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Why page one matters for SEO

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, simply means working to help your business appear higher in Google when someone searches for what you sell. For a local business, that often means searches such as “hairdresser Leszno” or “accountant Leszno”, using my town as an example, as well as results on Google Maps.

The trouble is that clicks are distributed very unevenly. The first result gets roughly a quarter, the top three get over half, and fewer than 1% of searchers click anything on the second page. Move the slider and enter how many people search for your service each month to see what that could mean for your business.

Google’s AI answers also take some of those clicks. That makes visibility near the top even more valuable: highly ranked results are also among those AI answers most often cite.

My own website: position 12 brought no clicks

I will not pretend everything is perfect on my own website. My page about SEO in Leszno appeared in Google 1,462 times over the last three months for “pozycjonowanie stron leszno”. Its average position was 12.4, just onto the second page. The number of clicks: zero. You can ask me about my approach to local SEO.

By comparison, “strony internetowe leszno”, where my average position was 9.8, still on page one, brought three clicks from 587 impressions. Roughly two positions apart, with a clear difference in results. Here is what that looks like in my Google Search Console:

What am I doing about it? Exactly what I describe in the plan below: improving the page, adding content that answers customers’ questions (this article is part of that work) and checking the results each month. No agency and no monthly contract. If the click count changes in a few months, I will update this example.

What local SEO costs: three pricing models

Agencies in Poland usually charge for SEO in three ways. These are Polish market prices converted to euros at roughly 4.3 Polish zloty per euro and rounded. The ranges come from public Polish agency price lists for 2025 and 2026 and exclude VAT. Businesses in Leszno generally pay similar rates to those elsewhere in Poland, as many proposals come from agencies in other cities. Prices in your country may differ.

Most common

Monthly contract

€190 to €580 excl. VAT / month

A regular fee for ongoing work: content, links, improvements and a report, for a business serving one town. The cheapest local packages start at around €60.

Contract
often 12 to 24 months
Notice period
usually 1 to 3 months
Risk
you also pay in months with no results

Tempting

Pay for rankings

€16 to €70 per keyword / month

You pay when selected keywords reach the top ten. There is usually a minimum number of keywords, sometimes with a fixed fee on top.

Contract
depends on the agency
Risk
keywords nobody searches for
Ask about
the search volume for each keyword

My choice

One-off foundation work

€350 to €810 excl. VAT for an audit

An audit identifies what is holding back visibility: your Business Profile, website structure, titles and speed. Implementing the changes may cost extra. You then look after the results yourself.

Contract
one project, no ongoing commitment
With me
a price agreed before work begins
A website I build
the foundation is included

Each model can make sense. A monthly contract can be useful in a competitive market, such as an online shop selling nationwide. For a hairdresser, garage or small legal practice facing only a few local competitors, paying every month to maintain a sound foundation may be harder to justify. That is the situation I often see in my town. Ask me how I would approach your website.

Calculator: what a monthly contract really costs

A monthly fee can look modest until you multiply it by the contract length. Enter the fee you have been quoted and the length of the contract. If you also have a quote for one-off work, add it alongside to compare.

Remember that price is only part of the picture. For a monthly contract, ask exactly what happens each month. For one-off work, ask exactly what you will receive and whether you keep it when you stop working together.

How Google ranks local results

The map showing three businesses above the ordinary results can be one of Google’s most valuable places for a local business. Google explains the main ranking factors: relevance, distance and prominence. It also says you cannot pay for a better local ranking. Here is what you can influence.

Much of the setup is done once; asking customers for reviews becomes a regular habit. In my client panel, you can connect your Google Business Profile, email review requests or print a poster with a QR code. You can also see reviews and statistics for the last 30 days, and use the “Where am I on the map?” grid to check which parts of town you rank well in.

Local SEO without a monthly contract: a 90-day plan

This is the plan I give clients and follow myself. Month one builds the foundation, month two focuses on reviews and content, and month three is about measurement. Tick off each step: progress is saved in this browser, so you can return to the list each week.

Unsure how your website is doing? Start with my SEO audit checklist or a quick audit in my panel: the first check of any website is free.

Received an SEO proposal? Check it first

Google has a page for businesses considering an SEO specialist. It warns about promises nobody can keep and points out that poor SEO can harm a website. Tick anything that appears in the proposal you have received.

A good agency will be happy to answer these questions. So will I: send me the proposal you have received and I will give you an honest view, even if my advice is to go ahead with it.

What you can do yourself and when to get help

You can do these yourself: set up your Google Business Profile, ask for reviews, reply to them and keep your business details consistent everywhere. This takes regular attention rather than technical knowledge. Google itself says small-business owners can do much of this work.

Consider getting help with: your website’s page structure, titles and descriptions, speed, structured data and Search Console setup. Someone who does this every day may need a few days; learning as you go can take several weeks. The initial setup is a one-off job.

A monthly contract can make sense: if you serve a national market, run a large online shop or compete with dozens of businesses with substantial budgets. That is less common for local services in a town like Leszno. If you are starting from scratch, a website I build includes this foundation.

Sources

  1. Google: tips to improve your local ranking relevance, distance and prominence
  2. Google: choosing a Business Profile category
  3. Google Search Central: do you need an SEO? in English
  4. Google: spam policies (link spam)
  5. Backlinko: Google click-through rates 4 million results; page two gets 0.63%
  6. BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 US survey, February 2026
  7. Widoczni: SEO price list Polish market rates; in Polish
  8. Statistics Poland: Local Data Bank Leszno: population 58,766 in 2025

Questions about local SEO without a monthly contract