How Much Does SEO Cost Per Month? An Example of an SEO Retainer With Deliverables and Cost

Do you want someone to take complete care of your SEO? Then the monthly SEO retainer is for you.

The retainer costs CHF 3040.00 per month.

I recommend a duration of 12 months. SEO takes time, and in 12 months, we can make a difference.

The above price includes my work of 16 hours as well as the tools (SE Ranking, Screaming Frog) needed for the SEO work.

Content of monthly SEO retainer

The ongoing SEO retainer is normally purchased after an initial SEO audit. The retainer is tailored to your business goals. Here is an example of what a monthly retainer could look like:

Month	Tasks
Month 1	– Implementation of tools (Google Analytics, Google Search Console) – Fixing technical issues affecting the entire website, such as robots.txt, sitemap, hreflang, and canonicals
Month 2	– Keyword research for your service pages (if not yet done) or content briefing/creation for two service pages – Testing of previously implemented technical fixes
Month 3	– On-page optimisation of the homepage – Creation of a dashboard in Google Looker Studio to measure SEO and AI traffic
Month 4	– Quarterly reporting – Local SEO: Google Business Profile for your location and optimisation of the About Us page with Schema
Month 5	– Content briefing or content creation for two service pages
Month 6	– Review of four blog posts you wrote
Month 7	– Backlink strategy tailored to your business – Quarterly reporting
Month 8	– Optimisation of internal linking
Month 9	– Image optimisation: reduce file size for images over 100 KB and add alt tags where missing
Month 10	– Technical SEO improvements, such as schema markup for blog posts – Quarterly reporting
Month 11	– Content briefing for three blog articles
Month 12	– On-page improvements (meta title, meta description, H1, H2) for focus pages – Yearly reporting

Is the SEO retainer worth it?

Yes! The SEO retainer is worth it for three reasons:

1. Results: Here is an example result of a website I have managed:

Success doesn’t happen overnight. Continuous management is needed. However, once you have a solid foundation (good content, correct technical setup, links), the positive results add up.

2. Peace of Mind: I am an SEO expert with over 8 years of experience. I only do SEO and nothing else. I know what I am doing.

3. Accountability Partner: My clients appreciate the shared deadlines and external feedback, as the following testimonial (in German) from a client shows:

Together, progress can be made, and collaboration helps avoid SEO procrastination.

What is the process of an ongoing SEO consulting?

1. We may know each already because I’ve conducted an SEO audit or keyword research for you.
   If we don’t know each other normally we schedule an initial consultation, where we discuss your brand, SEO history, and goals in detail. (You can book an initial consultation directly through my Calendar.)
2. If you would like to work with me, I will create the contract and invoice for the prepayment. The prepayment is the first month.
3. You give me access to your Google Search Console and Google Analytics account, if you have already set it up.
4. I share with you the action plan for the first three months and start working. We can then align on the frequency we meet (see next paragraph)

Where and how often will we meet to discuss the SEO project?

We can determine the frequency of meetings together. Some prefer synchronous (calls, in-person meetings) work. Others prefer asynchronous work. I will adapt to you. As mentioned above, I recommend a meeting after the SEO audit to refine the work package for the first months.

We can meet either in person in Zurich or online.

What do you expect from us as clients?

We will discuss your involvement in the SEO project at the beginning of the SEO retainer. The more resources you can invest, the faster results will be visible. For example, if you actively engage in PR, this is valuable for SEO and positively influences the results.

How long does it take until rankings go up?

Well, it depends. For example, if you have a fatal noindex tag on a landing page, I’ll see that in the first month during analysis, and we’ll fix it right away. That can have a very quick and positive impact.

Otherwise, it usually takes around 6 months from the time a page is published until we see an uplift. Google needs time to crawl and index the page. Before those 6 months are up, I generally don’t touch a landing page again.

tl;dr: You’ll see results from 6 months onwards, and I recommend working together for at least 12 months.

Who is the SEO consultant on the project?

You will work directly with me, Corina Burri. During the introductory call, contract creation, and audit – always.

If I involve an external expert, I will inform you. Typically, this is the case for content creation.

See you soon?