One monthly plan that does the four things that actually get a local business found: a site search engines can read, a Google Business Profile that's maintained every week, reviews that get answered, and the structure that lets ChatGPT and Gemini verify you're real. The deliverables are listed. So is the price.
If you typed "SEO company Charlotte" into Google and landed here: I'm not a company. I'm one person who does the work myself, publishes the price, and can be fired in thirty days. Whether that's better than an agency depends on what you want. Here's what you'd get.
A few years ago local SEO meant ranking in the map pack and the ten blue links. Both still matter — the map pack is still half of most local businesses' leads. But there's a third place now: when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity "who's a good HVAC company near me in Charlotte," the AI names three businesses and the rest don't exist.
Those engines don't have a secret ranking. They recommend businesses they can verify: a fast website with clear services and structured data, an active Google Business Profile with recent reviews, and consistent facts everywhere they look. Most Charlotte businesses have none of the three. Get Found is the monthly work of having all three — which is why it's one plan and not five overlapping ones.
Service businesses that live on local search: contractors, HVAC and plumbing, landscapers, detailers, salons, restaurants, medical and mobility retail, churches trying to be findable, professional firms whose clients Google them before calling. Usually with a Google profile that hasn't been touched since setup and a website that was fine in 2021.
It's not for anyone who wants a #1 ranking guaranteed by a date — see the FAQ on that, it's short. And if you need the phone ringing this month, not in 90 days, the faster lever is Google Ads: $850 a month flat, and it stacks with this plan — ads carry you while the organic work compounds.
This is what "Get Found" means in practice. Every item is something you'll see in the monthly report, not a line on a brochure.
Photos added, services and hours kept accurate, posts published, questions answered, categories tuned. The profile most businesses set up once and abandon — kept alive, because it's the single biggest local ranking factor and the first thing an AI checks.
Every platform your customers actually use — Google first, then the ones that matter for your trade. Responses written like a person, usually same day. Bad reviews flagged to you before they sit unanswered for a week.
Finished job → automatic, human-sounding follow-up asking for a review. Happy customers post; unhappy ones reply to you privately. That's how a business goes from 5 reviews to 50 without anyone remembering to ask.
Service pages that target what people actually search ("water heater replacement Charlotte," not "our services"), titles and descriptions written by hand, internal links, fast pages, no broken anything. New pages added as the plan compounds.
Schema markup for your business, services, reviews and FAQs, kept current. It's how ChatGPT confirms you exist, what you do, and what people say about you — and it's the part almost nobody in Charlotte does correctly.
Name, address, phone, hours and services matching across Google, Apple Maps, Bing, the directories that matter for your trade, and your own site. Inconsistency is the quiet reason a lot of businesses don't get recommended.
I ask the AI engines the questions your customers ask — "best landscaper in Ballantyne" — and record who they name. Then we work on making it you, and check again. Run the live test right now if you want to see where you stand today.
What I did, what moved, what's next — in plain English, with the Google Business Profile numbers (calls, direction requests, website clicks) that actually correlate with revenue. No 40-page PDF of vanity metrics.
Site health, SEO gaps, Google profile state, review footprint, and whether ChatGPT and Gemini can find you at all. Written up as a prioritized fix list you could hand to anyone. This is the $450 audit — if you continue, it's credited to month one.
$450 · credited toward Get FoundBefore I change anything: Google Business Profile actions, Search Console impressions and positions, review counts and ratings, and the AI-visibility check. So in 90 days we're comparing numbers, not feelings.
You're the Owner on your Google Business Profile, Search Console and Analytics; I'm added as a Manager. If any of those accounts is currently in a former vendor's name, recovering them is the first job.
The audit's top items: profile categories and services, missing structured data, broken or slow pages, wrong facts in directories, the review-request automation switched on. The unglamorous work that everything else sits on.
Weekly profile upkeep, review responses, a new or improved service page, the AI check, the report. Month after month — because that's how local search actually works, and why "one-time SEO" is a contradiction.
National surveys put the most common local-SEO retainer at $500–1,000 a month; the local average runs closer to $1,500, and the established Charlotte agencies start there. I'm at the top of the common band and under the local average, and I'm the one doing the work.
Get Found
$850–1,000/month
$850 for a single location with one main service area. Up to $1,000 for multiple locations, several service areas, or a review situation that needs recovery before it needs growth. You get a fixed number in writing after the audit, and it doesn't move.
Billed monthly on the 1st. Cancel any month with 30 days' written notice. Your Google profile, your site, your accounts — yours the whole time.
$450 one-time
The $450 way to test me before committing to a monthly plan. You get the written audit and the fix list whether or not you hire me for anything else. If you do, it comes off the bill.
$250/month
For businesses that only need this one thing: automatic requests after every job, every review answered, negatives flagged. Included in Get Found, so you never pay for it twice. Details →
One-time fix projects (execute the audit findings without a monthly plan) run about $1,000 depending on the list. Social media management is $500–1,500+/mo and stacks with any of the above.
No first-page guarantee. No "we'll rank you in 30 days." No secret AI trick. Google controls rankings and the AI companies control their answers; anyone who claims otherwise is selling you the claim.
What I will put in writing: the deliverables above, every month. A report you can actually read. Dated baselines so we measure honestly. And a setup where you own every account, so the moment I stop earning the retainer, you can end it with an email and lose nothing but a vendor.
If you want to see how that looks for your specific trade, the industry pages walk through it — HVAC, landscaping, detailing, restaurants, salons and more. If you've been burned by a previous provider and don't currently control your own website or Google profile, start with the audit; recovering those is job one, and there's a process for it — Google's ownership-request flow for profiles, registrar disputes for domains. Here's how those situations happen and how to prevent them.
Surveys of SEO retainers put the most common band at $500–1,000 a month nationally, with local-SEO averages closer to $1,500, and the established Charlotte agencies start around there. Get Found is $850–1,000 a month with the deliverables listed on this page. Below roughly $500 a month you're usually buying a PDF report, not work.
Less than the people selling it want you to think. AI engines — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google's AI Mode — recommend businesses they can verify: a fast site with clear services and structured data, an active Google Business Profile, and recent reviews across platforms. That's the same work good local SEO always was, done more carefully. Get Found is one plan because it's one job.
Months, not weeks. Typically 90 days to see movement in Google Business Profile actions and long-tail rankings, 6–12 months for it to compound — faster in niches with weak competition, slower against entrenched players. Anyone promising page one in 30 days is lying to you. You'll see the work each month either way.
No, and nobody honest will — Google decides rankings, not marketers. What I guarantee is the work: the deliverables on this page, a monthly plain-English report, and you owning every account so you can fire me the moment I stop earning it.
Month to month. Thirty days' written notice to cancel, no exit fee. When you leave you get the Exit File: every credential, everything I built, your data exported. Your Google Business Profile was yours the whole time — I'm a Manager you remove in two clicks.
Usually, yes. A healthy Wix or Squarespace site is fine for Get Found — I work with what you have. If the site is a genuine disaster, I'll say so in the audit and recommend a rebuild first, because SEO on a broken foundation is paying me to push a rope.
Standalone review management is $250 a month: monitor every platform your customers use, respond professionally, flag the bad ones to you the same day. It's included in Get Found, so you're never paying twice — the standalone is for businesses that only need this one thing.
Because it's the honest way to start. You get a written read on your site, your Google profile, your reviews and whether AI engines can find you at all — plus a prioritized fix list you could hand to anyone. If you hire me for Get Found, the $450 comes off the first month. If the audit says you don't need me, it says that too.
Ads if you need leads this month; Get Found if you can wait 90 days for leads that keep coming after you stop paying. Most businesses with the budget do both for a while, then dial the ads down as the organic leads arrive. I run Google Ads too — $850 a month flat, ad spend on your card — and the reviews work is shared between the two plans, so you never pay for it twice.
Anywhere within a Charlotte drive: Matthews, Concord, Huntersville, Ballantyne, Gastonia, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Pineville, Mint Hill. Local SEO doesn't technically require me to be local — but it helps to know that Ballantyne and NoDa are different searches.
Run the free AI answer test to see who the engines name in your category right now. Then get the $450 audit, or skip ahead and start Get Found — it's the same audit either way.
Lucas