Google Business Profile management is free to do yourself and commonly sold for a few hundred a month as a service. Standalone providers charge in the low hundreds. Bundled into a local SEO retainer it is part of a one to three thousand a month program. Multi location management is priced per location, often under a hundred each at volume. The honest framing is that this is a few hours of consistent monthly work, so if someone quotes four figures for profile management alone, ask what else is in there.
The real work is unglamorous and ongoing. Completing every field, picking primary and secondary categories correctly, setting the service area, uploading geotagged job photos regularly, publishing posts, answering questions, keeping hours accurate around holidays, and above all collecting reviews and responding to every one. Then there is citation cleanup so your name, address and phone match everywhere, and suspension handling if your profile gets flagged, which happens to service area businesses more often than people expect. That recovery work alone can justify paying someone.
What is margin: posting the same generic post to every client on a schedule, review request automation that annoys customers, citation submissions to hundreds of directories nobody uses, and dashboards reporting profile views as if views were revenue. Be very careful with anyone offering to create additional profiles at addresses you do not occupy, or to keyword stuff your business name. Both work briefly and both get profiles suspended. Losing a profile with four years of reviews is far more expensive than any retainer.
At any price you should get a fully completed profile, correct categories and service area, regular photo uploads, posts, question monitoring, review responses and a review collection process your front desk can actually run. A real program adds citation consistency work, competitor category analysis, product and service listings filled out, and reporting on calls and direction requests rather than impressions. You must stay the primary owner of the profile. Manager access for the agency is correct. Ownership transferred to them is not.
To judge a quote, ask whether you keep ownership, how many posts and photos go up each month, how reviews get requested, and who responds to them. Ask what happens if the profile is suspended. Then look at two client profiles they manage and check the photo dates and review responses. If the last post was eight months ago, you have your answer. Heights includes Google Business Profile updates in the $399 a month plan, with monthly content, monthly SEO and unlimited site updates.
| What you are buying | What it usually runs per month |
|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Free, about two hours a month |
| Standalone profile management | Low hundreds |
| Bundled in a local SEO retainer | One to three thousand for everything |
| Multi location, per location | Often under a hundred each at volume |
| Heights Digital | Included in $399 a month after a $750 build |
If yours is not here, ask it on the call. You will get a straight answer.
(210) 729-4008Yes, and plenty of businesses should. The work is posting photos, keeping hours right, answering questions and collecting reviews. It takes a couple of focused hours a month. People pay for it because that consistency is the first thing to slip when you are busy, and because suspension recovery is genuinely hard.
For near me and emergency searches, usually yes, because the map results sit above everything else and many searches end there. The website still earns the researched, higher value work. They also feed each other, since your site content and your profile categories reinforce what Google thinks you do.
Send the site over. We will tell you what is broken, what you could rank for, and whether AI search knows you exist. No charge and no pitch deck.
