Should you offer SEO too? (How to price the upsell)

Web design clients always ask the same question on call two: “can you also do my SEO?” The wrong answers are “yes, sure” (you've just promised something you can't deliver) and “no, that's a different specialty” (you've walked away from $500/mo of recurring revenue per client). The right answer depends on three things.

The three-question test

Before saying yes or no, run the prospect through:

1. Are they in a niche you can rank?Local SMB SEO (dentists, plumbers, restaurants) is fundamentally different from ecommerce SEO or B2B SaaS SEO. If you've never ranked a local site before, accept only local prospects.
2. Is their site technically rankable?A WordPress site you built fresh is. A Wix site they already own probably isn't (without a rebuild). Run a Website Health Check first and refuse if the score is below 50.
3. Do they have a budget for 6+ months?Local SEO results land in months 4-9. If the prospect is hoping for immediate ranking, they need ads, not SEO. Be honest or you'll churn at month 3.

If all three are yes, take the engagement. If any is no, refer out.

The three pricing models

Model 1: Flat monthly retainer ($300-$800/mo)

Client pays a fixed monthly fee. You commit to a specific scope: one piece of content per month, monthly Google Search Console review, technical fixes as needed, monthly report. This is the simplest to sell and the easiest to fulfill at scale.

Best for: stable client relationships, predictable revenue. Worst for: one-off projects.

Model 2: Performance-based + base ($150 base + $X per ranked keyword)

Lower base, higher upside. Charge $150/mo for monitoring + technical fixes, then $50-$100 for each keyword that hits the first page of Google. Only works in niches where you can actually predict ranking.

Best for: aggressive prospects who want measurable ROI. Worst for: long-tail niches or new agencies without ranking confidence.

Model 3: Project-based ($1,500-$3,500 one-time)

Single SEO audit + technical fixes + 6 months of light monitoring. No recurring relationship. Cleanest to sell, weakest economics. Useful for prospects who don't want ongoing fees.

Best for: one-time engagements after a site build.Worst for: long-term agency revenue.

What “doing SEO” actually means for local SMBs

• Google Business Profile optimization: claim, verify, fill every field, add photos monthly, respond to reviews. 80% of local SEO impact lives here.
• On-page SEO: title tags, meta descriptions, H1-H3 hierarchy, schema markup. Mostly one-time work.
• Content: 1 post per month answering the questions prospects type into Google. Compounds slowly but compounds.
• Local citations: Yelp, Yellow Pages, industry directories. Slow but cheap. NAP consistency is the ranking signal.
• Reviews: setting up automated review request emails after every customer interaction.

Things that are explicitly NOT in scope for local SMB SEO: backlink building campaigns, large-scale content marketing, programmatic SEO. Those are different products.

The reporting that keeps clients

Most SEO churn comes from clients not seeing progress. Fight this with monthly reports that lead with two specific metrics:

• GBP impressions month-over-month - the simplest leading indicator of local SEO progress.
• Phone calls / form submissions month-over-month - the actual business outcome the client cares about.

Skip ranking reports. They're vanity. A client who climbs from #4 to #2 but gets fewer calls won't care that you ranked higher.

When to refer out

Some prospects need ecommerce SEO, B2B content SEO, or enterprise-scale SEO. Don't take those. Build a referral relationship with one specialist in each adjacent niche and refer them out for a 10-20% finder's fee. You make less but preserve your own focus and the relationship.