Key takeawaysWeeks 1 to 4: onboarding and auditWeeks 5 to 8: strategy deck and approvalsWeek 9 onward: recommendations your team implements
The invoice is the small part
A mid-market SEO retainer runs $4,000 to $8,000 a month. The bigger cost is time: kickoff, audit and strategy, then a queue of recommendations waiting on your team.
Where the time goes
- Weeks 1 to 4: onboarding and audit
- Weeks 5 to 8: strategy deck and approvals
- Week 9 onward: recommendations your team implements
What you're buying
Good agencies sell judgment, and the best are worth it for brand, PR and complex migrations. For the everyday work of finding and fixing what costs you traffic, judgment plus execution beats judgment alone.
Run the math
Add the retainer, the hours your team spends implementing and the months of delay. Then compare that with something that ships the fix the day it finds it.
Written by Lena BrandtContent lead at Scaplet
