Chris » Matthew
My tip for a low budget is to spend less on your website but more
On Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Google Keyword Planner (GKP)
Google My Business (GMB) and marketing 👍
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Johnson
Make a city/service page for each city and service you have. Start with your most common bread and butter service and grow from there. BTW I do that exact strategy for an Alabama Security company and we are Killing it!!
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Brenda
I'll be the lone wolf. The charges that the OP quoted seem totally LEGIT, and perhaps a bit low.
Remember the fable of the Repairman who charged $500 and he essentially just tightened a screw. When questioned, the repairman says, yeah, it only took me five minutes to do the task, but it took me 20 years to know which screw to turn.
You say, "find a mentor who will teach me . . ." While you are "learning web development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), what's happening with your bread-and-butter business?
No one here who is spouting out that they could do it better, cheaper, free . . . beware! Without a real audit of the website, the business, the competitors, the competitiveness of the industry in that specific area, your quotes/charges aren't worth the pixels they take up on the screen.

Josh Saga
Eh the end goal is to get you calls and leads which can be a customer.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the longterm method here, Paid ads in Google, FB, and YT, is the short to midterm.
You could work with those who gives you quotes, or find someone who does a per lead basis or revenue share.
They all employ the same methods to ads and rank (granted that they are a legit agency) . It's just a matter of how they charge.

Diego
You get what you pay for. A good local site, that covers all the bases can cost over $2000, especially if you want someone who's not trying to rush you out the door to get to the next guy. But the monthly costs seem excessive, unless you are in a huge metro area. Then again, you are in a HIGHLY competitive space, especially for mold and water remediation.
That being said, Josh Saga down there is right and you want to start with a blend of local SEO and ads until you get your SEO infrastructure completely built out. Like start 50/50 SEO/Ads and then move to 100/0. Or keep it at 50/50 and increase your budget. It's really not about the money going out, it's about the leads and money coming in. I know some SEO users that work with a lot of carpet cleaners and their businesses blow the **** up. Adding a van every six months, etc.

Dennis Richards
Dude you can do all this your self guaranteed! I did and besides websites are a bit over rated these days. Sure you might want one but a FB business page is a bit part of it. If you want real info without me trying to get anything at all from you I would be happy to help a fellow local service entrepreneur.

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Rienzi
Hey Matthew, Good that you understood your assignment.
From what you're saying:
1. they want to separate the site build from the SEO/marketing monthly retainer – which is standard with most agencies because they see that as separate services. But doing it for a Local service is not really a good route. So my advice is not to go that route and find an agency or a team who can do it all in for a monthly retainer.
2. $800-1200 budget range – this is just about right for cleaners if the goal is $5k-$10k gross income per week. I work with masonry & cleaners in this price range this includes everything: content creation, SMM management, Video & PPC/ads.
My 2 cents:
1. If you have the time to work on your own brand you can stick around FB groups and follow thought leaders. Courses are also good but it depends on your pace – same with consulting.
2. We do these services for clients because we've already have the experience. Doing it on your own and learning, yeah you might have some success, but it took most of us years to get to where we are at. So the value is then again time.
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Laura
Hey Matthew – on top of all the comments already given .. I strongly believe that you can outsource but you have to understand yourself what you are outsourcing. I hear a lot of people telling me they outsourced eg their websites, payed a lot and got .. well not a lot.
It's like learning to fish.
Start with the customer journey of your ideal customer. Who is he and/or she and how does he/she prefers to buy? Only then you know how to help them buy from you (do not sell, help them buy – major difference and is THE strategy to be super successful- guaranteed!).
How to help them buy is the basis for (functional) designing your website, messages, social media and lead magnets. All ingredients for your customer journey!
Hope that helps! If you want to know a little more, I am here. 🙂

Eric
Do you really understand what a website is supposed to do. From reading a lot of the comments on here it seems most don't. While being an online face for your business your site needs to convert visitors to leads. I know of loads of agencies both SEO and web design who can make a great looking website but fail to generate any leads for their client because they focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and design instead of conversion optimisation. There no point driving traffic to a site that doesnt convert. A good conversion optimised site with built in lead gen tools, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) etc is going to be expensive BUT its an asset and investment. It builds you a mailing list, lets you segment potential clients, schedule marketing and plenty more. Don't even think of starting SEO until you have a site that generates customers. Ask your designer how they are going to implement this strategy on your site. What calls to action, what optimised forms, click to call etc. AND don't use Elementor. Hasn't anyone heard of page speed for SEO. Elementor is crap for technical optimisation. If you must use a general builder try Oxygen. If you want to personally build a conv optimised site then use Thrive Themes and host it on Cloudways. As for SEO, cost is reletive to your turnover / profit. Content is expensive to outsource ( if you want good content ) and agencies have BIG overheads. Links are EXPENSIVE if you want something more than a crappy web 2.0 link that isn't from a listed spam source. Everyone outside looking in fail to realise what costs agencies eat when they do Search-Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO). To drive traffic you need to rank. For that you need links and articles, both take time and money. Try doing it yourself and see how far you can get. Not trying to put anyone down here but it just needs a reality check.

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