Monthly retainer

SEO and AI search retainer: what is included and what it costs

$1,000: a month for the first three months
$1,500: a month and up, after that
15 days: notice either side, no three-month minimum

A monthly retainer for SEO and AI search strategy: weekly action plans, research, digital PR guidance and reporting, while your team makes the changes. $1,000 a month for the first three months, then from $1,500 a month. No three-month minimum, and either side can stop with 15 days' notice.

GetBorvis / Organic visibility

Search opportunity Sample view

04gates checked

IndexationPass

Intent matchReview

AuthorityGap

TechnicalContentAuthorityAI

What it is

A search strategist on call, without hiring one.

The retainer covers ongoing SEO and AI search strategy and guidance for one website. Every week you get a short, prioritised plan. Every month you get a report on what moved, what did not, and what comes next.

It suits a business or agency that has someone who can make changes to the site, a developer, a marketer or a content person, but no one who knows which changes are worth making. If nobody on your side can implement, this is the wrong product, and we will tell you so. If you run a clinic or a property agency, we have published what we look for on clinic websites and real estate websites.

Rebuilding a site rather than growing one? Start with the launch search handoff instead, then move to the retainer once the new site is live.

Every month

Six things you get, every month.

Weekly action plans

Prioritised, research-backed recommendations: what to change, on which pages, and why. One plan a week, so your team always knows the next most useful job.

Keyword and competitor research

We track the searches that matter to you, watch who is being chosen instead, and adjust the plan as the results come in.

Digital PR guidance

Which directories, publications and opportunities are worth your time for genuine mentions, with help on pitches and profiles.

Original data strategy

How to collect and publish data from your own work, so your site has facts that exist nowhere else.

Monthly reporting

Search Console analysis, progress against the targets we agreed, and the plan for the following month.

Calls and support

Scheduled calls when you need them, plus support by email or WhatsApp between calls.

Not included

What the retainer does not cover.

Implementation or development. Your team makes the changes.
Writing full articles or page copy. We brief it and review it.
Paid tools, paid placements or paid links.
Work on other websites.

Anything outside the scope is quoted separately before we start, or billed at our hourly rate of $50 to $99, agreed in advance.

Pricing and terms

$1,000 a month to start. No three-month minimum.

First three months$1,000a month

From month fourFrom $1,500a month, depending on the size of the site and the project

Billing	Monthly, in advance, in USD by Wise or PayPal
Minimum term	None. There is a written agreement, but no three-month minimum: you can stop after any month
Ending it	Either side can end the engagement with 15 days' notice
One website	The retainer covers one site. Each additional site is its own retainer
Extra work	Quoted separately, or billed at $50 to $99 an hour, agreed before we start

Study For context: Ahrefs surveyed 439 SEO providers (page updated 15 August 2024). 78.2% charged monthly retainers, the average retainer was $2,917 a month, and the most common band was $501 to $1,000, chosen by 20.4%. Ahrefs sells SEO software, and a survey average says nothing about the quality behind any one price.

Google's questions, answered

Google tells you what to ask an SEO. Here are our answers.

Google's own guide on hiring an SEO lists the questions below. We would rather answer them here than make you ask.

Can you show examples of previous work?

Yes. Our named case study is a branding agency’s rebuild, now live, and the agency credits our work on its own about page. We publish our own research too, including the parts that went wrong.

See for yourself ↗

Do you follow Google Search Essentials?

Yes. We do not buy links, build doorway pages or mass-produce content, and we tell clients not to either.

What results do you expect, and in what timeframe?

Changes to titles and snippets on pages that already rank can show within weeks. Site-wide quality work usually takes months. We will not promise a ranking, because nobody honestly can.

See for yourself ↗

What is your experience in my industry?

Strongest with design, branding and web agencies. If yours is new to us, we say so before you pay.

See for yourself ↗

How long have you been in business?

Since 2026. We are new, and our about page says so plainly.

See for yourself ↗

Will you share every change and the reasoning?

Every recommendation arrives with what to change, where, and why, and your team makes the change, so nothing happens to your site without you knowing.

Source: Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?", which also says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and that you should never have to link to an SEO.

For agencies

The same retainer, under your name.

If you are an agency, we can run the retainer for your client's site white-label. Your client sees your name, you own the relationship and the deliverables, and you set your own price to them. If you are comparing partners, we have written up what 13 white-label SEO offers actually sell.

How we partner with design agencies ↗

Talk to us

Want a plan every week instead of a report every quarter?

Send the site and tell us who should be finding it. We will reply with whether the retainer fits, and what the first month would focus on.

01
The one issue holding the site backNot a list of everything a crawler can flag.
02
The evidence behind itWhat we saw, where, and the source we checked it against.
03
A next step sized to the problemSometimes a small fix. Sometimes no project at all.

Where every engagement startsAsk about the retainer

Reviewed personally by our team
A reply within one business day, usually
By email. A call only if you want one