SEO services cover an audit, technical fixes, a keyword and page plan, content, links and mentions, local and AI-search work, and reporting. Foundations come first, growth work after. The proposal should list each item with its monthly quantity, and you should own the accounts and the content.
This is the main guide in our SEO series. What the work costs is in SEO agency pricing in the USA and the SEO retainer; how long it takes is in how long SEO takes.
What Google says an SEO does
Google's own page on hiring an SEO lists what an SEO can do for a site: review its content or structure, give technical advice on development such as hosting, redirects, error pages and JavaScript, develop content, manage online business development campaigns, research keywords, train your team, bring expertise in particular markets and countries, and optimize for generative AI. The same page sets the limits: no one can promise a number-one ranking, you should never have to link to an SEO, and an SEO auditing your site needs only read access to Search Console. Those two lists, what is included and what is not, are the frame for everything below.
The seven kinds of work
A full SEO service includes seven kinds of work. A proposal that leaves one out should say why:
- 1. Audit. A read of the site's technical health, content and search presence: which pages are indexed, which searches the site appears for, what competitors' pages answer that yours do not, and what is broken. The output is a short prioritized list. Our SEO audit checklist sets out what a proper one covers.
- 2. Technical fixes. Making sure pages can be found, crawled, indexed and loaded quickly. Google's technical requirements are short (Googlebot not blocked, the page returns HTTP 200, the page has indexable content), but sites fail them in many ways: blocked sections, redirect chains, duplicate URLs, slow templates, broken internal links. Search Console's Page indexing report shows which pages are not indexed and why. Our technical SEO service does this work.
- 3. Keyword and page plan. Matching each search your buyers make to one page on your site, so pages do not compete with each other and no important search is left without a page. This is where most of the strategy lives.
- 4. Content. Writing new pages and improving existing ones so they answer the search better than what ranks today, in the words Google's Search Essentials describe: helpful, people-first content that uses the words people search with, in the title and the main heading.
- 5. Links and mentions. Earning links and mentions from relevant sites: industry directories, partners, press, guest articles, resources others want to cite. Google's spam policies bar links made mainly to manipulate rankings, so the method matters as much as the number.
- 6. Local and AI search. A Google Business Profile, reviews and location pages for a business that serves an area; for every business, pages written so AI answers and Google's AI features can quote them, as our guide to getting your business cited in AI search explains. Our local SEO service covers the first.
- 7. Reporting. A monthly report from Search Console's Performance report (clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position) and your own lead record, with what was done and what is next. Our guides to SEO KPIs and in-house SEO vs an agency cover what to measure and who should do it.
What happens month by month
The order matters more than the list. Months one to three are foundations: the audit in the first weeks, the technical fixes that block everything else, the keyword and page plan, and the first improvements to the pages that already get impressions. Months four to six shift to growth: new pages from the plan, content improvements, the first link and mention work, and local or AI-search work. Months seven to twelve are compounding: more pages, more links, refreshes of pages that slip, and a review of the plan against what Search Console shows.
Google's SEO starter guide says changes can take from several weeks to months to show in search, which is why the first quarter's report is mostly about work done and indexing fixed, and why rankings and leads are judged over two or three quarters. The table below sets the twelve months out, with what you should receive in each.
What you should own and receive
Whatever the fee, six things should be in the contract:
- Your accounts. Search Console, analytics, the website and its CMS, the Google Business Profile: all in your name, with the provider added as a user and removable at any time.
- Read access first. Google advises granting an SEO only read access to Search Console for an audit; edit rights come when a change is agreed.
- Every change listed. A log of what was changed, when, and how to undo it.
- The content. Every page written for you is yours, in your name, and stays if you leave.
- The plan. The keyword and page plan is a document you keep.
- A monthly report in your own data, with work done, results and next steps.
What is usually not included, or costs extra
The items that most often surprise buyers:
- Website development. Fixing a template or rebuilding a site is development work; an SEO service specifies it, a developer builds it.
- Paid search. Google Ads is a separate service with its own budget.
- Large content volumes. A retainer includes a set number of pages a month; more is extra.
- Digital PR campaigns beyond routine outreach.
- Translation and other-country sites.
- Rankings. No provider can sell them: Google says no one can promise a number-one ranking.
How SEO services are priced
Most SEO services are sold as a monthly retainer: 78.2% of the 439 providers in Ahrefs' 2024 SEO pricing survey (updated 15 August 2024) charge that way. The retainer buys a set of deliverables and hours each month, and the spread between providers is the spread in what they include. Our guides to the SEO retainer and SEO agency pricing in the USA give the public figures; we publish no rate card, and quote against a written scope.
How to read an SEO proposal
Seven questions, each with a right answer. Our guides to how to evaluate an SEO agency and what to expect from an SEO agency go further:
- Is each of the seven kinds of work listed, with a monthly quantity (pages, fixes, outreach), or only "ongoing optimization"?
- Who does the work, by name and role, and who is your contact?
- What happens in the first ninety days, in order?
- How are links earned, and does the method fit Google's spam policies?
- What is reported, from which source, and how often?
- What do you own, and what happens to the content and accounts if you leave?
- What is promised? If a ranking, the answer to Google's warning is to walk away.
Conclusion
SEO services include an audit, technical fixes, a keyword and page plan, content, links and mentions, local and AI-search work, and reporting, delivered in that order: foundations in the first quarter, growth from the second, compounding through the year. A good service writes each item down with its monthly quantity, works in your accounts, gives you every page and the plan, and reports in Search Console clicks and your own leads rather than promised positions.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. Our SEO services run this way on a written monthly scope, with technical SEO service and local SEO service where the site needs them.
The guides in this series
This is the main guide in our SEO series. Each guide below goes deeper on one part of the work and links back here.
- The SEO retainer: what a monthly SEO service covers, what it costs in public surveys, and how to scope one.
- Choosing in-house SEO or an agency: cost, speed and control, with public wage data.
- SEO audit checklist: what a proper audit covers, section by section.
- Which SEO numbers to track: what to track, from which source, and what to ignore.
- A one-page monthly report: what a good report shows, section by section, from your own data.
- A 12-month SEO plan: foundations, pages, authority and compounding, quarter by quarter.
- A one-page SEO strategy: goal, buyers, page plan, priorities, owners and measures.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.