Include in SEO contract?

What to include in your SEO contract?

At the beginning of any SEO campaign, SEO consultants or SEO agencies send across a SEO proposal that outlines their services. This is followed by a SEO contract. Here are eight terms that every SEO contract should include:

1. SEO services

This is a critical component of a SEO contract. This is where you can get specific on the SEO services or reporting services you plan to provide. Your services may include keyword research, fixing HTML tags, obtaining backlinks, and adding additional web pages or content for optimizing the client’s website. Regardless of what services you list, ensure they’re written in detail to avoid confusion.

2. Duration of the contract

What is the duration of your contract? Is it for six months or for 12 months, or is it a one-time project? It’s important to specify the duration of your working relationship with the client because there are usually two types of contract term lengths. The first type is finite and the other one is auto-renewal. Some SEO agencies go for finite contracts that mention a specific start date and end date. This is usually for a one-time project. Others find auto-renewal contracts better as search engine optimization is an ongoing process.

3. Deliverables

When it comes to their SEO campaigns, clients are often concerned about what deliverables they’ll be receiving during and after the campaign. This is the place where you’ll explain what you’re going to deliver to the client. The deliverables may include a website audit report, competitive analysis report, keyword research report, content creation (for example, web page content, social media posts, blogs, etc.), and link building report.

This section should also mention the timeframe for each deliverable. It’ll keep clients informed about what you’re working on and what they can expect at each stage.

4. Payment

Do you use a flat rate or hourly rate? Do you want your clients to pay per month or at the end of the project? Do you want clients to pay via cash, cheque, or credit card? Will there be any late payment fee? Will you charge any additional fee for reconstructing the content?

The contract should clearly state all the details related to the payment so there is no confusion between you and your client.

5. Subcontractor

If you intend to take help from a subcontractor to perform additional SEO work, make sure it is mentioned in a contract. This will set clear expectations between all the stakeholders involved in the SEO campaign.

6. Responsibilities of a client

While you might be responsible for ranking the website in the search engines, some tasks might involve the client. This section lists down everything the client or the client’s webmaster will be responsible for so you can continue working on your end-results.

Some of the responsibilities of a client may include:

Granting you tech access to the website for SEO optimization

Authorizing you to use logos, trademarks, website images, etc. for SEO purposes

Providing you with textual content, photos, designs, elements of text, etc. to include on the website

Providing you with the FTP access

7. Disclaimer

It is important to communicate to the client that the ranking of pages is affected by the competitiveness of search terms, constant changes in the ranking algorithms, and other competitive factors. Therefore, when drafting your SEO agreement, be sure to include the disclaimer clause that outlines that you do not promise specific website traffic numbers or first-page search engine rankings for specific keywords to your client.

8. Cancellation

You and your client may terminate the contract for one of the following reasons:

Breach of the contract by any party involved

Unsatisfactory experience

The project is no longer required

Payment is not made in time

Whatever the reason is, your contract should include a cancellation clause that states what will happen if one party cancels the contract and what will be the financial obligations.