Most small sites do not need an agency so much as they need a predictable monthly rhythm: someone to audit, plan, execute and report, in that order, without theatre. Here is the shape of that work, with the numbers we actually work to.
The six service areas that cover almost everything
A retainer is easier to judge when you can name its parts. These six keep recurring in every plan we run, and anything outside them is usually a one-off project rather than monthly work.
- Keyword research: high-intent phrases your buyers type, ranked by traffic potential and how hard they are to win.
- On-page SEO: titles, headings, content and internal links so each page says one clear thing.
- Technical SEO: speed, crawl errors, indexing and Core Web Vitals, because trust starts before content does.
- Link building: relevant, authoritative mentions earned through outreach and digital PR rather than bulk directories.
- Content writing: articles and landing pages matched to search intent, written by people who read the SERP first.
- Local SEO: map pack visibility, profile optimisation, citations and a review routine that survives staff turnover.
A four-step process so nobody is guessing
- Audit: analyse the site, the competitors and the keywords to find the ranking opportunities worth money.
- Strategy: a roadmap with priorities, timelines and targets tied to business goals rather than vanity charts.
- Execution: fix technical issues, optimise pages, publish content, earn links.
- Reporting: plain-English reports covering rankings, traffic and leads, plus the recommended next steps.
What the numbers look like in practice
The record so far spans roughly 250 clients over more than twelve years, about 50,000 keywords tracked into rankings, and work delivered across fifteen countries. Those numbers matter less as a trophy than as a base rate: expect early movement in two to three months, meaningful traffic growth between four and six months, and longer in competitive niches.
Pricing tiers and what separates them
- Starter, around $199 a month: ten tracked keywords, two articles, ten backlinks, a basic technical audit, on-page work on five pages, monthly report.
- Growth, around $399 a month: thirty tracked keywords, four articles, twenty-five backlinks, full technical audit and fixes, fifteen optimised pages, bi-weekly reports with competitor analysis.
- Pro, around $799 a month: seventy-five plus keywords, eight articles, fifty premium backlinks, advanced technical work and monthly audits, full-site on-page, weekly reporting and a dedicated strategist.
What the first ninety days look like
The first month is mostly subtraction: crawl issues, broken redirects, thin pages that split your authority, and a title template nobody had revisited since launch. The second month turns that into a ranked priority list, because fixing everything at once means nothing visibly improves. The third month is when the first content ships against the plan rather than against a mood.
- Week one to two: audit the site, the competitors and the current rankings, then agree the three outcomes that count as success.
- Week three to four: fix the technical issues that block crawling or speed, and set up reporting that a non-specialist can read.
- Month two: publish the first optimised pages and start outreach for the links worth having.
- Month three: review rankings and conversions together, cut what did not move, and increase what did.
By the end of that window you should be able to say which of the three outcomes moved and why, in a paragraph, without a dashboard open in front of you.
What a retainer should not include
- Guaranteed positions, because nobody controls the ranking function but the search engine.
- Links from networks that exist only to sell links, however convincing the sample report looks.
- Daily or weekly activity reports padded with tasks that change nothing.
- Six or twelve month contracts used as leverage instead of results.
- Work on pages that were never agreed in the roadmap, billed as a surprise at the end.
Switching plans without losing ground
Plans change when a season starts, a competitor appears or a budget tightens. Moving between them should be dull rather than dramatic, and these are the four rules that keep it that way.
- Change at the end of a reporting period so the comparison stays honest.
- Keep the keyword tracking running even when articles pause, because rankings drift quietly.
- Carry the outstanding technical fixes across, they do not expire with a plan.
- Tell the strategist before the invoice, not after it, so the roadmap can be reshaped in time.
- Expect a short dip after any plan change, then judge the results after six weeks rather than six days.
Questions worth asking before you sign
First: can anyone guarantee first-page rankings? No ethical provider can, and the ones who do are quoting a formula, not a forecast. Second: is the contract long? Month-to-month plans mean you keep the work because it performs, not because paperwork traps you. Third: which plan fits you? Starter suits new and small sites, Growth fits businesses ready to scale, Pro is built for competitive niches, and a free audit settles the argument faster than any sales call.
Start with the audit: run it on your own site this week, read which three issues appear in every competitor as well, and fix those before paying for a single article. An audit you can act on immediately is worth more than a fifty-page document that nobody opens twice, and it costs nothing but an afternoon of honest reading.