When this scope is useful
Customers research relevant problems and the business can maintain helpful pages with subject-matter input.
If demand is untested or the offer changes weekly, start with focused research and a small set of useful pages.
Questions that distinguish the team
- Which search questions deserve separate pages?
- Who implements technical findings?
- How are enquiries distinguished from search visits?
Inputs before work starts
Site access, existing search data, product expertise, target audiences and change history.
Three ways to scope the work
These are buyer-side scope models, not an agency price list. Use the inputs, client responsibilities and exclusions below for each model.
01 / Diagnose
- Work
- Audit crawlability, demand coverage and useful existing pages.
- Handover
- Issue register linked to affected URLs.
02 / Deliver a defined project
- Work
- Implement prioritized fixes and publish a limited original content set.
- Handover
- Implemented changes, query-to-page map and reviewed content.
03 / Manage and improve
- Work
- Maintain content, review search evidence and document delivered work.
- Handover
- Content update log and search-to-enquiry analysis.
Acceptance and shared responsibility
Each page answers a distinct question, is reachable through links and has an owner. Technical changes are checked on the live response after release.
Client responsibilities
Provide product expertise and development capacity; approve facts and keep pages current.
What needs separate agreement
Guaranteed positions, bought review scores and mass combinations of near-identical pages are not deliverables.
Ask for a cost estimate based on the actual access, production volume, integrations and review cadence. A comparable price requires the same scope.
Take this into the brief
Service: SEO Inputs: Site access, existing search data, product expertise, target audiences and change history. Acceptance: Each page answers a distinct question, is reachable through links and has an owner. Technical changes are checked on the live response after release. Questions: Which search questions deserve separate pages? Who implements technical findings? How are enquiries distinguished from search visits?
Common buying questions
Is page count a result?
No. Inspect usefulness and whether relevant users find and use pages.
Does increased traffic prove more sales?
No. Search visits and sales require separate measurement.
Evidence to examine
Evidence review
Tensar: AI-related search clicks are not AI referrals
The useful distinction is the denominator: clicks for a selected keyword set are not a direct count of visits from an AI answer. Preserve the original label when comparing vendors.
Evidence review
One Click Contractor: traffic and MQLs move differently
Different growth rates can be useful for diagnosing the journey, but they do not by themselves prove that a redesign caused the change. Inspect audience mix and qualification rules.
Sources and review date
Sources read on: 2026-09-11. A source review is not an audit of the agency’s systems.