Think of the last ten calls your business received. How many of them started, after the hello, with some version of "how much will it cost"? For a plumber, a cleaner, a painter or a family lawyer, this question arrives early, and it arrives often. And yet, if you open the websites of ten local service businesses, you will find that many of them answer every question except that one.
The owners have their reasons, and they are sensible reasons. Every job is different. A competitor might copy the number. A low figure might attract customers who only want the cheapest option. Let's say it honestly: publishing a price feels like giving away the one thing you usually say in person.
But the visitor who finds no answer has a choice to make, and the easiest choice is to open the next website in the list. So in this post we look at four honest ways to answer the cost question, at what Google says about pages that satisfy a visitor, and at the rules price regulators apply to advertised prices.
Why does the cost question matter so much on a website?
Google publishes a page called "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content", and it contains a list of questions an owner can ask about any page. One of them is this: "After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?"
For a person looking for a service, the goal is often a decision with a budget attached. They want to know whether you are within reach before they spend time on a phone call. A service page with photos, a list of services and no idea of cost leaves that goal unmet. The person has learned what you do, but they cannot yet decide whether to call.
The same Google page asks another question that helps here: "Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?" Your own prices and your own records are original information. No template and no competitor can produce them. That is the good news for an owner who feels that every service website looks the same: the price answer is the part only you can write.
What are the four ways to answer "how much does it cost"?
A fixed price list is only one option. In practice there are four approaches, and a business can use a different one for each service.
| Approach | Suits work that is | What you write | |---|---|---| | Fixed prices | The same job every time | The price and exactly what it includes | | Starting price | A common base job with extras | The lowest real price, then what raises it | | What changes the price | Different every time | The factors, and how you measure each one | | Typical range from your records | Varied, but with history | A range from your own invoices, with the dates |
Now let us look at each one with more care.
When does a fixed price make sense?
A fixed price fits the jobs that repeat. A cleaner who charges the same amount for a standard move out clean of a one bedroom apartment. A locksmith who charges one amount to rekey a single lock. A bookkeeper who charges one monthly fee for a sole trader with fewer than a set number of transactions.
The important part is the sentence after the price. What is included? What is excluded? Is travel included inside the city? Is the tax added on top? A fixed price with a clear list of inclusions saves you from the phone calls where the customer was expecting something different. It also protects you from the problem we describe below, the price that cannot actually be paid.
How do you write a starting price honestly?
A starting price suits work where most jobs share a base task and then grow. A drain cleaning, a basic will, a small bathroom paint job. You write "from" and a number, and then, right next to it, the things that raise it: a second floor, a blocked main line, a room with high ceilings.
Here the truth is simple. The starting price must be a price a real customer can pay. If nobody ever pays the starting price, because every job carries a callout fee or a mandatory charge you add later, then the number is misleading. We come back to this rule in a moment, because regulators have written it down.
What if every job is different?
Some work cannot be priced in advance. A roof repair depends on what the roofer finds under the shingles. A litigation matter depends on what the other side does. For these services, the honest answer is a list of the things that decide the cost, written in plain words.
Let us imagine a painter in Burnaby. The page could say that the price depends on the size of the rooms, the condition of the walls, the number of colours, and whether the ceilings are included. Then it could say how the quote works: a visit, a written estimate within a stated number of days, and a price that is fixed once accepted. The visitor still has no number, but they understand the process and why it exists. That is a real answer.
Can you publish a typical range from your own records?
Yes, and this is often the most useful option for a business that has been working for a few years. Take the invoices for one service over a stated period, for example the last twelve months. Find the lowest and highest amounts for normal jobs, set aside the unusual ones, and publish that range with the period and the date you checked.
This approach has two qualities. First, it is true, because it describes jobs you actually did. Second, it is yours: the range comes from your own work in your own area, and nobody else has it. Update it once a year and change the date. A range with a date tells the reader exactly how fresh it is.
Please do not invent a range because it sounds reasonable. A range you cannot support from your records is a guess, and a guess published as a price creates the problems the regulators describe.
What do price regulators say about advertised prices?
In Canada, the Competition Bureau has a page on drip pricing. It defines the practice as offering "low prices to attract consumers, but then add mandatory fees so that the advertised prices are not attainable." The Bureau says this raises concerns under the Competition Act, unless the extra charge is imposed by government, such as sales tax.
Its advice to businesses is short. First: "Never promote an unattainable price." Second: "Remember if that charge or fee is variable rather than being fixed, it could still raise concerns under the law." And it suggests a question every owner can ask before publishing a number: "Will consumers be able to trust that the price they see advertised is the one they will pay? Will they be surprised by extra fees?"
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on 12 May 2025. According to the FTC's own questions and answers page, it covers two sectors: live event tickets and short term lodging. For those sellers, the total price must include "all charges or fees the business knows about and can calculate upfront". A plumber or a cleaner is outside that specific rule. Still, it shows the direction regulators are taking, and the Canadian guidance applies to businesses in general.
Lawyers, accountants and other licensed professionals have one more thing to check: their own regulator's rules on advertising fees. Read your code of conduct before you publish, and ask your regulator if the wording is unclear. We are not lawyers, and this post is general information.
Should prices also go on your Google Business Profile?
They can. Google's help page on managing services says that for each service on your Business Profile "You can add info such as price and description." You find it under Edit services.
Two rules from Google deserve attention. The same help page warns that custom services are rejected automatically if the service name includes "profanity, gibberish, personal information, prices, or phone numbers". So the price goes in the price field, never inside the service name. And Google's guidelines for representing your business say the business description must not focus on "special promotions, prices, and offer sales", with "Best bagels in town for $5!" given as an example of content that is not allowed. The description is for your services, your mission and your history.
Naturally, the prices on your profile and on your website should match. Two different numbers for the same job make both look uncertain.
What should you do if you still prefer not to publish prices?
That is a legitimate choice for some businesses. But then the page must do the other part of the work. Say why a price is not listed, in one sentence. List the factors that decide the cost. Explain the quote process step by step: how to ask, what information to send, and how many days until the customer has a written number. A promised reply time, kept every time, answers part of the question the visitor came with.
If you want to know which questions your pages leave unanswered, our post on whether a small business needs a blog explains a simple test: write down the last twenty questions customers asked you, and check which ones your site already answers. The cost question is usually first on the list. And if you suspect your site is losing callers before they ever pick up the phone, this five minute check walks through the most common reasons.
How can Licheo help?
Licheo does the website, search and AI work that big companies pay whole teams for, for small businesses. If you would like a first look at how your site appears today, the free Get Found Check reads your homepage, your domain's public settings and your security certificate, and returns a grade in under 60 seconds.
Sources
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Drip pricing, Competition Bureau Canada, accessed 29 September 2026.
- The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions, Federal Trade Commission, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Manage your services on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.