SEO proposal template (with pricing options)

An SEO proposal template that wins retainers: the client's situation in their own numbers, a phased plan, three pricing options and a clear next step.

How to use it: the first section does most of the selling, so write it about the client, not your agency. Send it as a link after the discovery call, and check whether they opened it before you follow up.

Example proposal: SEO for Northwind Plumbing, prepared by Ridgeline Search. 15 June 2026. Both companies are fictional.

Where Northwind stands today#

Northwind gets most of its online work from people who already know the name: 61% of organic clicks in the last three months came from searches for "Northwind Plumbing". That is a strong brand and a thin pipeline. People searching "emergency plumber denver" (about 2,400 searches a month) or "water heater replacement cost" (about 1,900) mostly find two competitors and a directory.

Three things hold the site back:

The service pages are short and nearly identical, so Google has little reason to rank one over a competitor's.
The 2024 site move left 38 redirect chains and a set of old URLs still indexed.
The Google Business Profile lists 6 of Northwind's 11 services.

Goals#

Goal	Today	In 12 months
Non-branded organic clicks per month	~900	3,000
Calls and form requests from organic per month	~40	120
Map pack top three for "plumber near me" (grid points)	9 of 49	30 of 49

These are targets, not guarantees. Search results depend on competitors and on Google, and nobody controls either. What we control is the work and the reporting.

The plan#

Months 1–2: fix and foundations. Technical clean-up, Business Profile rebuild, tracking for calls and forms, and a keyword map of every service × area combination worth a page.

Months 3–6: the pages that win work. Cost pages for the six highest-value jobs, rebuilt service pages with prices, photos and reviews, and one area page per suburb that sends real calls.

Months 7–12: authority and expansion. Local links (suppliers, trade associations, community sponsorships), seasonal content ahead of winter, and a monthly review of what to build next.

What you get each month#

A monthly report as a link on the 5th: what we did, what moved, what's next.
A 30-minute call to go through it.
Every page we write, sent for your review before it goes live.

Pricing#

	Foundations	Growth	Growth + Local
Technical fixes and tracking	✓	✓	✓
New or rebuilt pages per month	2	4	4
Business Profile management	—	✓	✓
Local link building	—	—	✓
Monthly report and call	✓	✓	✓
Monthly fee	$1,500	$2,800	$3,900

Minimum term: six months, then month to month with 30 days' notice. We recommend Growth: it covers the cost pages, which is where most of the new calls will come from.

What we need from you#

Access to Search Console, Google Analytics, the Business Profile and the website.
Prices, or price ranges, for your main jobs. Cost pages only work if they give real numbers.
One person who can approve pages within five working days.

Next step#

Reply with the option you'd like, and we'll send the agreement and start on the 1st of next month. Questions are welcome as comments on this page.