01 · What Irish SEO agencies charge — and why the 12-month retainer exists
The difference between national e-commerce SEO and local town-by-town SEO
National e-commerce brands competing against Dunnes, Woodie's, or Ryanair need ongoing content teams and digital PR every week. A local plumber in Kildare, a roofer in Cork, or a dental clinic in Galway is not competing against Amazon. You are competing against 6 to 12 local businesses in your county.
| Model | Typical Irish Price | Contract Lock-In | What Actually Happens |
|---|
| Cheap Overseas / Automated "SEO Package" | €150 – €350 / month | Rolling, hard to cancel | Automated junk backlinks and AI-spun blog posts that never move your Google Map pin and can hurt your domain. |
| Traditional Irish Digital Agency Retainer | €750 – €2,000+ / month (+ VAT) | 12-month contract (€9k–€24k committed) | They drip-feed basic profile edits and 1 page a month so you stay locked in for a year, sending a 20-page PDF of impressions every 30 days. |
| RankHigher.ie (Front-Loaded Local Setup) | Agreed upfront after your free check | No contract — stop any month | We do the heavy lifting in Days 1 to 14 (Google profile rebuilt, every town and service page built, ads optional on Day 1), and you own everything we build. |
02 · Where the real work goes in the first 14 days
Why we do the work in two weeks instead of dragging it out for twelve months
When we take on an Irish trade or clinic, we don't hold back your town pages to justify Month 7's invoice. We put everything live at the start because the sooner the pages and categories are live, the sooner Google indexes them and your phone rings:
- Days 1–2: Full competitor & keyword audit across every town you drive to, Google Business Profile category overhaul, and all 15–25 services written in customer language.
- Days 3–7: Dedicated service pages and town/county pages built with real Irish pricing, regulations/grants, and
LocalBusiness + FAQPage schema.
- Days 7–14: Search Console indexing, IndexNow submission, review-request WhatsApp workflow, and (if you want calls immediately while organic climbs) tightly geofenced Google Search Ads.
- Weeks 3–12: Weekly rank tracking by town, tuning the pages that are sitting in #4–#7 up into the Top 3, and cutting any wasted spend.
03 · 5 questions to ask anyone before you pay a cent for SEO in Ireland
How to spot a sales pitch in 60 seconds
- "Show me 3 Irish businesses you currently have in 1st place on Google, and let me search them on my own phone right now." (If they won't tell you the exact search phrase to type into Google, walk away. You can tap 8 of ours live on our results section.)
- "What exact changes will you make in Week 1 and Week 2?" (If the answer is "technical audit and strategy onboarding", they are stalling.)
- "If I stop after Month 2, do I keep the website, the town pages, and all the logins?" (With us, 100% of what we build is yours.)
- "Am I dealing with the person doing the work, or a salesperson handing me to a junior account manager?"
- "Will you look at my profile and tell me what's broken before I pay anything?"
Common Questions
Frequently asked questions
Why don't you publish a single flat price on the website?
Because a sole-trader plumber covering 4 towns around Swords who already has a website needs a much smaller job than a national modular building company or a multi-chair clinic targeting all 26 counties. That is why the visibility check comes first, costs nothing, and gives you a fixed price before you decide.
How many extra jobs does it take to pay back the SEO work?
For almost every trade or clinic we work with — whether it's a €2,800 boiler replacement, a €3,500 electric gate, a €1,900 root canal & crown, or a €25,000 attic conversion — one or two extra jobs cover the work, and the pages keep bringing free organic calls long after.
Do I own my website and Google Business Profile if I leave?
Yes, 100%. You retain full owner access to your Google Business Profile, your domain, and every page we build from day one.
Written by Bartek · Founder, RankHigher.ie