What does £1,500 a month actually buy?
The Foundation package starts from £1,500 a month. It is designed for a B2B company with one main product or service line that needs its technical basics fixed and its first buyer-focused pages built. The published scope is specific: a technical audit and fix list in month one, an intent map for up to 30 terms, two new or optimised pages per month, conversion tracking from search to enquiry, a monthly pipeline report and a 30-minute review call.
Those are deliverables rather than a promise of rankings. An agency cannot know the speed of a search engine's response or a buyer's sales cycle before seeing the site. It can commit to doing the agreed work, recording the changes and reporting what happened next. Ask for examples of the fix list, the page brief and the report so you can judge whether the deliverables will be useful to your own team.
Why the first month looks different
The audit establishes where important pages are blocked, duplicated, thin or disconnected from internal links. The intent map then matches buyer questions to existing pages and gaps. Those two outputs should set the order of the first page changes. If the site's main service page is weak, improving it can be more valuable than publishing another broad educational article. The retainer should reflect that priority, even when the monthly page count stays fixed.
What are the limits of the Foundation scope?
The package comparison is explicit about exclusions. Foundation does not include digital PR or editorial link building, CRM-matched pipeline reporting, monthly AI search visibility checks, UK and US hreflang work or working sessions with developers. Its developer support is a fix list only. Those items appear in larger plans or need a separate scope. Do not assume that every activity mentioned on an agency website is part of its entry package.
The two-page allowance also needs a clear definition. A page can be new or optimised. A complex technical page may require subject-expert input and review; a service-page refresh can require the same care as a new article. Before signing, agree on who supplies product facts, who approves claims, who publishes the page and how revisions are handled. The output is only useful when the named people can complete those steps.
What about development and design?
A technical audit identifies work for developers, but it does not silently include unlimited development. If a change needs a template rebuild, an analytics implementation or a new design, agree who will do it and how it will be priced. The SEO team can write tickets and verify the result only where that support is in scope. This matters for B2B sites with CRM forms, gated resources or several product templates because the implementation work can sit outside a content retainer.
How do you assess value without a ranking promise?
Start with a simple evidence chain: work shipped, search visibility for relevant buyer questions, useful visits, qualified enquiries and opportunities created. A page ranking for a broad informational query may bring traffic without pipeline. A service page with fewer visits can be more valuable if those visits lead to the right conversations. Our ROI guide explains how to connect the stages without assigning every closed deal to the last search click.
| Evidence | What to ask each month | What it cannot prove alone |
|---|---|---|
| Work log | Which pages, fixes and tracking changes shipped? | That the changes produced demand |
| Search Console | Did relevant queries and pages gain impressions or clicks? | That visitors were qualified buyers |
| Analytics | Did visits reach enquiry actions? | That every action became an opportunity |
| CRM | Which enquiries became sales opportunities? | That SEO caused the whole deal on its own |
The table prevents a common reporting error: treating a rising impression chart as proof of revenue. Impressions show visibility; the CRM records the sales handoff. A useful monthly review compares both and decides what to change next. If a page attracts the wrong audience, the right response may be a sharper title, a different page or a clearer qualification path rather than more publishing.
For the evidence standard behind a result claim, see what a B2B SEO case study should measure.
When is a £1,500 retainer the wrong fit?
It is too narrow if the company needs several new product lines built simultaneously, an international site migration, a large developer programme or sustained digital PR. The Growth and Scale plans describe larger output and support. The right decision is not automatically to buy a higher package: if the need is a single migration or audit, a bounded project may be cleaner. Retainers versus projects gives that decision rule in detail.
It may also be premature if the company cannot review copy, approve claims or implement the audit's technical fixes. Search work depends on those inputs. A monthly fee can buy prepared pages, but it cannot make an unavailable product expert validate a page or a developer ship a ticket. Name the internal owners before starting, then choose a scope that fits their capacity.
What should you ask before purchasing?
Ask for the month-one sequence: which pages are likely to be inspected, what tracking access is needed, and how the audit findings will become a backlog. Ask what counts as one page, how the two monthly pages are selected, who owns final publishing and whether developer work is included. Ask for a sample report that shows both completed work and commercial outcomes. These questions make the fee comparable with other proposals.
Review the rolling contract and handover terms as carefully as the output list. You should retain access to your domain, content, Search Console and analytics. A sensible handover includes the completed pages, briefs, issue register and reporting definitions. See the published pricing for the current package and one-off project options.
Put the proposed work into a simple three-month calendar before you sign. Month one should name the audit, the first two page decisions and the tracking events. Month two should show how the findings become shipped fixes or approved copy. Month three should review which queries and enquiries are appearing and what needs to change. This is a planning example, not a promise that rankings or revenue will arrive in three months. It makes it easier to see whether the package buys implementation or only another report.
An SEO retainer cost is meaningful only beside that calendar and the owner of each task. If a competing quote includes more pages but no expert review or tracking, ask whether the outputs are truly comparable. If it includes development, ask how much and for which tickets. Put all extra charges next to the monthly fee before deciding.