You Don't Have to Pay Someone Hundreds a Month for SEO — Here's the Truth

SEO. Three letters that seem to confuse every home inspector — and there's a whole industry built around keeping it that way. A lot of companies are more than happy to charge you $500, $1,000, even more per month to "handle your SEO."

For most inspectors? That's money you don't need to spend. Let us explain why.

What SEO actually is, in plain English.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. All it really means is making your website more likely to show up when someone searches Google — or AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews — for something like "home inspector near me" or "home inspection in [your city]." It covers things like the words on your pages, the titles that show up in search results, how your images are labeled, and how your site is built overall.

That's it. It's not magic. It's not rocket science. It's a set of best practices that, when done right during the website build, creates a strong foundation that works for you over time.

Here's what most SEO companies won't tell you.

The heavy lifting of SEO happens once — when your website is built. Writing page titles with the right keywords. Adding meta descriptions that actually describe what you do and where. Labeling your images with alt text so search engines know what they are. Structuring your content so search engines can crawl it properly. Making sure the site loads fast and looks good on a phone.

If those things were done right from the start, you've already got a strong SEO foundation. And if you're an IWB client, they were. Every site we build follows the Wix SEO Checklist: Wix SEO Checklist article top to bottom — all pages optimized, all meta tags written, all images tagged, keywords worked into your content naturally. That's included in your one-time design fee. Not a monthly charge.

So what are those monthly SEO services actually doing?

Some are legit. They're building backlinks, creating content, monitoring rankings, and doing real work. But a lot of them? They're sending you a report once a month that you could pull from your own Wix dashboard, and calling it a service. We've talked to inspectors paying hundreds a month who couldn't tell us a single specific thing their SEO company was doing for them. That's a problem.

What you can do yourself to keep your SEO strong:

After your site's live, the single best thing you can do for SEO is keep things active. Google and other search engines like websites that show signs of life. Here's how to do that without spending a dime on a monthly service:

Post a blog once or twice a month. Write about what you know. Seasonal maintenance tips, common issues you see on inspections, advice for first-time homebuyers. Search engines love fresh content, and every blog post is another page that can show up in search results.

Keep your Google Business Profile dialed in. Add photos from inspections. Respond to reviews — and make sure you're asking for a review after every single inspection. Reviews are one of the most powerful ranking factors for your Google Business Profile. According to recent industry data, review signals account for roughly 15–20% of how Google decides who shows up in that local map pack at the top of search results. The top-ranking local businesses average around 47 reviews, and 73% of consumers only trust reviews from the last 30 days.

That means it's not just about having reviews — it's about getting new ones consistently. Make it a habit. After every inspection, send a quick text with your Google review link. It takes 30 seconds and it compounds over time.

Stay active on social media. When you share links to your website on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms, it sends signals to search engines that your site is active and relevant. Social media and SEO work together more than most people realize.

And if you want to take it a step further, you can run a Google Ad right from your Wix dashboard: Wix Google Ads article. It's easier to set up than you'd think, and it can give your rankings an extra boost while you're building momentum with all of your other marketing efforts.

The bottom line.

You don't need to throw money at a monthly SEO service to rank on Google. You need a website that was built right — with solid foundational SEO baked in — and a little bit of ongoing effort to keep things moving. That's it.

If someone's charging you hundreds a month and you're not sure what they're doing, ask them. Specifically. And then check whether you could get that same info from your own dashboard. You might save yourself a lot of money.