For solo service providers and small businesses, I generally don’t recommend a search engine optimization (SEO) retainer. The parts of SEO that matter most for a business your size depend on your own expertise and relationships, so a one-time SEO project with a defined scope usually gets you further.
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More than one person has come to me for an SEO audit after spending months, sometimes longer, paying an agency to manage their SEO.
They couldn’t tell me what the agency had been working on, whether their website was performing any better, or what would happen if they stopped paying.
And when I reviewed their websites? Some of the most basic SEO work hadn’t even been done.
These were solo service providers and small business owners who simply wanted to be found by the people looking for their services.
Which raises a question: Why were they paying someone every month in the first place?
SEO requires ongoing attention. But for most solo service providers, that doesn’t need to mean ongoing payments to an SEO agency.
You probably have a relatively small website, a handful of core services, and a specific audience. You’re competing with other small businesses, not companies with entire marketing departments. You simply don’t have the same volume of SEO work to manage.
And much of the ongoing work, like creating content that draws on your expertise and earning links through professional relationships, is work you’re uniquely positioned to do.
Even if your time is limited, a few hours spent on the right things can go a long way.
For most solo service providers, I recommend getting the SEO fundamentals in place with a one-time project, then following a manageable plan to build on that work yourself. Bring in an SEO professional when you need additional support.
To understand why I recommend this approach, it helps to look at what you’re actually paying for with a monthly SEO retainer, and how much of that work your business really needs.
What an SEO Retainer Actually Pays For
An SEO retainer is an ongoing monthly fee you pay an agency or consultant for continuous SEO work. Contracts vary, of course, but most monthly SEO services come down to 3 things:
- Monitoring analytics. Watching your traffic and rankings in tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics, then sending you a report.
- Creating content. Blog posts, and sometimes page updates, written by someone on their team.
- Building backlinks. Getting other websites to link to yours.
(Curious what this costs? Here’s a breakdown of SEO pricing for small businesses.)
On paper, all 3 sound reasonable. Whether they’re worth a monthly fee depends on who you’re actually competing with.
Your Competition Doesn’t Have an SEO on Retainer
When you’re a solo service provider, your competition is other solo service providers and small businesses.
The therapist across town. The other copywriters in your niche. The personal trainer with a studio 2 neighborhoods over.
You aren’t competing with companies that have a marketing team and an SEO on retainer.
That should shape where your effort goes.
To show up, you need a website that’s technically optimized, content that conveys your expertise and unique perspective, and an online reputation that demonstrates real people trust you.
Quick Win: Search for your main service the way a client would, and look at who shows up on the first page. Those are the businesses you’re actually up against.
If that page is full of companies with in-house marketing teams and SEOs on retainer, this advice doesn’t apply to you. You may need ongoing support to keep pace.
For everyone else, the work that gets you found is a lot more personal than a monthly retainer allows. Backlinks are a good place to see why.
Backlinks for Solo Service Providers Should Come From Relationships
Backlinks are one of the 3 things an SEO retainer sells, and for a solo service provider, the best ones come from people who already know your work.
A show that had you on as a podcast guest. A collaborator who refers clients to you. A professional association you belong to. A peer who quotes you in a blog post.
Those links make sense to a reader. Someone clicks through because a person they trust pointed them to you.
A retainer turns links into a monthly deliverable. And when the deliverable is a number, the easiest way to hit it is volume: directory listings, link swaps, guest posts on sites that exist mostly to sell guest posts.
Google’s spam policies call out low-quality directory links, excessive link swaps, and paid links as link spam.
Relationship-based backlink building doesn’t scale that way, and it shouldn’t. It comes from doing good work and showing up where your clients and peers already spend time.
Your Content Can’t Be Hands-Off
Content is the second thing an SEO retainer sells.
Content that ranks and brings in clients is built on your experience: the questions your clients actually ask, the mistakes you see over and over, the way you explain things in a session. A retainer team writing on autopilot has no access to any of that.
Without it, you get content that could have been written by anyone in your field.
Google’s own guidance on helpful content asks whether your content clearly demonstrates first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge.
All of that said, there are ways to hand off the writing.
If blogging isn’t your thing, hiring an SEO blog writer is a reasonable call. Which raises a fair question: isn’t paying a blog writer every month a retainer too?
Technically, yes. But it’s a different kind. The scope is narrower: they’re providing one deliverable you can easily read and judge for yourself. And the accountability is higher, because every post either sounds like you or it doesn’t.
Take content and backlinks off a retainer’s plate, and what’s left is monitoring.
If you outsource your content, use a lot of discretion about who you hire.
Look for a writer who can write in your voice and do your experience and expertise justice. Find someone who takes the time to get to know you, and your perspective, really well before they write a word.
Monitoring Alone Doesn’t Justify a Monthly Fee
On its own, the monitoring part of an SEO retainer doesn’t justify a monthly fee.
Monitoring your SEO means checking how your website is doing in search: which pages show up, for which searches, and whether people click.
Keeping an eye on those numbers matters. For a business your size, it’s a monthly check-in: you (or someone you trust) look at what changed and decide whether anything needs attention.
That’s a skill you can learn (and it doesn’t take a lot of time). Or you can book an expert when the numbers move in a way you don’t understand. Either way, it doesn’t need a standing invoice.
If you’re already on a retainer and a report is the main thing you get each month, a few questions will tell you a lot.
Already Paying for a Retainer? Ask These Questions
A good SEO retainer should hold up to a few straightforward questions. If you can’t get satisfying answers, that tells you something too.
- Are the basics done? In particular, do your service pages spell out what you offer, is there a unique title and meta description on every key page, is your website verified and indexed in Google Search Console, and is your Google Business Profile set up if you serve a local area.
- What did you work on this month, and where? Ask for specific tasks on specific pages. Then look at your website and see the changes for yourself.
- What changed because of it? Which searches, pages, or inquiries moved compared with where you started.
- What’s the plan for next month, and why? A good plan comes from what they found. Watch for the same list every month.
- What happens if I pause? Know what stops, and make sure your content and logins stay yours.
If the answers leave you unsure a retainer is right for you, there are better ways to buy SEO help.
What I Recommend Instead
Instead of an SEO retainer, I recommend one of 3 types of projects, each with a clear finish line. You know what you’re getting, you can see the work, and when it’s done, it’s yours.
SEO Site Review and Strategy Package
The SEO Site Review and Strategy Package is an expert analysis of your website and online footprint, plus a strategy plan you carry out yourself.
It’s the SEO audit those business owners booked when they couldn’t tell whether their retainer was working. A review gives you an independent answer.
Done-With-You SEO
Done-With-You SEO means you do the work on your own website, with expert guidance along the way.
If you manage your own website, this is the option I’d point you to first. You get expert input on what matters for your business, and you learn what you need to maintain it for the long run.
I offer it 2 ways: one-on-one through SEO Coaching, or in a group through Search Ready, my SEO mentorship.
Done-For-You SEO
With Done-For-You SEO, I do the work on your website, and you finish the project knowing what to keep up.
SEO Help You Can See, Measure, and Keep
A retainer asks you to trust that the right work is happening every month.
For a solo service provider or small business, a better bet is SEO help with a defined scope: work you can see on your own website, results you can measure against where you started, and a site you understand well enough to keep up.
Not sure which of these fits your business?
Book a free call. We’ll look at where your website is now, how you’re handling SEO today (retainer or not), and whether a Site Review, Done-With-You, or Done-For-You SEO makes the most sense for you. If none of them is the right fit, I’ll tell you that too.
