Search Engine Optimization Is Three Different Jobs. Most People Are Sold the Wrong One.
Getting into the map on your phone, getting a page to rank, and getting named when someone asks an assistant are related but they are not the same work, and they do not cost the same. This page tells you which one you need. The prices are on the pages themselves, not behind a call.
The Goal Was Never Traffic. It Was Being the One They Call.
SEO has picked up a reputation for being vague, and it earned it, because a lot of it is sold as monthly activity rather than as a result you can point at. The useful definition is narrow: making it more likely that the person who needs what you do finds you rather than a competitor, at the moment they are deciding.
Where People Search Now
The map on a phone, a list of blue links, and increasingly an answer written by an assistant. Same customer, three different surfaces, and you can be strong on one and invisible on another.
What Actually Moves
An accurate profile, consistent details everywhere you are listed, real pages answering real questions, reviews, and other sites mentioning you. That list has barely changed in ten years.
What Does Not
Keyword stuffing, a monthly report of impressions nobody reads, and any promise involving the top three in thirty days. If a number cannot be tied to a phone call, treat it carefully.
Two Plans. Both Prices Are on This Page.
Most agencies make you sit through a call before they will tell you a number. Here it is. The difference between the two is volume, not a secret. You are buying more of the same work, done more often, across more of the map.
Operation Lightyear
$2,500 setup, or we waive it if you stay six months. How that works
- Google Business Profile buildout, top to bottom
- 4 blog articles a month
- A profile post every four days
- 25 local citations, built once and kept clean
- 1 press release a month, 1 channel, roughly 30 links
- Review monitoring and response
- Authority backlinks
- Metadata, schema, alt text and internal linking
- Service and location pages written for real searches
- Monthly map heatmap and keyword report
- AI search tracking: 15 questions checked monthly in ChatGPT
Operation Parsec
$5,000 setup, or we waive it if you stay six months. How that works
- Everything in Operation Lightyear
- 8 blog articles a month
- A profile post every other day
- 50 local citations
- 1 press release a month, 3 channels, roughly 60 links
- Guest posts on relevant sites
- AI search tracking: 40 questions across ChatGPT, Google AI answers and Perplexity
- A monthly strategy call with me, not an account manager
Both plans cover the map and the pages, and both include the AI tracking rather than charging separately for it. The full month-by-month breakdown is on the local SEO page, and how we handle getting named by AI assistants has a page of its own.
Worth Knowing Where We Are a Bad Fit.
We Are a Good Fit If
- ✓You serve a real geographic area and you know which towns you want more work from.
- ✓You could handle more calls next month without the wheels coming off.
- ✓You would rather see a real number every month than a report designed to look busy.
We Are Not If
- ✕You sell nationwide online. Most of what we do is local and it will not help you.
- ✕You need the phone ringing this month. Run ads, and start this alongside.
- ✕You are shopping for a ranking guarantee. Nobody can honestly give you one.
Four Ways People Search for This. Only One of Them Is What You Want.
Look for SEO help in Pittsburgh and you will type one of four words without thinking about it. They are not the same purchase, and the one you pick decides who calls you back.
An SEO Company
Usually the largest of the four. A team, a process, a portal, and an account manager sitting between you and whoever does the work. Good when you want a system running whether or not you think about it. Less good when you want to talk to the person making the decisions.
An SEO Agency
The same work, sold alongside the rest of it: the site, the profile, the ads. Worth it when those need to point the same direction, which for a local business they almost always do. That is what 945 Studios is.
An SEO Consultant
One person, advising. They tell you what to do and somebody on your side does it. Cheapest on paper, and the most expensive of the four if nobody on your side has the hours.
SEO Services
Not a who, a what. Tasks bought by the item: an audit, a few pages, a listings clean-up. Fine for closing one specific gap. It is not a plan, and buying tasks without one is how a business spends two years going sideways.
We'll Find You 7 Revenue Opportunities You Are Missing.
A real look at your profile, your listings and what people find when they search for what you do. Seven specific opportunities, and you keep the list whether or not you ever work with us. Most of the businesses we do this for are around Pittsburgh, where which town you show up in decides whether the search was worth winning. If there is no site worth optimising yet, start from a Lightspeed build and the SEO has something solid to stand on.