I’ve run SEO retainers for years, and I now sell a fractional SEO version of one. Here’s what I think every retainer should give you, whoever you buy it from.
Five things every SEO retainer should give you
1. Somewhere to see the work
Every client of mine runs on a shared task tracker they can open whenever they like. No waiting for a monthly meeting to find out what’s happening. If a retainer can’t show you what was done this week, that’s your first warning sign.
2. A report you can read in two minutes
At the start of each month, a short pulse. The five things worth knowing, the headline numbers and what’s queued next. A report you can read in two minutes and act on in ten beats a 40 page PDF nobody opens.
3. Routine monitoring
Crawl monitoring, so regressions get caught in days rather than after a rankings drop. It’s dull. It has also saved more rankings than any clever tactic I know.
4. The cheapest wins first
Search Console mining for the keywords sitting just off page one. They’re the cheapest wins in SEO, and a retainer that ignores them is spending your money in the wrong order.
5. Steady improvements
Content and page improvements shipped steadily, rather than saved up for a big reveal. It’s not dramatic. It works.
How to judge a retainer each month
Five questions. If the answer to any of them is no for two months running, have the conversation.
- Can you see what was done this month, and why?
- Did anything actually ship, or was it all meetings and reports?
- Are the numbers in the report the ones your business cares about?
- Do you know what’s queued for next month?
- Would you notice if the work stopped?
That last one is the sharpest test I know. If nothing would change, you’re paying for activity.
Red flags in an SEO retainer
- Packages chosen off a menu. Your site’s problems weren’t chosen off a menu either.
- Lock-in contracts that make leaving harder than staying.
- Promises of page one in 30 days. Nobody can promise that honestly.
- Reports padded with charts, and no plan for next month.
- Invoices for activity without outcomes.
Agency retainer or fractional SEO retainer?
An agency retainer usually buys a team working to a defined scope. A fractional SEO retainer buys a senior person’s days, and that person owns the plan. Neither is automatically better. The right one depends on whether you need hands or direction.
There’s a fuller comparison of a retainer with an agency or a fractional lead, covering seniority, cost and who owns the results.
What an SEO retainer costs
It depends on the scope. Price ranges you find online rarely say where they came from, so I won’t add another. For fractional work the price follows the days, and fractional SEO retainer pricing explains what moves the number.
How long before a retainer shows results?
It depends where you’re starting from. Technical fixes and striking distance keywords, the ones already sitting on page two, can move in weeks. Competitive commercial terms usually take three to nine months of steady work.
A good retainer tells you which bucket your targets fall into before you spend much, because an audit shows how far off each keyword sits and what’s holding it there.
Want a second opinion on the retainer you’re paying for now? Book a free consultation.