--- title: Is SEO Worth It for a Small Business? Michael Hodgdon Says Fix the Service Pages Before Writing More Blog Posts description: SEO author Michael Hodgdon on fixing service pages before blog posts, how long SEO takes to pay back, what it costs and how to measure SEO ROI. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-09T16:54:01.993Z updated: 2026-10-09T16:56:15.201Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/is-seo-worth-it-for-small-business image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/michael-hodgdon-quickest-path-roi-seo-hero-v1.webp categories: Marketing, Business Savvy content_type: Profile region: Colorado publication: Sovereign Magazine schema_type: Article about: - type: Person name: Michael Hodgdon description: "Michael Hodgdon is the founder of Elite SEO Consulting in Colorado Springs and the author of Quickest Path to ROI SEO: A Business-First System for Turning Search Visibility Into Revenue Sooner. He has more than 27 years of experience in search and digital marketing and helps businesses connect SEO and AI-search visibility to qualified leads, customers and revenue." url: https://quickestpathtoroiseo.com/ jobTitle: SEO consultant and founder, Elite SEO Consulting worksFor: Elite SEO Consulting sameAs: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhodgdon/ - https://quickestpathtoroiseo.com/about-the-author/ --- Michael Hodgdon's answer to whether search engine optimization is worth it for a small business is yes, provided the first money goes into the pages where customers decide to buy, before another batch of blog posts. The founder of Elite SEO Consulting in Colorado Springs sets out his method in Quickest Path to ROI SEO: A Business-First System for Turning Search Visibility Into Revenue Sooner. The book reached No. 1 on Amazon's Search Engines bestseller list on October 4, a day after it was named a No. 1 new release, and by October 5 had also made the top 10 in two other categories, Online Internet Searching and Search Engine Optimization. ### Book: Quickest Path to ROI SEO *A Business-First System for Turning Search Visibility Into Revenue Sooner* By Michael Hodgdon Michael Hodgdon's book sets out a business-first approach to search engine optimization for small business owners, marketing leaders and agency staff. It shows how to find the searches with buying intent, put the first budget into the pages that bring in inquiries and sales, fix the technical problems that hold them back and measure SEO by leads, customers and revenue. The last part covers how AI-generated answers are changing search. The book reached No. 1 in Amazon's Search Engines bestseller category in October 2026. Free companion tools, including an SEO ROI Calculator and an AI Search Readiness Checklist, are available on the book's website. [Book website](https://quickestpathtoroiseo.com/quickest-path-to-roi-seo-book-editions/) Hodgdon has worked in search and digital marketing for more than 27 years. In 2011, Entrepreneur magazine featured him and BigFishTackle.com, a fishing site with about 100,000 forum members, as he adapted it for mobile users. From 2013 to 2023 he ran the SEO department at Infront Webworks, growing it from one person to 17, and in 2023 he founded Elite SEO Consulting, which was named Best New Agency at the 2025 U.S. Agency Awards. He wrote the book for business owners, marketing leaders and agency staff. "I wrote it to help business owners make a decision they face every month: where should the next dollar or hour of SEO work go?" he says. ## Blog Posts, Service Pages and Small Business SEO Small business owners are often told to win at search by publishing more blog posts, videos, ebooks and infographics, but Hodgdon tells them to begin with what they sell. "Start with the services you want to sell, the customers searching for them, and the pages those customers need to make a decision. Then put your time and budget into the improvements most likely to turn that demand into business," he says. For a [local service company](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/how-small-businesses-outrank-big-brands-on-google-the-hyperlocal-seo-tactics-quietly-driving-service-firms-growth), that can mean improving one core service page so that it explains the work clearly, names the areas served, shows reviews and examples of past projects, and makes it easy to request an estimate. He also checks that the inquiry form works, that the phone number is easy to find on a mobile screen and that someone follows up promptly, because those details decide whether a visitor becomes a customer. An existing page that already draws potential customers often deserves attention before a business commissions new articles, in his view, though he does not dismiss content. "Content absolutely has a role, but give each piece a specific job, whether that's answering a buying question or supporting a service page, and measure the qualified inquiries and return it produces," he says. ## A Handyman Business on a $1,200 Monthly SEO Budget Wam Bam Handyman, a veteran-owned handyman company in Colorado Springs, is one of the case studies in the book. Its owner had left a $58,000 salaried job to run the business full time and needed search to help replace that income within six months. The company spent $1,200 a month on SEO, or $3,600 over its first three months. Elite SEO Consulting concentrated on searches from people ready to hire a handyman, starting with valuable keywords that were already close to page one, and put off broader informational articles that were unlikely to pay back early. Within 60 days, more than 50 of the company's keywords reached page one of Google without paid advertising, Hodgdon says. Within six months, the company's monthly revenue peaked near $18,900, and its slower months stayed above $14,000. The campaign was shortlisted for Best Low-Budget SEO Campaign at the 2025 U.S. Search Awards. ## Measuring SEO ROI From Inquiry to Sale Hodgdon's process for deciding where the next dollar or hour goes starts with the business rather than the website. He first asks which services produce healthy margins, which jobs the company wants more of and whether it has the capacity to deliver them. He then checks whether people can find the right service page, understand the offer, see credible proof and call or request an estimate easily, and whether anyone answers those inquiries. A broken form or a confusing page moves up the list, because it can undermine the rest of the investment. Next he compares the opportunities by search demand, customer value, current visibility, competition and the effort needed to improve. Each piece of work then gets a defined job, such as improving one valuable service page with clearer information, project examples, answers to common customer questions and an easier way to get in touch. The agency follows each inquiry through to the sale. "We track calls and forms through qualified inquiries, booked customers, and revenue, then compare attributable profit contribution with the cost of the program," he says. Where possible, the agency links website tracking to the client's customer records to see whether an inquiry turned into a paying job. The work runs in monthly cycles of planning, implementation, analysis and reporting, and the team uses each month's results to set the next month's priorities. If rankings improve but inquiries do not, the team looks again at the page and the offer. If inquiries rise but bookings do not, it looks at lead quality and how quickly the business follows up. ## SEO Timelines and Costs for Contractors Across the agency's clients, pages have taken about 2.8 months on average to reach page one, the company says. Hodgdon treats first leads, breakeven and a positive return as separate milestones after that. A Colorado roofing contractor in the book shows how those stages can unfold. The company had been in business for more than 13 years, but SEO was new to it and there was no analytics history to measure against. Its owner had heard from other roofers who said they had spent more than $4,000 a month on SEO for a year or longer without meaningful results. It took four meetings before he signed, and the campaign began during hail season, when demand and competition for roofing searches were both high. The fee was $3,375 a month. Rankings moved in the first two months, but they had not yet brought in meaningful business. The first lead from the website arrived in month three, which was also when the owner considered canceling, and the agency waived its usual 30-day notice so he could leave if results did not follow. In month four, he reported that revenue from website leads had roughly matched the monthly fee, and in month five it exceeded the fee for the first time. By month six, the contractor was averaging about four website leads a week, with a high of 12 in a week when no hail storm had pushed up demand. Elite SEO Consulting's local SEO retainers generally start at $1,350 a month and are closer to $2,700 a month in competitive local markets such as home services and financial services, which puts the first three months at about $4,050 to $8,100. National programs start at $3,375 a month. Hodgdon says the figures are a guide for planning and that results depend on each business's starting point, competition and season. ## Scaling SEO and When to Hold Back Hodgdon advises against expanding a campaign until the pages that bring in revenue rank and convert reliably, the measurement is trusted and the business can take on more work without letting service quality or margins slip. Sending more demand to a business that cannot handle it can lead to complaints, delays and refunds, he writes. Warning signs that a campaign is not ready to grow include rankings that improve without more conversions, traffic that rises without changing what visitors do, uneven lead quality and attribution that becomes harder to follow. When those appear, he advises pausing expansion and fixing the parts that are underperforming. ## SEO and AI-Generated Answers In the final part of the book, Hodgdon looks at search results that now show [AI-generated answers](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/local-seo-isn-t-enough-why-generative-ai-is-forcing-a-rethink-on-link-building-budget-and-res), summaries, maps and business profiles alongside traditional rankings. A business can influence a buying decision before anyone visits its website, which in Hodgdon's view makes clear, credible pages and honest measurement more important. Readers can apply the framework with [free companion tools](https://quickestpathtoroiseo.com/seo-roi-tools-calculators/) on the book's website, including an SEO ROI Calculator, a Content-with-a-Job Planner, an SEO Opportunity Prioritization Checklist, a Local Search Visibility Checklist and an AI Search Readiness Checklist. **About Michael Hodgdon** SEO consultant and founder, Elite SEO Consulting, Elite SEO Consulting Michael Hodgdon is the founder of Elite SEO Consulting in Colorado Springs and the author of Quickest Path to ROI SEO: A Business-First System for Turning Search Visibility Into Revenue Sooner. He has more than 27 years of experience in search and digital marketing and helps businesses connect SEO and AI-search visibility to qualified leads, customers and revenue. [Website](https://quickestpathtoroiseo.com/) **About Elite SEO Consulting** Elite SEO Consulting is a Colorado Springs-based agency that helps businesses turn SEO and AI-search visibility into qualified leads, customers and measurable revenue. Founded by Michael Hodgdon in 2023, it was named Best New Agency at the 2025 U.S. Agency Awards. [Website](https://eliteseoconsulting.com/) ## FAQ **Q: Is SEO worth it for a small business?** Hodgdon's view is that it is, when the first budget goes into the pages closest to a sale, such as a core service page, and results are measured in inquiries, booked customers and revenue rather than rankings alone. In his book, a Colorado roofing contractor paying $3,375 a month got its first website lead in month three and was earning more than its monthly fee from website leads by month five. **Q: How long does SEO take to show results?** Across Elite SEO Consulting's clients, pages have taken about 2.8 months on average to reach page one, and Wam Bam Handyman had more than 50 keywords on page one within 60 days on a $1,200 monthly budget. Hodgdon treats first leads, breakeven and a positive return as separate, later milestones. **Q: How much should SEO cost for a small business?** Elite SEO Consulting's local retainers start at $1,350 a month and run to about $2,700 a month in competitive markets such as home services and financial services, and national programs start at $3,375 a month. Hodgdon says the right figure depends on a business's starting point, its competition and the season. **Q: Do blogs help SEO?** They can, in Hodgdon's view, when each post has a specific job, such as answering a buying question or supporting a service page, and is measured by the qualified inquiries it brings in. For a local service business, he often puts an existing service page that already draws potential customers ahead of a new batch of articles. **Q: Is SEO dead now with AI?** No, in Hodgdon's view. "AI did not eliminate the need for SEO. It raised the bar for it," he writes. Search results now show AI-generated answers alongside traditional rankings, so a business needs clear, credible pages that search systems can understand and cite, and a way to measure whether that visibility brings in customers. **Q: What is the 80/20 rule in SEO?** The 80/20 rule, taken from the Pareto principle, holds that a small share of the work produces most of the results. Hodgdon's method follows the same logic, putting the first budget into the few service pages and high-intent searches closest to revenue and expanding only once those are proven.