Pricing SEO services for an audit or retainer

Who this is for

This page is for an independent SEO specialist quoting an audit, implementation project, or ongoing advisory engagement.

The pricing question

Which parts of the site will you investigate, document, implement, and monitor within this SEO engagement?

What to decide before you send the price

Ask before quoting: Which domain is in scope? How many page types exist? Which markets and languages matter? What changed recently? Is analytics reliable? Is search data available? Who can grant crawl access? Are developers available? Is content production included? Which business outcomes matter? Confirm migrations, subdomains, competitors, priority products, platform constraints, manual actions, reporting history, approval ownership, and the expected implementation role.

An audit scope can include crawl analysis, indexation review, template checks, internal linking, metadata patterns, structured data review, content gaps, priority findings, and an action plan. Assume access to agreed data, a stable site during review, named stakeholders, and client validation of business priorities. Exclude implementation, development, content writing, link acquisition, migration execution, accessibility remediation, analytics repair, translation, and ongoing reporting unless named.

Offer a Diagnostic Audit for evidence and priorities, an Implementation Support option adding tickets and developer review, and an Advisory Retainer for recurring analysis and decision support. Include one findings review and one factual correction round. Site releases, platform limitations, delayed access, changing templates, new countries, incomplete data, and requests to execute fixes can widen the engagement. Do not promise rankings or traffic outcomes.

A weak scope says, "Improve SEO and monitor performance." A clear scope says, "Audit the agreed domain and page templates, document reproducible findings, rank actions by business impact and effort, and review the plan with the named owner; implementation is excluded." Define the reporting data and review cadence. Search performance also depends on competition, site execution, demand, and platform changes outside the specialist's control.

• Name the domain, markets, languages, and page templates.
• Confirm data access and the reliability of each source.
• Separate diagnosis, implementation, and ongoing advisory work.
• Assign every recommended action to a client owner.
• Avoid promises about rankings, traffic, or commercial results.

FAQ

Pricing for other services

Useful glossary terms

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