabeled as a local SEO range. Published advertising medians are not quotes, and Google's Local Services Ads help page supplies no universal dollar-per-lead tariff. Compare prices alongside the deliverable and billing basis.
AI can assist with research and structure, but Google explicitly calls for manual fact-checking and review before publication. Large numbers of generated service or city pages can violate spam policy when they add no user value. Clear wording alone does not establish usefulness. Check the factual claims and the practical information a customer can use.
Google's changelog says FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Search on May 7, 2026, and the documentation was subsequently removed. Older eligibility advice about health or government sites no longer describes the current endpoint. LocalBusiness markup can communicate business details, but adding AggregateRating to your own testimonials does not promise review stars.
Choose with context
Maintain a Google business listing
Track one location
Add listing and post management
Add review tools
Measure visibility across a grid
Purchase managed SEO work
Advertise through Local Services Ads
| Need | Published option | Price or requirement | What to check before choosing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain a Google business listing | Google Business Profile | Free | Complete and verify the profile; keep information and hours current. Paid management is a separate service. Google offers no paid route to better organic local ranking. |
| Track one location | BrightLocal Track | $41/month or $369/year | Includes up to 100 keywords and four competitors, plus geo-grid tracking for up to five keywords. The annual page displays a rounded $31 monthly equivalent. |
| Add listing and post management | BrightLocal Manage | $54/month or $485/year | Adds listing synchronization and Google Business Profile post scheduling to Track. Its displayed annual monthly equivalent is $40; use the annual bill for the total commitment. |
| Add review tools | BrightLocal Grow | $65/month or $584/year | Adds review monitoring, requests and website display. Its displayed annual monthly equivalent is $49. Review requests still need to follow Google's platform policy. |
Takeaway
Use the glossary to connect each marketing term to a specific task, cost or measurement. Keep your Google Business Profile accurate, describe the business's real service area and request reviews without incentives or selective positive solicitation. For AI visibility, Google's ordinary SEO foundations apply; indexed pages eligible for a snippet can support its AI features, but inclusion is not guaranteed. Compare subscriptions by their functions and usage limits, and compare professional services by the work proposed. Treat consumer surveys and advertising medians as dated context. Measure booked work separately from profile interactions and advertising conversions.
Business information
Google Business Profile
Its free listing provides the owner actions Google identifies: complete information, verification, current hours, review replies and photos. Correct address and category choices also matter for representing a service business accurately.
Tracking and management comparison
BrightLocal
Its published Track, Manage and Grow plans separate tracking from listing and review functions. The pricing table makes monthly billing and annual commitments visible for one location.
Geo-grid usage comparison
Local Falcon
Its published plans identify credit allowances, billing cycles and per-data-point usage. Check the conflicting Premium credit displays and the expiry rules before deciding how much capacity you need.
Local SEO concerns visibility when customers search for businesses serving a location. Google Business Profile, often shortened to GBP, is Google's free business listing product. Its cost is separate from any agency fee for maintaining the profile. Owners can manage business information without purchasing better organic placement: Google explicitly says there is no way to request or pay for better organic local ranking.
Google's ranking introduction currently uses the words relevance, distance and popularity. The explanatory heading for the third concept remains Prominence. Relevance concerns the match with the search, while distance concerns location. Links, review count and positive ratings can contribute to prominence. Google does not publish numerical weights for these factors or a guaranteed ranking radius.
Google lists concrete owner actions: complete the information, verify the business, maintain current hours, reply to reviews and add photos. These actions give an owner a useful checklist without a promised result. A provider's claim about a fixed ranking formula, an exact service photo boosting a particular ranking or a guaranteed radius goes beyond the requirements described here.
Map Pack, Knowledge Panel, NAP, backlinks, citations and audits appear across local-search glossaries. Use these terms to identify the part of a proposal being discussed, then ask for the actual deliverable. NAP refers to business name, address and phone information. A claim that identical NAP is an established AI-trust signal needs more support than a glossary assertion.
A service-area business visits customers rather than receiving them at its address. Google says that a business operating this way should hide its address. Hybrid-business terminology concerns businesses that also receive customers at a location; the address decision should follow the actual customer arrangement rather than a desire to appear in more places.
Virtual mailing offices are ineligible. Separate staffed locations can qualify for separate profiles. Use the real-world business name and the fewest categories needed to describe the core business. These representation rules make eligibility and accurate description the first questions to resolve when reviewing a profile.
Google permits up to 20 cities, postal codes or other service areas. Overall service-area boundaries generally should remain within about two hours' driving time. This is guidance for configuring the profile, not a formula for how far the business ranks.
Keep service area and ranking reach separate when discussing expansion. Selecting a city describes where you offer work; Google separately treats distance as a ranking factor. A report showing visibility at particular locations measures something different from the list of places on the profile. Neither the 20-area limit nor the driving-time guidance promises coverage throughout the selected territory.
Review gating means selectively soliciting positive reviews or discouraging negative ones. Google prohibits those practices, review incentives, pressure to review on the premises and requests for particular review content. A review-request process should preserve customers' opportunity to describe their experience without steering them toward a required sentiment.
Owners can obtain a review link or QR code from Google Business Profile and share it with customers. Those tools simplify access to the review page. They do not create an exception to the review policy, so a convenient request still needs to avoid incentives and selective positive solicitation.
For US businesses, the FTC's consumer reviews rule took effect October 21, 2024. Its guidance distinguishes fake reviews, testimonials and incentives tied to a particular sentiment. It does not categorically prohibit every neutral incentive. Google nevertheless prohibits review incentives on its platform. These standards address different questions; permission under one does not remove the restrictions of the other.
Review behavior also needs careful interpretation. BrightLocal's 2026 survey says 97% read reviews for local businesses, and 41% always read them while browsing for businesses, compared with 29% in 2025. These self-reported habits help explain why reviews deserve attention. They are not published weights in Google's ranking system, and the survey does not establish a review-to-booking conversion rate.
AEO means answer engine optimization, and GEO means generative engine optimization. These labels describe work concerned with appearing in AI answers. AI visibility refers to that appearance or representation, while an AI citation is a linked source in an AI answer. A local citation is a business mention or listing. The two citation types describe different objects and should be measured separately.
Google's guidance for AI Overviews and AI Mode says ordinary SEO foundations apply. No additional requirements, special schema or new AI text files are necessary. Supporting pages must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. The guidance, updated December 10, 2025, does not guarantee inclusion even when a page meets those conditions.
Google publishes no special AEO or GEO certification, mandatory llms.txt file, numerical AI-ranking formula or guaranteed inclusion timeline in this guidance. Locafy describes llms.txt as a community proposal. When a provider uses emerging terminology, identify the practical work it represents and distinguish the vendor's approach from a published Google requirement.
AI citations are variable appearances rather than permanent rankings. A citation does not establish that its commercial value equals a page-one ranking. Likewise, being linked in an answer does not independently show a visit, inquiry or booked job. Evaluate visibility and subsequent customer activity as separate measurements.
LLMs, AI chatbots, marketing automation, missed-call text-back and agentic commerce also appear in the compared glossaries. The presence of a term in a glossary does not establish a ranking benefit. A business owner should connect the term to the described function and examine any causal or performance claim separately.
Google includes AI-feature traffic in Search Console's Web performance data. That reporting location matters when interpreting an SEO report: the guidance does not describe a separate AI-feature traffic total that should automatically be added to Web activity.
Googlebot and snippet controls govern Search access. Google-Extended concerns other Google systems. These controls should not be conflated when deciding how pages can be accessed or used. Discuss the particular control and the system it affects, rather than treating every Google crawler setting as interchangeable.
Google says AI can assist with research and structure. Its generated-content guidance, updated October 1, 2026, explicitly calls for manual fact-checking and review before publication. Hallucination terminology concerns unreliable generated claims; for a service business, the practical response is to verify what a generated service description or city page says before customers read it.
Scaled content abuse is a separate concern from whether AI helped write a page. Generating many pages without user value may violate spam policy. Apply the check to the usefulness of the resulting content, including service descriptions and city pages. A large page count, polished grammar or repeated location wording does not by itself establish value for the person looking for help.
LocalBusiness schema is structured data that can communicate business details. It belongs in the discussion of how information is described to search systems. Google's documentation does not present it as a guarantee that a business receives a particular search display.
AggregateRating needs a specific caveat. Google recommends it in the LocalBusiness documentation for sites collecting reviews about other local businesses. Adding the property to a business's own testimonials is not a promise of review stars. Keep the type of review collection and the hoped-for display distinct when assessing a markup proposal.
Google's official changelog says FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Search on May 7, 2026, and the documentation was subsequently removed. Older descriptions that limited eligibility to health or government sites no longer describe the current endpoint. Useful customer questions can still be written plainly, but a proposal should not rely on the discontinued display.
Glossary pages updated before this change can retain outdated terminology. Check the current product behavior before treating an older definition as a deliverable. The same principle applies to claims about special AI schema: Google's AI-features guidance says no special schema is necessary for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Consumer surveys and browsing studies describe different kinds of evidence. BrightLocal's 2026 review survey used a representative panel of 1,002 US adults surveyed through SurveyMonkey and was published February 11, 2026. Its percentages describe self-reported habits. Pew's search study used observed browsing data, but it covered queries generally rather than local-service bookings.
BrightLocal reports 45% using ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local recommendations, versus 6% the previous year according to the publisher. Its January 29, 2025 report describes 6% using AI to find reviews, down from 9% in 2024. Preserve the wording difference instead of assuming the questions were demonstrably identical.
Pew's July 22, 2025 publication examined browsing data from 900 US adults in March 2025, covering 68,879 unique searches. Results were reconstructed April 7–17. Its click differences are observational, not proof of causation or a contractor conversion forecast.
Google's nearby-search figures come from 2016. They remain historical evidence: 76% of people searching on smartphones for something nearby visited a business within a day, and 28% of those searches resulted in a purchase. They should not be presented as current 2026 figures or contractor-specific booking rates.
| Finding | Date and sample | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
There is no single published US price for local SEO and AI marketing. Professional services buy work, subscriptions buy software access, citation submissions buy directory-related activity and advertising buys a separate form of exposure or lead acquisition. Keep these categories visible in any budget comparison.
Ahrefs surveyed 439 SEO providers internationally. Its article, updated August 15, 2024, reports local SEO averages and broader SEO spending separately. The $250–$10,000 monthly range is for SEO generally, and the article says 63% spend $500–$5,000 per month. Neither figure should be relabeled as a local SEO range.
BrightLocal's one-location plans add functions in stages. Track includes up to 100 keywords, four competitors and geo-grid tracking for up to five keywords. Manage adds listing synchronization and GBP post scheduling; Grow adds review monitoring, requests and website display. Annual monthly equivalents are rounded on the page, so compare the actual annual bill as well as the displayed equivalent.
| Purchase | Published price | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
Local SEO professional services |
Local Falcon publishes four plans. One credit represents one geo-grid data point, and subscription credits expire at the billing-cycle end. Extra credits cost $0.05 each and never expire. Falcon AI analysis uses 25 credits per report. These rules make the scan workload and billing cycle relevant to a price comparison.
The annual bills retain the same advertised monthly rate. Published annual credit allowances should be read directly rather than replaced with arithmetic. Basic's annual table allowance is 183,000 credits, while multiplying its monthly allowance by 12 produces 181,800. The table's allowance remains the published figure.
Premium has conflicting displays within the official pricing page. The pricing table lists 63,150 monthly and 778,000 annual credits; the page's question-and-answer text describes upper limits of 63,000 and 756,000. Both displays are retained below so the discrepancy remains visible before a purchase.
| Plan | Monthly price | Annual bill | Monthly credits | Annual credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Starter |
CPC means cost per click; CPL means cost per lead; CTR means click-through rate. A conversion rate describes the advertising measurement used in a campaign report. These metrics help interpret spending and activity, but an advertising conversion does not independently establish a completed job or revenue.
WordStream/LocaliQ's 2026 report covers 13,474 US campaigns across Google and Microsoft Ads, April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026. Its reported averages are medians. The 2025 home-services report covers 3,211 US campaigns, April 1, 2024–March 21, 2025, and likewise uses medians.
The two publications both state a $90.92 CPL, but their samples and category framing differ. That matching figure does not establish unchanged costs for every trade. Across the 2025 categories, CPC runs $5.31–$13.74 and CPL $45.15–$228.15. Those are category benchmarks, not the full distribution of individual advertisers' costs or guaranteed prices for your business.
| Category and year | CPC | CPL | Other published metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
2026 Home & Home Improvement |
Google Local Services Ads, or LSA, charges for valid leads. Prices vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode. Google's billing help page publishes no universal dollar-per-lead tariff. Search-advertising CPC and CPL benchmarks should therefore not be presented as an LSA price list.
The bidding modes are Maximize leads, Target cost per lead and Max per lead. Google suggests a minimum budget equivalent to 10 leads per week for Maximize leads and says learning takes about two weeks. That recommendation is expressed in leads; it is not a fixed dollar budget, a forecast of booked work or a guarantee of results.
Google Business Profile's calls metric counts clicks on its call button. It does not establish that calls connected, qualified or became booked jobs. Keep measured interactions, inquiries and completed work distinct in reporting. This same distinction applies when reading advertising conversions: the measurement alone does not independently prove revenue.
Product ratings describe separate platform samples. BrightLocal's G2 rating and Local Falcon's G2 and Trustpilot ratings are not interchangeable, and combining their review counts would obscure where the opinions were collected.
The snapshots below were checked October 10, 2026. BrightLocal's retrieved G2 page includes a review dated August 31, 2026, but no page-wide update date is shown. Local Falcon's G2 metadata says modified October 9, 2026. Trustpilot shows a numeric score that conflicts with its star-image alternative text; both displays remain visible rather than assuming one is correct.
| Product and platform | Rating and count | Visible date or discrepancy |
|---|---|---|
BrightLocal, G2 | 4.6/5; 230 reviews | Visible review: August 31, 2026; page-wide update date not shown |
The pages below appeared prominently in a search-tool result set for local SEO and AI marketing terminology for service businesses. That observation is not a verified, location-specific Google US ranking report. Their coverage varies: some emphasize contractor examples, some technical definitions and some emerging AI vocabulary.
Use glossary definitions to understand a term, then check ranking requirements and policy claims against current Google guidance. Promotional claims about AI citations equaling page-one rankings, meta descriptions affecting rankings through CTR, exact-service photos boosting rankings or provenance improving E-E-A-T scores are not established requirements in the primary guidance described here.
Dates and counts also need attention. Eric Scott Studios' current page labels 54 terms, while its search-result title says 55. BrightLocal's February 2026 update precedes the May 2026 removal of FAQ rich results. A clear definition can still require a current product or policy check.
| Page | Date or count | Coverage | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
Linkai Digital |
Questions
Keep reading
Vendor pages change. Figures are as published on the capture date; confirm before deciding.
| Measure visibility across a grid | Local Falcon | $24.99–$199.99/month across four plans | One credit represents one geo-grid data point. Subscription credits expire at the billing-cycle end; extra credits cost $0.05 each and never expire. |
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| Purchase managed SEO work | BrightLocal Managed SEO Service | $1,299/month | This is a vendor's published service price, separate from its software plans. Compare the proposed work with what your business needs; it is not an industry-wide average. |
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| Advertise through Local Services Ads | Google Local Services Ads | Charged for valid leads; no universal tariff | Prices vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode. Check lead billing and bidding settings independently from search-advertising CPC and CPL benchmarks. |
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97% read local-business reviews; 41% always read them, versus 29% in 2025
BrightLocal, February 11, 2026; representative panel of 1,002 US adults through SurveyMonkey |
Self-reported consumer behavior, not ranking weights. |
45% use generative AI for local recommendations; publisher compares with 6% the previous year | BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 | The earlier publication uses different wording about finding reviews. |
6% used AI to find reviews, down from 9% in 2024 | BrightLocal, January 29, 2025 | Retain the review-finding description when comparing years. |
Traditional-result clicks: 8% with an AI summary; 15% without; AI-summary source clicks: 1% | Pew, July 22, 2025; 900 US adults; 68,879 unique searches; March browsing and April 7–17 reconstruction | Observational, all-query evidence; no proof of causation or local-service conversion rate. |
76% visited within a day; 28% of nearby smartphone searches resulted in a purchase | Google mobile-search material, 2016 | Historical nearby-search evidence, not a 2026 contractor booking rate. |
BrightLocal: https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/ and https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey-2025/. Pew: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/. Google: https://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/mobile-search-trends-consumers-to-stores.pdf.
Average $1,557/month; agencies $1,819/month; freelancers approximately $1,150/month; common hourly band $75–$100
Ahrefs international survey of 439 providers; updated August 15, 2024; not US-only. |
SEO services generally | $250–$10,000/month; 63% spend $500–$5,000/month | Broader SEO figures from Ahrefs; not a local SEO range. |
Google Business Profile | Free | Agency management is a separate purchase. |
BrightLocal Track, one location | $41/month; $369/year, displayed as $31/month | Up to 100 keywords and four competitors; geo-grid tracking for up to five keywords. |
BrightLocal Manage, one location | $54/month; $485/year, displayed as $40/month | Adds listing synchronization and GBP post scheduling. |
BrightLocal Grow, one location | $65/month; $584/year, displayed as $49/month | Adds review monitoring, requests and website display. |
BrightLocal Managed SEO Service | $1,299/month | Vendor service price, not an industry-wide average. |
BrightLocal Citation Builder | From $2 each | Starting submission price, separate from software and managed services. |
USD; checked October 10, 2026. https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-pricing/, https://www.google.com/intl/en_pk/business/ and https://www.brightlocal.com/pricing/.
$24.99
$299.88 |
7,500 |
90,000 |
Basic | $49.99 | $599.88 | 15,150 | 183,000 |
Pro | $99.99 | $1,199.88 | 31,250 | 383,000 |
Premium | $199.99 | $2,399.88 | 63,150 | 778,000 |
USD; https://www.localfalcon.com/pricing/, checked October 10, 2026. Premium's separate explanatory text gives conflicting upper limits of 63,000 monthly and 756,000 annual credits. Extra credits: $0.05 each, never expire. Subscription credits expire at billing-cycle end. Falcon AI analysis: 25 credits/report.
$8.33
$90.92 |
Broader report: 13,474 US campaigns; Google and Microsoft Ads |
2025 home services overall | $7.85 | $90.92 | 7.33% conversion rate; 6.37% CTR |
2025 cleaning | $8.50 | $46.99 | Trade-level category median |
2025 electricians | $12.18 | $93.69 | Trade-level category median |
2025 plumbing | $10.49 | $129.02 | Trade-level category median |
2025 roofing and gutters | $10.70 | $228.15 | Trade-level category median |
2025 category ranges | $5.31–$13.74 | $45.15–$228.15 | Ranges across categories, not individual advertiser distributions |
USD; reported averages are medians. 2026 period: April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks. 2025 period: April 1, 2024–March 21, 2025; 3,211 US campaigns, https://localiq.com/blog/home-services-search-advertising-benchmarks/.
Local Falcon, G2 | 4.7/5; 157 reviews | Metadata modified October 9, 2026 |
Local Falcon, Trustpilot | Numeric score 4.7/5; 64 reviews | Star-image text: TrustScore 4.5 out of 5; claimed profile June 2026 |
Separate platform samples, checked October 10, 2026: https://www.g2.com/sellers/brightlocal, https://www.g2.com/products/local-falcon/reviews and https://www.trustpilot.com/review/localfalcon.com.
Updated September 5, 2026
Local SEO, AEO, citations, NAP, LLMs, marketing automation and missed-call text-back; service-business framing |
Australian framing; no US cost comparison or survey methodology. Identical NAP as an AI-trust signal lacks attached primary evidence. |
Tosa Marketing | 29 terms; update date not visible | Local SEO, AI search, technical SEO, service-area businesses, review gating, proximity and valid-lead LSA billing; variable AI citations | No published cost comparison, consumer-study table or comprehensive automation vocabulary. |
AvioneX Digital | Update date not visible | Puget Sound home-service examples; chatbots, GEO/AEO, Maps, backlinks, NAP and broader marketing | No primary evidence attached to claims equating AI citations with page-one rankings or linking meta descriptions to rankings through CTR. |
Locafy | Update date not visible | AI citations, AI Overviews, GEO/AEO, Knowledge Panel, Map Pack, NAP and schema; llms.txt described as a community proposal | Limited operational detail on eligibility, review solicitation, spending and conversion measurement. |
EZlocal | Labeled 2026; advertises 400+ terms | Traditional local SEO, AI visibility and agentic-commerce terminology | Emerging ranking claims often lack attached primary evidence, including exact-service photo benefits and provenance-based E-E-A-T scores. |
Eric Scott Studios | Published May 24, 2026; current page 54 terms; search title 55 | Contractor-oriented GBP, rankings, reviews, citations, technical SEO, content and advertising | Less AI-search depth than combined glossaries; term counts conflict between page and search title. |
BrightLocal | Updated February 2026 | GBP, service areas, audits, LLMs and broad local SEO vocabulary with educational links | No US owner cost/policy comparison; update precedes May 2026 FAQ-rich-result removal. |
Observed search-tool results, checked October 10, 2026; not a verified Google US ranking report. URLs: https://www.linkaidigital.com.au/glossary/, https://tosamarketing.com/glossary, https://avionexdigital.com/glossary, https://www.locafy.com/glossary, https://ezlocal.com/learning-center/glossary/, https://ericscottstudios.com/local-seo-glossary and https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-seo-glossary/.