When I started consulting independently, I wanted a few ongoing clients. Monthly SEO retainers would give me recurring income. I was open to lower-fee retainers too. I didn’t want to finish every assignment wondering where the next one would come from.
SEO fit the way I like to work. I like following a change through, checking what happened, and helping the client decide what to do next.
Wanting regular income was my reason for offering retainers. I also needed to explain what ongoing work the client would be paying for.
If you haven’t landed your first clients yet, start with how to get SEO clients from people who already know your work. This piece is about how I scope ongoing SEO work once someone wants to hire you.
What Ahrefs Found About Monthly Retainers
In Ahrefs’ survey of 439 SEO service providers (page updated August 2024), 78.2% charged monthly retainers, and $501 to $1,000 a month was the most common single band. Providers could also offer hourly or project pricing. The survey includes agencies, freelancers, and consultancies in several countries, so I wouldn’t use its price band to set a U.S. solo consultant’s rate.
I start by defining what the monthly fee covers.
Why I Wanted a Few Retainers
I wanted to keep the practice small enough to understand each client’s business and follow through on the work. My approach starts with the business and the people it serves. What is the organization trying to explain? What do prospective customers ask before they buy, subscribe, or join? What do they need afterward?
After a page goes live, I review the results and recommend the next change. Over time I learn what the client sells and how changes get approved, which helps me recommend work the team can carry out.
Not every business needs a retainer. A client with one defined question and a team ready to handle everything afterward is often better served by a project. I offer a retainer when I can point to useful work that needs continuing attention.
Decide What You’re Responsible For Each Month
“Monthly SEO” doesn’t tell a client much.
One client hears content production. Another hears technical fixes, rank tracking, reporting, or someone to call with questions. If you don’t talk through those expectations, you can agree on a fee while picturing two different engagements.
So I start with one question: what am I responsible for, every month?
In one engagement that might mean reviewing search performance, finding opportunities, setting priorities, and working with whoever handles implementation. In another it might include making site changes or writing content myself. Those are different commitments with different boundaries.
Here’s an example of how I might describe an advisory retainer:
I’ll review search and website performance, recommend priorities, meet with your team once a month, and advise on implementing the improvements we agree on. Larger development projects and content production are scoped separately.
I use a summary like that to start the scope discussion, then put the details in the agreement. They can ask what “advise on implementing” means, and I can explain what I will and won’t do.
Give a Smaller Retainer a Narrow Job
For a smaller retainer, I narrow what I’m responsible for.
A smaller retainer might cover advising an in-house team that handles implementation, or taking responsibility for one section of the site.
“Here’s our budget, do whatever SEO you can” leaves the goal, the split of work, and the priorities open. A better version is: “With this budget and your team’s capacity, here’s what I can take responsibility for.”
If you can’t name a useful ongoing responsibility within those limits, offer a defined project instead.
Getting Comfortable Charging for Judgment
One of the harder adjustments for me was believing someone would pay for my continued involvement.
A finished task is easy to point to. You fixed something, wrote something, or delivered an assessment. Advisory work is harder to see, especially when a big part of the job is deciding what not to do.
What helped was making the work visible. Each month, a client should be able to see:
- What you looked into
- What you found
- What you recommend, and why it matters
- What happens next
That doesn’t require a long monthly report. I explain what the numbers mean and what I recommend next. Some months, the recommendation is to finish work already underway before starting anything new.
Expect Monthly Work to Vary
With a fixed monthly fee, I explain up front how the workload may vary.
Some months involve more investigation or implementation. Others are mostly reviewing progress and answering questions.
If you have a rough monthly capacity in mind, what does that mean to the client? Are you agreeing to a set number of hours, a set of deliverables, a defined responsibility, or a mix? What happens when a new request would change the work significantly?
If a request falls outside the agreed scope, I discuss the price and schedule before starting. It helps to put the capacity question in the agreement itself. A fill-in version:
The monthly fee covers [responsibilities, deliverables, or a number of hours]. Unused time [does / does not] carry over to the next month. Work outside this scope is quoted separately. Either of us can end the engagement with [notice period] written notice. Raising it early keeps extra work from turning into confusion about the fee.
Take On Only What You Can Run
Before taking on another retainer, I look at the time and attention it will need: meetings, preparation, work between calls, and any implementation I’ve agreed to handle. I also leave time for proposals, invoicing, and keeping my knowledge current.
That’s why I wouldn’t set a target number of clients without looking at the actual engagements. For each one, ask:
- What does this client expect from me?
- How much coordination does the work need?
- Who can implement my recommendations?
- Are there deadlines or busy seasons to plan for?
- Does the fee cover the responsibility?
- What happens if several clients need a lot of attention in the same month?
Revisit the Agreement as You Learn More
I review the scope as I learn more about the client, and I plan for engagements to end. A site rebuild, a new service, or a change in the client’s team can all be reasons to review it.
Start with whether the agreement still describes the work, before you get to the fee:
- Are we working on the right priorities?
- Is the client able to act on the recommendations?
- Are responsibilities still clear?
- Has implementation become a bigger part of the work?
- Is there still a useful ongoing role for me?
The answer might be to expand the work. It might also be to narrow it, split off a project, or end the engagement. I keep checking whether the client still needs my help and whether I can deliver it within the agreement.
Build Recurring Relationships Around Useful Work
My goal was a consulting practice built on a few clients I worked with regularly. Retainers let me do that while staying involved in work that needed more than one round of recommendations.
Proposing a retainer meant getting clear about more than the price. I had to explain what I’d take responsibility for, what the client could expect, and where the boundaries were. I also had to accept that my experience and judgment were part of what someone was hiring me for.
If you’re starting an independent SEO practice, you don’t need to turn every opportunity into a retainer. Look for ongoing work you can define and deliver for clients whose needs fit the way you work. Then agree on the fee and review the scope as their needs change.