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SEO services, explained

What Do SEO Services Include? An Owner's Guide Before You Hire

An SEO proposal is easy to write and hard to read. Here is what the work actually is, what a sound engagement looks like once it starts and how to catch the proposal that promises everything and specifies nothing.

Score my SEO proposalWhy it happens
seo-proposal.pdf · page 3
A proposal, line by line
What the pitch actually commits to
Scored
Technical audit in month oneSpecific
Page one in 90 daysRed flag
50 backlinks a monthRed flag
Content as neededVague
12 months, no exit clauseRed flag
Lines you could verify1 of 5
Illustrative — a proposal marked up before signing3 red flags

Signs you are shopping for SEO the hard way

  • Three proposals, three different definitions of SEO
  • A monthly price and no list of what gets done for it
  • A promise of page one before anyone looked at your site
  • Reports from your current provider that nobody opens
  • Nobody can say who owns your Search Console or analytics
  • A contract that renews itself for reasons you cannot name

Where SEO engagements usually go wrong

Most common first, each with a way to check it yourself.

  1. 1

    Scope sold as a mood

    The proposal says 'optimization' and 'ongoing strategy' without naming a page, a fix or a deliverable. When nothing is specified, nothing can be missed, and nothing can be checked.

    Check it: Ask for the first ninety days as a list of tasks. If the answer comes back as a paragraph, the scope is not defined.

  2. 2

    Reports that count activity, not customers

    Positions for searches nobody makes, authority scores from third-party tools and a tally of 'optimizations'. The report is long because the results are short. None of it says whether the phone rang.

    Check it: Find calls, form fills or booked jobs from organic search in the last report. If they are missing, ask why.

  3. 3

    Link packages in place of earned links

    A fixed number of links per month is a product, and the product is usually placements on sites that exist to sell placements. Google ignores most of them and acts against the patterns it catches.

    Check it: Ask where last month's links came from. Real outreach produces a short list of sites you would recognize.

  4. 4

    A long lock-in with nothing tied to it

    Long terms are not wrong in themselves, since SEO takes months. A twelve-month term with no named deliverables and no way out if they are missed protects the provider, not you.

    Check it: Read the cancellation clause before the scope. Look for an exit if agreed work is not delivered.

  5. 5

    Accounts held in the provider's name

    Search Console, analytics and the Google Business Profile set up under the agency's login, sometimes the domain too. Everything works until you try to leave, and then leaving becomes a negotiation.

    Check it: In Search Console, open Settings, then Users and permissions. You should be listed as an owner, not a guest.

  6. 6

    Guarantees and secret methods

    Nobody outside Google controls rankings, and there is no trick that stays secret and keeps working. A guarantee or a proprietary method is a sales device, and it tends to arrive with the link packages.

    Check it: Ask the provider to explain their method in plain words. Legitimate work survives the explanation.

Do this today

Before you talk to any provider, including the one you have, confirm you are an owner in Search Console under Settings, then Users and permissions. If you cannot get in, recovering access is the first task of any engagement, and how a provider responds to the request tells you most of what you need to know.

What a sound engagement looks like once it starts

  1. 1

    Before signing: a look at your site

    A serious provider reviews your site, your Search Console data and your competitors before quoting. The proposal names what they found.

  2. 2

    Month one: access in your name, a plan in writing

    Accounts set up or shared with you as owner, the searches that matter agreed in writing and the first quarter written as tasks.

  3. 3

    Every month: work you can point to

    Changes shipped at addresses you can open, links you can visit and anything waiting on your approval flagged so it does not stall.

  4. 4

    Every quarter: a review with a real decision

    Leads from organic search compared with the plan, and a clear choice about the next quarter. A good provider welcomes the question.

What a complete SEO service covers

The site itself, page by page

Crawling and indexing faults, speed, redirects, structured data, and titles and headings that say what each page is about. Delivered as a list of changes by address.

Content

Service pages and answers to the questions buyers ask before they call, written from your expertise rather than a keyword spreadsheet.

Local

The Google Business Profile, directory listings, reviews and service-area pages, for any business that serves customers near a place.

Links and AI search visibility

Mentions from suppliers, associations and local press, plus the clear pages and consistent reputation that lead AI assistants to name you. Different surfaces, overlapping work.

Repair it, or start over?

The honest answer depends on the site, not on what we would rather sell.

Repair it when

  • They can list what shipped last quarter, page by page
  • The accounts, content and data are already in your name
  • Organic leads are tracked, even if they are growing slowly
  • The trouble is communication, which a written plan can fix

Rebuild it when

  • Three months of reports with nothing shipped
  • They bought links or built doorway pages without telling you
  • They will not hand over logins or explain their methods
  • The contract rewards time served rather than work delivered

When to bring someone in

On a small site you can handle the basics yourself: a complete business profile, one clear page per service, a working sitemap. Hire help when your market is crowded, when technical problems are beyond you or when you have already paid for SEO and cannot tell what it did. If that last one is you, start with an audit of the current work, not a new contract.

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Want a second opinion on an SEO proposal?

Send the proposal you are weighing, or the reports from the provider you have. We will mark what is specific, what is vague and what is a red flag, and tell you plainly whether it is worth signing.

Which of these sounds like you? (pick any)

Frequently asked

Services usually means someone does the work: fixes, pages, outreach. Consulting means someone tells your team what to do and reviews it. Consulting costs less per month and only works if someone in-house has the hours to ship.

A short minimum is reasonable, since the first weeks go to audit and setup. Past that, month to month, or a longer term with an exit if agreed deliverables slip. Results take months either way, so the term should protect the work, not the invoice.

You should. Pages, images, Search Console, analytics, the business profile and any call-tracking numbers belong to the business that paid for them. Put it in the contract, and make sure you are an owner on every account, not a user.

Third-party authority scores, total keyword counts and impressions on their own. They move for reasons unrelated to your business. Watch calls and forms from organic search, positions for the searches you agreed on and which pages brought the traffic.

They should. Assistants like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews answer questions from sources they trust, and clear pages, structured data and a consistent reputation make you one of them. Ask any provider how they measure it.

Who will do the work, what ships in the first ninety days, how links are earned, who owns the accounts and how you leave. Five questions. A vague answer to any of them is an answer.

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