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SEO

What a monthly SEO retainer actually buys

An ongoing retainer, with the scope written down in advance. The complaint about SEO retainers is almost never the price — it is not being able to tell what was done for it. So this page describes the shape of a month, and every engagement gets that in writing before it starts.

How it runs

What actually happens, in order

  1. Month one is not a normal month

    Month 1

    Audit, priorities, access, tracking and baseline measurements. No content is published and no links are pursued until we know what is wrong. If a retainer starts producing blog posts in week one, nobody looked first.

  2. A planned scope, agreed before the month starts

    Monthly, in advance

    Each month has a written plan: the specific pages being built or improved, the technical work, the local work. You approve it before it happens rather than reading about it afterwards.

  3. The work, done rather than recommended

    Throughout

    Changes are implemented on the site. A retainer that produces recommendations for your team to action is a consultancy, which is a legitimate thing to buy but a different one, and it should cost less.

  4. Reporting on inquiries first

    Monthly

    Calls and forms from organic search, then the rankings and coverage behind them. One page, in plain language, with what moved, what did not, and what we are doing about the second one.

  5. A quarterly conversation about whether it is working

    Quarterly

    Not a renewal pitch. If three months have produced nothing, that is a real signal and it gets said out loud, along with what we would change or whether you should stop.

Scope

What is included — and what is not

Both lists, because the second one is where projects go wrong and almost nobody publishes it.

  • A written monthly plan, approved by you before work starts
  • Technical fixes implemented on the site
  • Content and page work — written, built and published
  • Google Business Profile management and local citation upkeep
  • Monthly report led by calls and forms, not keyword screenshots
  • A named person who does the work and answers the phone
  • Month-to-month after the first quarter, with everything transferring to you if you leave
  • Paid advertising management, which is billed separately because it is a different job
  • Unlimited content — the plan says how many pages, and more is a scope conversation rather than a surprise
  • Long lock-in contracts

Straight answers

Questions people actually ask

What does it cost?
It depends on your market and where the site is starting from, and quoting a number here without seeing either would be a number invented to look competitive. The audit gives us both, and the quote comes with the monthly scope attached so you can see exactly what the price buys.
Is there a minimum contract?
A first quarter, because less than three months cannot show whether the work is doing anything and it would be dishonest to take money for a month and imply otherwise. After that it is month to month.
What if it is not working after six months?
Then we say so, explain what we think is wrong, and either change approach or tell you to stop. An agency whose income depends on you not asking this question will always find a metric that improved.
Do I keep everything if I leave?
Yes — the pages, the profile, the citations, the analytics, all in your own accounts. Nothing switches off and nothing needs handing over, because nothing was ever held on our side.
How many hours a month is it?
The plan lists work, not hours, and that is deliberate: hours reward slowness. If you would rather see hours, we will show them, but the useful question is which pages exist at the end of the month that did not exist at the start.

Related

Usually bought alongside

SEO that produces inquiries, not reports

Search optimization for Ocala businesses, measured in calls and booked jobs rather than keyword screenshots.

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Content that ranks and reads like a person wrote it

Service pages, articles and local content built around what your customers actually search for.

Learn more

Start with the free audit. It takes two seconds and it is honest about what it cannot see.

Audit my siteCall (786) 393-7931