Choose an SEO agency by: (1) confirming reporting tied to revenue or qualified leads, not vanity metrics, (2) asking what specific work happens each month (technical, content, links, internal-linking, schema), (3) checking 3 recent case studies in your sector, (4) verifying no PBN / paid-link tactics that risk Google penalty, (5) reading the contract for cancellation terms (no minimum 12-month lock-in), (6) confirming who owns content, links, and Search Console data. Walk away from agencies promising 'top of Google in 30 days' — impossible without paid ads or against guidelines.
Standard monthly retainer should deliver: technical audit follow-through (page-speed fixes, internal links, schema, broken-link cleanup), content (typically 4–8 articles or 4–8 page improvements), link acquisition (digital PR, guest posts, resource-page outreach — 4–8 quality links), reporting tied to your business KPIs (organic leads, organic revenue, ranked-keyword count in your sector).
Below that cadence, you're paying for an audit that gets re-served monthly. Run.
Promises of 'first page in 30 days' — impossible without paid placement. Refusal to share their own backlink profile (PBN tells). Reporting that focuses on rank without conversion (keywords ranking but not converting is a strategy failure). Long minimum-term contracts (6+ months) without break clauses. Refusal to share the actual articles or pages they'll publish (sloppy AI-generated content).
Watch for blackbox 'we use proprietary tools' explanations — serious SEO is well-documented public methodology, not secret sauce.
"Any agency that owns your Google Search Console, Analytics, or backlink profile in their account (not yours) is creating switching cost. Your data should always live in accounts you own."
UK SEO retainer market: Local SEO £200–£800/mo, SMB B2B / e-com SEO £500–£3,500/mo, mid-market SEO £3,500–£6,000/mo, B2B SaaS / enterprise SEO £5,000–£12,000/mo. Plus content costs (often charged separately at £100–£500/article).
Our published rates: Local Starter £199/mo, SMB £499/mo, Mid-market £1,499/mo, B2B SaaS £2,499/mo — on the cheaper end of the market. Cheap doesn't mean shallow: senior strategist on every account, no PBN, content fully owned by client.
For B2B SaaS: specialist B2B SEO agency wins because the playbook (comparison content, ICP-led keyword research, MQL attribution) is specific. For local services (plumber, dentist, clinic): local-SEO specialist wins because GBP, citations, NAP, reviews are different from organic SEO.
For e-commerce: specialist e-com SEO with Shopify experience wins. For pure brand awareness or generic 'we do everything' — generalist is fine but expect mediocre results in any one channel.
Industry standard: month-to-month or 3-month minimum, written notice 30 days. Avoid: 12-month minimum with break-clause penalty, ownership of content/links transferring to agency on cancel, 'data lock' where Search Console / GA / Ahrefs accounts are agency-owned.
Our terms: no minimum, 30-day notice, all content / data / Search Console / GA owned by client, links transferred and disclosed in monthly reports.