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Seattle SEO Companies

Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Seattle has an unusually sophisticated buyer for SEO services, because a large share of the companies buying it employ engineers who will read the proposal properly. That changes what works: vague deliverable counts and ranking screenshots get challenged, and firms that survive here tend to be specific about method. It also makes the market expensive, and the gap between a Seattle technology company’s requirements and a Ballard restaurant’s is wide enough that they should not be shopping in the same place.

The short answerDecide which of three buyers you are before shortlisting anybody, because the right firm for each barely overlaps. A local business serving a Seattle neighborhood needs local search work — profile, reviews, hours, service-area pages — and proximity limits how far it can reach from one address. A regional business needs organic service pages, which have no geographic ceiling. A technology company selling nationally needs technical and content work where the buyer’s own engineers will audit the recommendations, and a firm that cannot explain its reasoning to them will not last the quarter.

Progression Agency is a New York City firm working with clients across the United States, including Washington. We are not headquartered in Seattle and this page does not claim local presence there. It describes how the market is structured and how to evaluate firms in it. No named agency is ranked or assessed, because engagement outcomes are private and unverifiable from outside. Cost figures are category-typical US ranges rather than quotes.

“Near me”, “affordable”, “top” and “best” in SEO searches — what each actually filters

Only one of them filters anything real. “Near me” returns firms by proximity, which barely matters for remote work; “affordable”, “top” and “best” filter nothing at all, because no audited ranking or price standard exists in this category.

This is worth saying because the modifiers shape expectations before a single conversation happens. A buyer searching affordable seo company near me has already decided price is the constraint, and a buyer searching top local seo agency has already assumed a ranking exists. Neither assumption survives contact.

What each modifier does and does not do
Search patternWhat it filtersWhat it does not
top seo agency near me / top seo services near me / top local seo company near meProximityQuality — “top” is unaudited
affordable seo agency near me / affordable seo company near me / affordable local seo agencyProximity, and self-described pricingActual price, or scope at that price
small business seo services near me / seo companies for small business near meProximity, and stated client sizeWhether they have ranked a business like yours
top local seo company / top local seo agency / best local seo companiesLocal-SEO focus, genuinelyRanking — none of these lists is audited
small business seo companies / seo agency for small businessesClient sizeCapability at that size
search engine optimization in seattle / best seo in seattle / best seo seattleGeographyAnything else

The practical filter that does work is evidence: ask for map-pack positions on a comparable local business and check them yourself in a browser. That single request separates firms faster than any combination of “top”, “best”, “affordable” or “near me” ever will.

What shapes the Seattle SEO market
The first row is the genuine difference from most markets. A proposal full of unexplained deliverable counts gets questioned here more often than elsewhere, which has pushed the better firms toward being specific about method.

What makes the Seattle SEO market different?

The buyer. A large share of companies purchasing search services here employ engineers who read the proposal properly, which has pushed firms toward being specific about method rather than about deliverable counts.

Search demand for SEO services in this market
Modest and evenly spread across phrasings search engines treat as the same query. Everyone searching them is actively hiring, which is why the useful answer is about evaluation rather than persuasion.

This is a real difference and it works in a buyer’s favor even if you are not a technology company. Firms that have survived selling to technically literate clients tend to be able to explain why they are recommending something, and that explanation is available to any client who asks for it.

It also makes the market expensive

Salary costs in the region set a floor under agency pricing, and a Seattle firm’s rates reflect what it costs to employ people there. That is not a reason to avoid local firms; it is a reason to be clear about whether local presence buys you anything for the work you actually need.

The technology sector pulls the market toward national work

Many Seattle agencies are built around businesses selling nationally rather than around local demand, which means a restaurant in Ballard and a software company in South Lake Union are shopping in what is effectively the same directory for very different services.

What changed in how SEO is bought here
The 2021 row is what distinguishes this market. When the client’s own engineers review the technical recommendations, a firm that cannot justify them loses the account quickly, which has raised the standard of what gets proposed.

Which kind of buyer are you?

Local, regional or national. The three need different work, different firms and different measures, and choosing before you shortlist removes most of the market.

Which kind of buyer are you?
The ninth row is worth saying plainly. Search work compounds over quarters, and a company whose proposition may change in three months is buying an asset for a business that does not exist yet.
Profile completeness — Local buyer needs. An afternoon, high return..
A review program — Local buyer needs. The strongest local factor..
Accurate hours everywhere — Local buyer needs. Wrong hours cost reviews..
Real service-area pages — Local buyer needs. Not templated ones..
Local links — Local buyer needs. Chambers, press, sponsorship..
Correct primary category — Local buyer needs. Set once, rarely revisited..
Crawl and index health — National buyer needs. Nothing works without it..
Service and product pages — National buyer needs. Highest commercial intent..
Comparison content — National buyer needs. Buyers actively deciding..
Demonstrated expertise — National buyer needs. Named authors, real credentials..
Structured data — National buyer needs. Machine-readable clarity..
Authority building — National buyer needs. Slow, and durable..

The two lists barely overlap. A firm excellent at profile completeness, reviews and service-area pages may have nothing useful to say about crawl budget on a large catalog, and the reverse is equally true.

Local buyers are limited by proximity

Local map results weight how close a business is to the searcher, which means one address in Ballard will not appear reliably for someone searching in Bellevue. Businesses wanting metro-wide visibility need either multiple genuine locations or an organic page strategy, and a firm promising metro-wide map rankings from one address is describing something proximity will not allow.

National buyers are not limited that way

Organic service and product pages can rank across the country from anywhere, which is why technology and ecommerce companies here should be buying technical health, page quality and authority rather than anything geographic.

Seattle-area submarkets by competitive intensity and demand
Bellevue sits close to downtown on both axes, which surprises businesses that treat the Eastside as a cheaper alternative. Tacoma and the north are where local search is most winnable for the effort.

How competitive are the different parts of the metro?

Downtown and Bellevue are the most contested; Tacoma, Everett and the outer suburbs are materially more winnable for the same effort.

Businesses frequently treat the Eastside as a cheaper alternative to downtown and it is not — Bellevue sits close to downtown on both competition and demand. Where a business can genuinely serve customers to the south or north, defining the market that way produces visibility for less.

Neighborhood-level results behave independently

Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, the University District and West Seattle produce different local result sets, and a single location competes in its own area rather than across the city. That is a smaller and considerably more winnable problem than ‘ranking in Seattle’.

Traffic and geography shape catchment more than mileage

Bridges, the lake and the north-south corridors mean a business five miles away can be less convenient than one eight miles away with a clear route. Service-area definitions built on mileage alone include places nobody will actually travel from.

How do you compare firms without ranking screenshots?

By what they audit first, what they propose for month one, how they build links, what leads the report, and who does the work.

How to compare firms without ranking screenshots
Step two separates diagnosis from delivery. A firm proposing keyword work before checking whether the site is crawlable and whether conversions are tracked correctly has skipped the part that determines whether anything else matters.
1 — Decide which buyer you are. Local, regional or national..
2 — Ask what they audit first. Health, or keywords?.
3 — Ask about month one. Fixes, or blog posts?.
4 — Ask how links are built. Method, specifically..
5 — Ask what leads the report. Pipeline, or rankings?.
6 — Ask who does the work. And their account load..
Ranking screenshots as proof — Warning. Vary by searcher location..
Deliverable counts as strategy — Warning. Four posts is not a plan..
Guaranteed rankings — Warning. Nobody controls the auction..
Vague link building — Warning. The fast methods carry risk..
Agency-owned accounts — Warning. A switching cost, not a service..
No measurement audit — Warning. Everything optimizes against it..

Ranking screenshots are the least useful evidence available in this category. Local results vary by the searcher’s position and organic results by personalization, and a screenshot can be produced from wherever is convenient. What a business actually received — enquiries, pipeline, revenue — is the comparison that survives scrutiny.

Ask what they would audit before changing anything

The correct first answer is measurement and site health: whether conversions are tracked correctly, whether the site is being crawled and indexed properly, and what already works. A firm that opens with keyword research has proposed delivery before diagnosis.

Method, not adjectives. Digital public relations, original research, genuine partnerships and local community involvement are legitimate and slow. The fast methods carry risk that lands on your domain rather than the agency’s, and vagueness here is informative.

Ask about account load

How many other clients the person managing your account carries is the single most predictive question about the attention you will receive, and it is almost never volunteered. Ask for the number rather than a reassurance.

What does SEO cost in Seattle?

Roughly two to five thousand a month for single-location local work, five to fifteen thousand for competitive local or regional programs, and eight to thirty thousand for technical and content work at national scale.

Engagement shapes and what each realistically covers
EngagementTypical monthly rangeCoversBest for
Local, one location$2,000-$4,500Profile, reviews, listings, local pagesNeighborhood businesses
Local, competitive category$4,000-$9,000The above plus content and technical workLegal, dental, home services
Multi-location local$5,000-$12,000Per-location work plus shared technicalPractices and chains
Regional organic$5,000-$15,000Service pages, technical, content, linksWashington-wide businesses
National technical and content$8,000-$30,000Deep technical, content production, authorityTechnology and ecommerce
Technical audit only$5,000-$25,000Diagnosis and a prioritized fix listTeams that can implement

The last row is under-bought in a market full of companies with capable engineers. A diagnosis plus internal implementation costs a fraction of a retainer and works well where the constraint is knowing what to fix rather than being able to fix it.

Seattle pricing reflects Seattle salaries

A local firm’s rates carry local employment costs, and a lower quote from elsewhere is not automatically worse value — it may simply reflect a different cost base. What matters is who does the work and how many hours you are actually buying.

Very low retainers fund reporting, not work

Below roughly two thousand a month, most retainers in this market fund a monthly report and very little else. That can be appropriate where the foundations are already sound; it should be a deliberate choice rather than something discovered in month four.

Does the firm need to be in Seattle?

For on-site photography, in-person meetings and genuine neighborhood familiarity, yes. For technical work, content and national organic search, it makes no difference.

We say this as a New York firm working with clients across the country, so weigh it accordingly. The honest position is that local presence buys real things for local-demand businesses and buys proximity for meetings otherwise, which is a smaller share of the work than most pitches imply.

Types of firm in this market
No firm scores well on both technical depth and local search depth, and that is genuine rather than a limitation of the chart. They are different disciplines that reward different experience.

What local presence genuinely buys

Photography at the premises, attendance at events that produce links and relationships, familiarity with which neighborhoods behave as one market, and the ability to be in a room when something is going wrong. Those matter for a restaurant and almost not at all for a software company selling in forty states.

What should happen in the first ninety days?

Measurement audit, technical audit, an agreed baseline, fixes to what is broken, then production informed by what the audits found.

  1. Weeks one to two: verify that conversions and analytics are actually reporting the truth
  2. Weeks one to two: crawl the site and establish what is indexed and what is not
  3. Weeks two to three: agree a written baseline, including whatever already works
  4. Weeks two to six: fix what is broken — indexing, speed, tracking, wasted spend
  5. Weeks four to eight: the highest-value page work the audit identified
  6. Weeks six to ten: content or technical production informed by the findings
  7. Weeks ten to twelve: an honest review against the baseline, including anything that got worse

The final step is the one that tells you whether you will be told the truth in month nine. A firm that reports a decline in month three without being asked is a firm worth keeping.

Blog posts in month one are a warning sign

Content published before anyone has established whether the site can be crawled, whether conversions are tracked and what already ranks is production without diagnosis. It is easy to sell, easy to report and frequently the least valuable thing available.

How should performance be measured?

By enquiries, pipeline and revenue — separated from branded search, and attributed to landing pages rather than to a channel label.

  • Non-branded organic sessions, separated from people searching your company name
  • Enquiries, calls and form submissions attributable to organic landing pages
  • Revenue or pipeline by landing page, which attributes results to what was actually built
  • Local actions — calls and direction requests — for local businesses, per location
  • Share of clicks for the query groups that carry commercial value
  • Indexed page count against intended page count, which catches technical regressions
  • Core web vitals and crawl errors, as health rather than as outcomes
  • Review volume and recency where local visibility matters

The first measure is the one most often missing. Total organic traffic includes people searching for you by name, who were produced by something other than search work, and including them flatters every number in the report.

What should be in the contract?

Ownership of accounts and properties in your name, a named delivery lead, agreed reporting metrics, a reasonable notice period, and an explicit statement of link-building method.

  • Analytics, Search Console and any ad accounts in your own name, not the agency’s
  • Content and creative produced delivered in editable formats and owned by you
  • The named person leading delivery, their seniority and their other commitments
  • The metrics the monthly report leads with, agreed rather than assumed
  • A written performance baseline recorded in the first fortnight
  • A notice period of thirty to sixty days without a long lock-in
  • Whether any work is subcontracted, disclosed rather than discovered
  • The link acquisition method, described specifically, because the risk lands on your domain

The last item is the one with lasting consequences. Recovering from a manual action or an algorithmic devaluation caused by a link program takes far longer than the engagement that caused it, and the agency will have moved on.

What goes wrong most often in this market specifically?

Four things, and none of them is a technical failure.

A national company buying local services

A software company selling in forty states does not need a business profile optimized or service-area pages, and buying them produces work that cannot affect the outcome. The mismatch happens because both services are sold under the same two letters.

A local business buying a technical retainer

The reverse is equally common and more expensive. A restaurant with a correct profile, good reviews and a working site has very little technical work available to it, and a retainer that produces monthly technical reports is billing for the absence of problems.

Buying execution when the constraint is decision-making

Companies with capable teams frequently buy hands they already have because the real gap is knowing what to prioritize. An audit or an advisory arrangement addresses that at a fraction of the cost, and almost nobody proposes it because it does not recur.

Judging the program before it could have worked

Technical fixes move within weeks; content and authority take two to three quarters. Canceling at month four because rankings have not moved is a common and expensive error, and it is why the written baseline and the agreed review date matter more than they sound.

How do the search phrasings map to what buyers actually need?

Someone typing seattle seo is usually early and comparing; someone typing seo services seattle has decided on the discipline and is filtering on capability.

Search phrasing, intent, and what that buyer usually needs
What people searchUsual stageWhat they actually needCommon mismatch
seattle seoEarly, comparing broadlyA way to judge without outcome dataSold on logos rather than method
seo company seattleComparing firmsWho does the work, and their loadAssuming size signals quality
seattle seo agencyAgency framing, larger budgetA full programUnderfunded local package
seo services seattleDiscipline decidedScope clarity and pricingSold a retainer for an audit need
local seo seattleLocation-based businessProfile, reviews, listings, area pagesA statewide content program
technical seo seattleEngineering-led buyerDiagnosis their team can implementAn ongoing retainer they do not need

The last two rows are the ones where the wrong purchase is most expensive. A location-based business sold a content program and an engineering team sold a retainer are both paying monthly for work that a single well-scoped piece would have handled.

The first four phrasings are effectively one query

Search engines treat seattle seo, seo company seattle, seattle seo agency and seo services seattle as substantially the same intent, and any firm presenting them as distinct services is describing a difference that does not exist. The genuine split is between the local and technical rows.

What questions do technically literate buyers actually ask?

Ones about mechanism. Why this change, what evidence supports it, what happens if it is wrong, and how you will know.

What an engineering-led buyer asks, and what a good answer contains
QuestionWeak answerGood answer
Why this technical change?Best practiceThe specific behavior it fixes, and how you verified it
What is the evidence?Case studiesCrawl data, logs, Search Console coverage from our site
What happens if you are wrong?It won’t beThe rollback, and the metric that would show it
How will we know it worked?Rankings improveA named metric, a baseline and a date
Who implements this?Our teamNamed people, and what they need from your engineers
What is the risk to the site?NoneAn honest description of what could regress

A firm that answers the right-hand column consistently is worth paying more for, and the questions work regardless of whether you personally could evaluate the technical detail. The shape of the answer is the signal.

‘Best practice’ without a mechanism is a warning

Search work has genuine mechanisms behind it: how a crawler reaches a page, what a canonical resolves, why a rendering choice hides content. A recommendation offered without the mechanism is either received wisdom or a template, and both go stale.

What if you already have an internal marketing team?

Then buy diagnosis and specialist execution rather than a general retainer, because you are paying twice for the parts your team already does.

What to buy when you have internal capability
You already haveBuyDo not buy
Someone who can writeTechnical audit and content strategyOutsourced content production
Engineers who can implementDiagnosis and prioritizationImplementation retainer
Someone who runs paid mediaOrganic strategy and technicalA bundled everything package
A designer and developerStructure and measurement adviceSite build services
Analytics capabilitySearch-specific measurement designA reporting retainer
None of the aboveA full programAn audit you cannot act on

The final row is the inverse and matters equally. An audit bought by a company with nobody to implement it is a document, and in that situation the retainer that includes execution is the correct purchase even though it costs more.

Where does AI-assisted content creation fit?

As a drafting aid under expert review, not as a publishing strategy. Volume produced without review is precisely what quality assessment has spent several years learning to discount.

AI in content production: what works and what does not
UseVerdictWhy
Research synthesis and outliningWorksSpeeds up the part that is not the writing
First drafts an expert then rewritesWorksThe expertise arrives in the rewrite
Generating structured data and schemaWorksMechanical, checkable, low risk
Summarizing your own existing materialWorksThe source is yours and verifiable
Publishing generated drafts uneditedFailsNo expertise signal; factually unreliable
Producing volume to cover more keywordsFailsThe specific behavior quality updates target
Rewriting competitors’ pagesFailsDerivative and adds nothing worth citing
Generating claims or statisticsFailsUnverifiable numbers are worse than none

The dividing line in every row is whether a person with genuine knowledge of the subject reviewed and improved the output before it was published. That review is where the value comes from, and it is the step removed when the tool is being used to produce scale.

In a technically literate market this shows quickly

Seattle buyers frequently include people who use these tools daily and recognize unedited output. An agency proposing AI-driven content volume to that audience is proposing something the client can evaluate better than most, which is a poor position to argue from.

Do experience and expertise signals actually matter?

In categories where being wrong causes harm, substantially. Named authors with real credentials, a visible review process and demonstrable first-hand experience all carry weight that generic content does not.

Experience and expertise signals, and when each matters most
SignalWhat it isMatters most inCheap to add?
Named author with credentialsA real person, verifiableHealth, finance, legal, technicalYes
Visible review processWho checked it and whenAnything factual or regulatedYes
First-hand experienceEvidence you have actually done itReviews, guides, how-toOnly if genuine
Original dataFindings nobody else hasEvery categoryNo; it is real work
Citations to primary sourcesVerifiable claimsAnything with numbersYes
Organizational reputationWhat others say about youConsidered purchasesNo; it accrues
Currency and maintenanceVisible review datesAnything time-sensitiveYes

Four of those seven cost almost nothing and are absent from most business content. Adding a named author, a review date, primary-source citations and an explicit note on how something was established is an afternoon’s work with a disproportionate effect on how a page is assessed.

First-hand experience cannot be manufactured

Claiming to have tested something you have not is both dishonest and detectable, and it is the one signal on that list with no shortcut. Where you genuinely have not done the thing, the honest alternative is describing the method you did use and citing who did.

Want a straight read on which kind of SEO you actually need?

Tell us what you sell and where your customers are. We will tell you whether the answer is local work, organic service pages or technical health — including when the honest answer is that you should hire someone in Seattle rather than us.

Talk to Progression Agency

Video: search, analytics and marketing practice

A general library on marketing and analytics. The Seattle-specific material is written out in full above.

Getting found in search

AI, AEO and what is changing

Paid media and lead generation

Websites and design

Choosing and working with an agency

Social, content and brand

By industry and by situation

Frequently asked questions

Which seo companies for small business are worth the money?
The ones that will show you their reporting before you sign. Seo companies for small business fall into two camps: those selling a fixed package of deliverables, and those selling outcomes against a baseline they measure first. Ask to see an anonymised monthly report from an existing client of similar size; a refusal is itself the answer.
What do small business seo services usually include?
Technical fixes, content, local profile work and links, in that order of reliability. Small business seo services vary enormously in scope, so compare the deliverable list rather than the headline price — one firm’s package includes four pages a month and another’s includes one, at the same cost.
How do I find the best seo company near me and does location matter?
Location matters less than sector familiarity for most work. Searching for the best seo company near me is a reasonable starting filter, but the work is delivered remotely and the meaningful difference is whether the firm has ranked a business like yours. Local proximity does help with one thing: on-site photography and in-person Google Business Profile verification support.
Is an seo agency for small business different from an enterprise one?
Yes, chiefly in where the effort goes. An seo agency for small business spends most of its time on local visibility, service pages and reviews; an enterprise team spends it on crawl budget, templates and internal linking at scale. Hiring the wrong shape means paying for expertise on problems you do not have.
Are affordable seo services for small business near me ever legitimate?
Yes, when the scope is honestly small. Affordable seo services for small business near me become a problem only when a low price is attached to a promise that requires a large budget — top rankings in a competitive metro, for instance. A modest retainer that fixes technical issues, completes the Google Business Profile and publishes two solid pages a month is real work at a real price.
What should a small business look for in SEO services?
Clear reporting on enquiries, ownership of your own accounts and content, and a willingness to say when search is not your constraint. SEO services for small business go wrong most often when they are sold to a business whose real problem is conversion or follow-up rather than visibility.
What makes the Seattle SEO market different?
The buyer. A large share of companies purchasing search services here employ engineers who read proposals properly, which has pushed firms toward explaining method rather than listing deliverable counts.
Why is SEO expensive in Seattle?
Regional salary costs set a floor under agency pricing. A local firm’s rates reflect what it costs to employ people there, which is a reason to be clear about whether local presence buys you anything for the work you need.
Which kind of buyer am I?
Local if you serve nearby neighborhoods, regional if you serve Washington broadly, national if you sell across the country. The three need different work, different firms and different measures.
Can one location rank across the Seattle metro?
Not in map results. Local results weight proximity, so one address will not appear reliably for searchers in distant parts of the metro. Metro-wide visibility needs multiple locations or an organic page strategy.
Which parts of the metro are most winnable?
Tacoma, Everett and the outer suburbs. Downtown and Bellevue are the most contested, and businesses often wrongly treat the Eastside as a cheaper alternative to downtown.
Do Seattle neighborhoods behave as separate markets?
Yes. Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, the University District and West Seattle produce different local result sets, and a single location competes in its own area — a smaller and more winnable problem than ‘ranking in Seattle’.
Why is mileage a poor way to define a service area here?
Because bridges, the lake and the north-south corridors mean drive time and distance diverge sharply. A business five miles away can be less convenient than one eight miles away with a clear route.
How do I compare firms without ranking screenshots?
Ask what they would audit before changing anything, what they would do in month one, how they build links specifically, what leads the monthly report, and who does the work and their account load.
Why are ranking screenshots poor evidence?
Because local results vary by the searcher’s position and organic results by personalization, and a screenshot can be produced from wherever is convenient. Enquiries and revenue survive scrutiny; screenshots do not.
What should a firm audit first?
Measurement and site health — whether conversions are tracked correctly, whether the site is crawled and indexed properly, and what already works. A firm opening with keyword research has proposed delivery before diagnosis.
What is the most predictive single question?
How many other accounts the person managing yours carries. It predicts the attention you will receive better than anything in the pitch, and it is almost never volunteered.
Why does link-building method matter so much?
Because the risk lands on your domain rather than the agency’s. Recovering from a devaluation caused by a link program takes far longer than the engagement that caused it.
What does SEO cost in Seattle?
Roughly $2,000-$4,500 a month for single-location local work, $4,000-$9,000 in competitive local categories, $5,000-$15,000 for regional organic, and $8,000-$30,000 for national technical and content programs.
Is a cheaper quote from outside Seattle worse value?
Not automatically. It may simply reflect a different cost base. What matters is who does the work and how many hours you are actually buying, not where the office is.
What does a very low retainer actually fund?
Below roughly $2,000 a month in this market, mostly a monthly report. That can be appropriate where foundations are already sound, and it should be a deliberate choice rather than a month-four discovery.
Is a technical audit alone worth buying?
In this market, frequently yes. A diagnosis plus internal implementation costs a fraction of a retainer and suits companies whose constraint is knowing what to fix rather than being able to fix it.
Does the agency need to be in Seattle?
For on-site photography, in-person meetings and neighborhood familiarity, yes. For technical work, content and national organic search, it makes no difference at all.
What should happen in the first ninety days?
A measurement audit, a technical audit, an agreed written baseline, fixes to what is broken, then production informed by the findings — and an honest review at week twelve including anything that got worse.
Why are blog posts in month one a warning sign?
Because they are production without diagnosis. Publishing before anyone has established crawlability, tracking accuracy and existing rankings is easy to sell, easy to report and frequently the least valuable thing available.
How should performance be measured?
Non-branded organic sessions separated from branded, enquiries attributed to landing pages, revenue or pipeline by page, local actions per location, indexed page count, and site health as health rather than as an outcome.
Why separate branded from non-branded traffic?
Because people searching your company name were produced by something other than search work. Including them flatters every number in the report and hides whether the program is working.
What belongs in the contract?
Accounts and properties in your name, content owned by you in editable formats, a named delivery lead, agreed report metrics, a written baseline, a 30-60 day notice period, disclosure of subcontracting, and the link acquisition method described specifically.

Sources and further reading

  1. Google Search Essentials — SEO starter guide
  2. Google: creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
  3. Google: intro to structured data
  4. Google: LocalBusiness structured data
  5. Google: FAQPage structured data
  6. Google: Article structured data
  7. Google: Product structured data
  8. Google: title links in search results
  9. Google: control your snippets
  10. Google: robots.txt introduction
  11. Google: sitemaps overview
  12. Google: consolidate duplicate URLs
  13. Google: redirects and Search
  14. Google: JavaScript SEO basics
  15. Google: multi-regional and multilingual sites
  16. Google Search Central Blog
  17. Google: get started with Search Console
  18. Google: how local search results are determined
  19. Google Business Profile: prohibited and restricted content
  20. Google Business Profile: address and service area guidelines
  21. Google Business Profile: review policy
  22. Google Business Profile: add or edit categories
  23. Google Ads: location targeting settings
  24. Google Ads: about negative keywords
  25. Google Ads: about Quality Score
  26. Google Ads: importing offline conversions
  27. Google Ads: about Smart Bidding
  28. Google Ads: about Performance Max
  29. Google Local Services Ads: eligibility and screening
  30. Google Ads: keyword match types
  31. Google Analytics 4: about conversions
  32. Google Analytics 4: attribution models
  33. US Census Bureau QuickFacts: New Jersey
  34. US Census Bureau: American Community Survey
  35. US Census: Statistics of US Businesses
  36. Bureau of Labor Statistics: New Jersey data
  37. BLS: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
  38. NJ Department of Labor: labor market information
  39. New Jersey Business Action Center
  40. US Small Business Administration: New Jersey district
  41. USA.gov: business resources
  42. web.dev: Core Web Vitals explained
  43. web.dev: Largest Contentful Paint
  44. web.dev: Cumulative Layout Shift
  45. web.dev: Interaction to Next Paint
  46. Google PageSpeed Insights
  47. Google Rich Results Test
  48. Google Search Console
  49. W3C Markup Validation Service
  50. Schema.org: LocalBusiness type
  51. Schema.org: Service type
  52. Schema.org: FAQPage type
  53. Schema.org: HowTo type
  54. W3C: WCAG 2.2 quick reference
  55. FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide
  56. FCC: telemarketing and robocall rules (TCPA)
  57. FTC endorsement guides — reviews and testimonials
  58. FTC: rule on consumer reviews and testimonials
  59. HHS: HIPAA guidance on online tracking technologies
  60. New Jersey Courts: attorney advertising guidelines
  61. New Jersey DCA: construction codes and permits
  62. New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor registration
  63. New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
  64. TikTok for Business
  65. TikTok Creative Center
  66. TikTok Ads Help Center
  67. TikTok Community Guidelines
  68. TikTok Terms of Service
  69. TikTok Privacy Policy
  70. TikTok Safety Center
  71. TikTok Transparency Center
  72. TikTok Creator Portal
  73. TikTok Newsroom
  74. TikTok for Developers
  75. TikTok advertising solutions
  76. TikTok Creator Marketplace
  77. TikTok Business Center
  78. TikTok for Business blog
  79. TikTok Creative Center: top ads
  80. TikTok Branded Content policy
  81. TikTok Shop for sellers
  82. Instagram for Business
  83. Instagram for Creators
  84. Instagram Help Center
  85. About Instagram
  86. Meta Business Suite
  87. Meta Business Help Center
  88. Meta Transparency Center
  89. About Meta
  90. Meta: Instagram platform docs
  91. YouTube Creators
  92. YouTube Official Blog
  93. YouTube Shorts help
  94. How YouTube Works
  95. YouTube Studio
  96. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
  97. LinkedIn Help
  98. Pinterest Business
  99. Pinterest Business Help
  100. Snapchat for Business
  101. X for Business
  102. Reddit communities
  103. Reddit for Business Help
  104. ASCAP
  105. BMI
  106. SESAC
  107. Global Music Rights
  108. PRS for Music (UK)
  109. PPL (UK)
  110. SOCAN (Canada)
  111. APRA AMCOS (Australia)
  112. GEMA (Germany)
  113. SACEM (France)
  114. SIAE (Italy)
  115. JASRAC (Japan)
  116. IFPI
  117. RIAA
  118. National Music Publishers Association
  119. Harry Fox Agency
  120. SoundExchange
  121. Music Reports
  122. Epidemic Sound
  123. Artlist
  124. Soundstripe
  125. PremiumBeat
  126. AudioJungle
  127. Free Music Archive
  128. Creative Commons
  129. Incompetech
  130. FTC: advertising and marketing
  131. FTC: disclosures 101
  132. FTC: endorsement guides
  133. FTC: consumer reviews rule
  134. FTC: advertising FAQs
  135. US Copyright Office
  136. US Copyright Office: DMCA
  137. US Copyright Office: music FAQ
  138. US Copyright Office: fair use FAQ
  139. USPTO: trademarks
  140. UK Advertising Standards Authority
  141. ACCC (Australia)
  142. Competition Bureau Canada
  143. GDPR overview
  144. California Consumer Privacy Act
  145. COPPA
  146. FTC: children’s privacy
  147. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
  148. W3C: WCAG
  149. W3C: captions
  150. W3C: making audio and video accessible
  151. ADA.gov
  152. WebAIM
  153. Epilepsy Foundation
  154. Pew Research: internet and technology
  155. DataReportal
  156. US Census Bureau
  157. US Bureau of Labor Statistics
  158. Interactive Advertising Bureau
  159. Think with Google
  160. Google Trends
  161. Nielsen insights
  162. Schema.org: VideoObject
  163. Schema.org: SocialMediaPosting
  164. Schema.org: MusicRecording
  165. Schema.org: HowTo
  166. Schema.org: FAQPage
  167. Schema.org: Organization
  168. Google: video best practices
  169. Google: video structured data
  170. CapCut
  171. Adobe Premiere Rush
  172. DaVinci Resolve
  173. Canva
  174. Descript
  175. VEED
  176. Kapwing
  177. Otter.ai
  178. Later
  179. Buffer
  180. Hootsuite
  181. Sprout Social
  182. Google Analytics
  183. Google Search Console
  184. Google Analytics developer docs
  185. GA4: events and conversions
  186. Matomo
  187. Plausible Analytics
  188. Similarweb
  189. UK Information Commissioner’s Office
  190. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  191. Australian OAIC
  192. European Data Protection Board
  193. EU data protection
  194. EU Digital Services Act
  195. Ofcom
  196. FCC
  197. AIGA
  198. Nielsen Norman Group
  199. Smashing Magazine
  200. web.dev
  201. MDN: web media
  202. MDN: the video element
  203. ISO 21001 (reference)
  204. Buma/Stemra (Netherlands)
  205. STIM (Sweden)
  206. Teosto (Finland)
  207. Koda (Denmark)
  208. TONO (Norway)
  209. IMRO (Ireland)
  210. SGAE (Spain)
  211. ZAiKS (Poland)
  212. KOMCA (South Korea)
  213. MCSC (China)
  214. CISAC
  215. World Intellectual Property Organization
  216. TikTok: creating videos
  217. TikTok: exploring videos
  218. TikTok: privacy settings
  219. TikTok: growing your audience
  220. TikTok Creator Academy
  221. TikTok Effect House
  222. TikTok for small business
  223. Instagram: Reels help
  224. YouTube: Shorts best practice
  225. How YouTube recommends
  226. Pinterest Predicts
  227. Snapchat for Business
  228. Hootsuite blog
  229. Social Media Examiner
  230. Marketing Week
  231. Adweek

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