Playbook7 min read
What should be in an SEO contract: a checklist to run before you sign
A good SEO contract fixes what you get each month, who owns it, and how you leave. Here are the eight clauses that decide that, in the order we would read them.
What an SEO contract has to settle
It has to settle what you receive each month, what it costs, who owns the result and how either side can leave. Everything else in the document is decoration around those four questions.
Most templates online are written for the party who sends the contract. If you are the buyer, you read the same pages with a different question: where could this sentence be used against me in month five? The eight clauses below are the places where that happens most often.
Scope: write down what is left out
List what is included, then list what is not. Content writing, developer time for code changes, a site migration, translation, outreach and paid tool licences are the usual disputed items, because each side assumes the other one covers them.
A contract that says "ongoing optimization" gives you nothing to point at. A contract that says "two technical fixes shipped, one 1,500-word page published and one link placed per month" can be checked by a stranger estimate.
That test is the one we use for deliverables: could a third person open the contract at the end of a month and say whether the work was done, with no argument? If the answer is no, the clause describes effort and nobody can audit it.
Term and notice: where the real money sits
Providers ask for long terms because results take time, and that argument is fair for the first few months. It does not justify a term you cannot leave. A reasonable shape is an initial period of about three months, then a rolling notice of 30 days estimate.
| Structure | What it costs you if the work is poor |
|---|---|
| 3 months, then 30-day notice | Up to about four months of fees estimate |
| 12 months, no exit | Up to 12 months of fees estimate |
| 12 months with an early exit fee | Often the remaining months anyway estimate |
Read the early termination language closely. A year you can leave by paying the other nine months is still a year.
Ownership and logins
Ask that the rights to everything made for you pass to you at the moment they are created. If transfer waits for the last invoice, a disputed invoice means your own pages are legally the provider's property while you argue.
Accounts follow the same logic. Analytics, Search Console, the CMS, the rank tracker and any paid tool seats should be opened under your company, with the provider added as a user. When the work ends, access is removed when the work ends.
Years of data are the baseline for judging whoever comes next, so keep them in your own workspace.
Links, guarantees and reporting
If the scope includes links, name the methods. Editorial placements, guest articles and reclaiming unlinked mentions are fine. Paid placements, private blog networks and bulk directory submissions are prohibited, in writing. Ask for a monthly log with the page, anchor text, date and method, and keep the right to disavow anything you did not approve. A manual penalty lands on your domain.
Then delete any ranking guarantee. Google states that no one can promise the first position, so the clause is either empty or it rewards a provider willing to take risks with your site to hit it market. What you can contract for is process: which metrics, how often, who presents them, and a review at the end of the initial period.
Monthly reporting is normal. If a provider only offers quarterly reports, ask why.
Extra work and the exit
Every engagement produces requests outside the scope. Decide in advance how they are handled: written approval before the work starts, and a published hourly or day rate that applies. Without it you get surprise invoices or a provider quietly declining unpaid requests.
The exit clause is the one most contracts leave out. Termination terms say how the relationship ends and almost never say what you receive. Spell it out: within about ten business days, the provider hands over all reports, the keyword and ranking data, a written list of every change made to the site, the link log, and confirmation that their access is closed estimate.
Without that list, the handover is whatever a departing provider feels like sending.
The checklist before you sign
Run the draft against this list and send back a marked-up copy. How the provider answers a reasonable request tells you more than the pitch did.
- Scope has an explicit exclusions list
- Deliverables are counts per month
- Initial term is short, with a notice period you can live with
- Rights to deliverables pass to you on creation
- Every account is opened under your ownership
- Link methods are named, logged monthly, and unapproved ones can be disavowed
- Metrics, cadence and a first review date are written down, and no result is guaranteed
- Extras need written approval at a published rate
- The offboarding list names what you receive and by when
A legal review is cheap insurance once a retainer grows. A common rule of thumb is to pay for an hour of commercial legal advice above roughly $3,000 per month, or on any term longer than six months market.
Sources
- Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?", 2026. The four-months-to-a-year range and the statement that nobody can guarantee a first position.
- Ahrefs, SEO pricing survey of more than 350 agencies and freelancers, 2023. Average monthly retainer of $3,209.
- SEO Beni, "SEO Contract Template: The Clauses That Protect You", 2026. Rule of thumb on legal review above about $3,000 per month.