Best SEO Companies for Small Businesses

The best SEO company for small businesses in the US is Devenup, scoring 4.8/5 thanks to its wide range of services at a competitive price. 

We’ve compared top search engine optimization agencies to save you from endless research. We scored companies based on: number of SEO service types, average online review rating, and range of customer support options.

With rocketing inflation since the pandemic, competition for search engine space is out of this world. Without a reliable agency, you’re just floating around without aim.

Read on to find out which SEO agencies will funnel more visitors towards your business websites from internet search engines. Or you can 🎁use our free SEO expert matching service where you let us know your business needs and we’ll put you in touch with the right supplier.

Easy Comparison: Small Business SEO Services

If you don’t know who to choose, let us match you with an SEO marketing specialist who’ll give you a price directly. Simply let us know how to get in touch and we’ll ask a trusted SEO guru to lend you a hand.

1. Best for All-Round SEO: Devenup

Devenup offers the widest range of SEO services compared with any other provider on this list. That includes multilingual SEO, which Direction local and Townsquare Interactive don’t do. The Ukraine-based agency also had the highest customer review score: an average of 5/5 stars, compared with Webspero’s 4.9/5.

We were impressed by Devenup’s rapid and polite response to questions sent via email. This is a good sign that their client care is reliably responsive. Devenup has four options for customer care: email, webchat, phone, and knowledge base – that’s more than Direction Local and Townsquare interactive.

Our concern is that the agency secures paid links for clients, which is a backlinking service we generally advise against. However, Devenup also use organic link-building, the industry standard for gaining website authority.

On top of that, costs are much lower than US-based agencies, as Devenup is based in the Ukraine. Their international offices appeared to be at co-working spaces, so we couldn’t find a fixed US outpost where you’d be able to meet the team regularly. If you’re hoping to work with a stateside agency, this one isn’t for you.

Devenup Pricing

Devenup offers three price packages, which determine how many hours of staff time you’ll get each month. The options are aimed at growing businesses, with the main difference being the amount of content writing you get.

2. Best for Ecommerce SEO: Webspero

Webspero just missed out on winning the top spot, scoring 19.9/24 points total compared with Devenup’s 20/24. The advantage of Webspero over Devenup is the former offers web development on many frameworks, while the latter can only fix up existing websites’ issues. If you need a new website or mobile app, this is the agency of choice.

Their customers love them, with an impressive 4.9/5 average online review score. We’ve marked Webspero as best for ecommerce, reflecting recent portfolio work (and delighted client testimonials). The team will do SEO specifically for Bigcommerce, Shopify and Woocommerce platforms, helping your online store get seen on search engines.

Their main business is based in India, which could mean a delay in messaging communication due to time zones.

Webspero pricing

Their SEO pricing varies widely but Webspero hires Indian staff so you can expect to pay less than high-end US agencies. The hourly rate is $8-$30 on Upwork, which is far lower than the industry average of $100-$150.

However, that’s still a pretty wide bracket. Client project costs vary widely, so it seems there’s no simple price formula we can share with you.

Prices accurate as of January 2023

3. Best for SEO Content: Boostability

Boostability will only produce content written by SEO specialists, which is a marker of quality we didn’t see from Webspero. This means you can be confident the text across your website will be ideal for search engines while showcasing your business at its best.

That said, the agency’s expertise in ecommerce platforms is not as extensive as Webspero’s. So if you’re running an online store, you’d be better off with Webspero than Boostability.

Overall, Boostability didn’t have the highest customer review scores, hence why it’s lower on the list than Devenup and Webspero. But it still achieved an average of 4.1/5 in Google reviews which is respectable.

We found it really hard to find information about their B2B SEO services, as their website is geared entirely towards reselling SEO. The agency actually offers both kinds of services, but you’d never know it from their current website. Because this slanted marketing makes their business model unclear, we’ve marked this as a weakness.

Boostability pricing

We don’t have exact pricing for Boostability because the agency only quotes clients according to their particular needs. However, we understand their prices are competitive compared with larger agencies such as Major Tom.

4. Best for Healthcare SEO: Direction Local

Direction Local is an industry leader at gaining search engine exposure for healthcare businesses.

Last year Direction Inc (the parent of Direction Local) topped our list of the best SEO companies for small businesses. However, its local SEO division is ranked a whole star lower, owing to the relative stronger performance of competitors. As the SEO industry grows, service providers are offering a wider range of services for lower prices, with US-based businesses sometimes unable to outprice international competition.

That said, Direction Local provides a solid set of SEO services including reputation management, link building and content development. Their local SEO packages are priced extremely competitively, as you’ll see in the next section. We were particularly impressed that agency staff will get your business listed on car manufacturers’ GPS software too.

We have some reservations about the social media services listed under the SEO packages. While social media is an important form of marketing, it shouldn’t be seen as an SEO service. Google’s said social media doesn’t affect SEO.

Direction Local pricing

The below price packages seem very similar, with the main distinction being the types of directories you’ll get listed on. That’s the only reason we can detect for the price difference, so it may be worth pressing the agency for a better deal if you feel you’re possibly being overcharged.

Prices accurate as of January 2023

5. Best Local SEO: Townsquare Interactive

Some SEO agencies try to capture the spectrum of business websites (such as Webspero), but Townsquare Interactive is geared toward a specific clientele: small businesses only.

Parent company Townsquare Media owns a network of radio stations across the US (they’re the third largest radio station owner in the country) plus 400 local website brands. That heritage is why we trust the company to reach and effectively engage local populations. We’ve seen some decent localized SEO advice on their online blog, too.

When it comes to online reviews, voices are unhelpfully split. Either clients felt Townsquare Interactive produced great work or their service delivery could use some serious improvement – we found many reviews reflecting both sides. This wasn’t the case with Devenup, about whom nobody had a bad word to say.

From what we’ve read, the main issues seem to be around losing your website after you stop paying Townsquare Interactive. And some clients struggled to get refunded after they cancelled their contracts but payments kept going out.

For that reason, we advise going for local SEO services with Townsquare Interactive. Until customer reviews stop mentioning difficulties with website ownership, we’d say steer clear of web build services here.

Townsquare Interactive pricing

Townsquare keeps their pricing off their website, preferring interested parties approach directly for a quote. However, a client said in a September 2022 online review that they paid $329 monthly for a website and SEO services. Another client’s review from the same time stated they paid $700 for a new website build with SEO optimizations.

Pricing therefore seems to be in the $300 per month region (as of the latter half of 2022).

Prices accurate as of January 2023

How We Reached These Results: Methodology

To get to these results we looked for SEO companies who specifically cater to small businesses with annual turnover of less than $10 million. We were keen to consider SEO firms that would be most useful to our Expert Market readers, so we looked mainly at SEO services that delivered projects at the lower end of the pricing scale.

We gave each company points for:

• Range of SEO services offered
• Extra marketing services such as web design
• Customer review scores across five platforms 
• Customer support options

We then converted each company’s total points into a five star rating system.