Outsource SEO Services: How SEO Outsourcing Works, What It Costs and Who Does What

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

To outsource SEO services is to hire an outside specialist, consultant or agency to plan or carry out some or all of the search engine optimization your website needs, from technical audits and content to links, local listings and reporting, while your business keeps the goals, the approvals and ownership of every account. This SEO outsourcing guide is for owners, marketing leads and in-house teams deciding what to hand over and to whom: the models, the costs, the contract terms, the access rules and how to vet an SEO outsourcing company. Progression Agency is based in New York City and works with clients across the United States and worldwide.

What is SEO outsourcing?

It is paying people outside your payroll to plan or do search engine optimization for your site. Businesses that outsource search engine optimization still own the website, the accounts and the decisions; the outside team supplies the skills, the hours and the tools.

What an SEO outsourcing agency actually does

An SEO outsourcing agency takes on a defined share of the search work and reports on it. In practice that means diagnosing why pages are not crawled, indexed or chosen, fixing or specifying those fixes, researching what buyers type and writing pages that answer it, earning mentions from other sites, managing local listings and showing what all of it produced. A good one also tells you what not to do. Outsourced SEO services can cover the whole list or a single piece of it, and the scope is the first thing worth writing down, because most disappointments trace back to a scope nobody agreed.

Outsourced SEO for a business is not the same as white label resale

Outsourced SEO for agencies is a different arrangement: an agency buys the work from a partner and sells it to its own clients under its own name. That model is covered on our white label SEO page, and the agency’s side of the commercial terms is on our SEO reseller program page. This page is for the business that owns the website. If an agency you hire is itself reselling a partner’s work, you should still know who touches your site, which is covered under vetting below.

Who outsources SEO

Four kinds of buyer commonly outsource search work. Owners of small firms who do not have the time to learn the craft. Marketing leads who run several channels and have no search specialist. In-house SEO teams that need extra capacity for a migration, a content push or a new market. And multi-location or ecommerce businesses whose sites have grown past what one generalist can manage. Each needs a different slice of the work, so the right provider for one is often the wrong one for another.

What Google says about hiring outside help

Google’s own page Do you need an SEO? lists the useful services that SEOs, agencies and consultants provide: reviews of site content or structure, technical advice on hosting, redirects, error pages and JavaScript, content development, keyword research, training, expertise in particular markets and geographies, and optimizing for generative AI. It says a good time to hire is before a redesign or a new site launch, the earlier the better. It also states plainly that advertising with Google has no effect on organic results and that you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire.

Why outsource SEO? The real reasons, and when not to

Most businesses outsource SEO because the work spans several specialties that one person rarely covers well, and because an outside team can start in weeks rather than after a hiring cycle. The case weakens when the work depends on knowledge only insiders have.

SEO is several jobs, not one

O*NET, the US Department of Labor’s occupational database, describes search marketing strategists with tasks that run from optimizing text and media for search, to coordinating with developers on site architecture and server configuration, to setting up analytics, choosing KPIs and building content strategies. Add link earning, local listings and migrations, and the role becomes a small department. A single hire usually leans technical or editorial; outsourcing lets you buy both sides without employing both.

Capacity, continuity and peaks

Search work arrives unevenly. A site migration, a new product line or a drop after a Google update can need far more than the usual hours for a quarter and then far fewer. An outside team absorbs those peaks and keeps working when a staff member is on leave or resigns. That continuity is worth more than it looks, because SEO programs lose ground when nobody is watching indexing reports or answering a developer’s question about redirects.

Speed to start

Recruiting a senior search specialist takes months, and the first months of a new hire go on learning the business. A provider that has run audits on many sites can produce a baseline and a fix list within weeks of getting access. For a business with a launch date or a visible traffic problem, that difference decides the choice.

An outside view of your own site

Teams that built a website tend to see it as they intended it, not as a crawler or a first-time visitor meets it. An outside auditor reads the templates, the internal links and the search results without that history. The best outsourced engagements use that distance deliberately, then lean on your team for the context the outsider lacks.

When outsourcing is the wrong call

Keep SEO inside when the work is mostly product knowledge that changes weekly, when every page needs sign-off from regulated specialists who will not brief an outsider, or when the site is small enough to run yourself. Google’s guidance says the owner of a small local business can probably do much of the work, starting with its SEO starter guide. Outsourcing also fails when nobody inside has time to answer questions, approve drafts or give access, because the provider then works blind.

SEO in-house vs outsourcing: cost, control and speed

An in-house hire buys context and full attention; outsourcing buys breadth and speed; the common mature setup combines one internal owner with outside specialists. The salary is only the visible part of the in-house cost, so compare loaded figures.

What an in-house SEO hire costs in salary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts search marketing strategists inside the occupation of market research analysts and marketing specialists. Its 2025 wage estimates put the median annual wage for that occupation at $78,760, with the middle half of earners between $58,350 and $108,310. A specialist who can lead technical SEO, content and analytics may sit toward the upper end of that range, though BLS does not report SEO roles separately, and the roles an SEO program leans on, such as web developers and editors, carry their own pay.

The loaded cost: benefits, tools and management

Wages are not the whole bill. In the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026, wages and salaries were 70.0 percent of private-industry employers’ compensation costs and benefits the remaining 30.0 percent. If a hire’s benefits followed that average, a $78,760 salary would carry roughly $112,500 of total compensation cost before software subscriptions, training and the manager’s time. That is arithmetic on averages, not a quote, but it explains why comparing a salary with an agency retainer understates the in-house figure.

Published US price bands for each way to staff SEO

Progression publishes the annual cost bands buyers meet in the US market on our SEO pricing guide; the table below quotes them. They are market figures, not a Progression rate card, and our SEO services page works through a full in-house versus agency example, so it is not repeated here.

The hybrid model: one internal owner, outside specialists

Many mature programs put one person inside the business in charge of search and buy the specialist work outside. The internal owner sets priorities, gathers product knowledge, gets approvals and holds the provider to the scope; the provider brings technical depth, writing capacity and outreach. The arrangement fails only when the internal owner has no time for it, so protect that time in the role description.

When in-house wins

In-house wins when search is central to the business model, publishing volume is high every month, and the knowledge needed to write well changes faster than an outsider can absorb it. Large marketplaces, publishers and software companies with extensive documentation usually reach that point. Even then, they tend to buy migrations, audits and digital PR from outside.

What to outsource and what to keep: who does what

Outsource the specialist production and keep the decisions. A provider can audit, write, earn links and report, but only your team can say what the business sells, what it may claim and who owns the accounts.

Keep: goals, approvals and the customer’s voice

Decide what success means before anyone is hired: inquiries from a region, online sales in a category, demo requests from a particular kind of buyer. Then keep approval of anything published under your name, especially prices, claims, guarantees and regulated wording. Your sales and service staff hear the questions customers actually ask, and that material is what turns a competent page into one that converts.

Keep: ownership of every account and file

Search Console, analytics, the Business Profile, the domain registration, hosting and the content management system should be owned by the business and shared with the provider. Ownership is not a formality: it decides whether you can end the contract without losing your history or your listings. Our own rule is simple: we take access, not ownership.

Outsource: technical diagnosis and fixes

Crawling, indexing, redirects, structured data, page templates and speed are where specialist experience pays fastest, because the same faults recur across sites and an experienced auditor recognizes them quickly. Decide in the scope who implements fixes: the provider, your developer or your platform vendor. A technical SEO agency can do both the diagnosis and the work.

Outsource: content production, with your review

Research, outlines and drafts outsource well when the provider interviews your experts and you review every draft for accuracy. Writing that is never checked by someone who knows the product reads as generic, and Google’s spam policies describe many pages generated mainly to manipulate rankings as scaled content abuse, however they are made. Our SEO content writing service page describes how researched pages are built.

Outsource: link earning and digital PR

Earning mentions from relevant publications, associations and partners takes relationships and assets worth citing, which specialists have and most businesses do not. Insist that links are earned, never bought. Our link building agency and digital PR agency pages describe the methods.

Share: measurement and reporting

The provider builds the report; your team checks that it matches the numbers in your own accounts and the leads in your CRM. Agree the definitions once, for example what counts as a qualified inquiry, and the monthly review becomes a conversation about decisions rather than about whose figures are right.

SEO outsourcing models compared

There are six common ways to outsource SEO, and they differ mainly in how much of the work they cover and how much managing they need from you. Match the model to the gap, not to the lowest price.

Freelance specialists

A freelancer suits a defined task with a clear owner inside the business: a technical audit, a set of product pages, a local listings clean-up. You get the person you hired and usually a lower fee. The trade-off is coverage and continuity, since one person cannot be expert in everything and a busy month or an illness stops the work.

SEO consultants

A consultant sells direction: diagnosis, a plan and reviews of your team’s work, usually by the hour or as a monthly advisory block. It fits a business with people who can execute but nobody who knows what to do first. Our SEO consultant page covers that engagement in detail.

SEO agencies

An agency combines strategy and production across technical work, content, links and reporting under one contract, with a team rather than a person behind it. It fits a business with no in-house specialist or one that needs several disciplines at once. Ask who works on the account day to day, because the people in the pitch are not always the people doing the work. Our SEO agency page explains the day-to-day work.

Full-service agencies that subcontract SEO

Some marketing agencies sell SEO and buy it from a partner behind the scenes. That is legitimate and common, but you should know it, because the partner will touch your site and your data. Ask whether any part of your work is subcontracted, to whom, and whether your contract lets you approve the subcontractor. A guide to choosing a marketing agency covers the wider selection.

Offshore and nearshore teams

Teams in other countries can offer lower hourly costs and longer working days across time zones. The questions to settle are practical: who reviews writing for American English and local context, how personal data from your site or CRM is protected and where it is stored, how quickly someone answers during your business hours, and who in your own time zone is accountable for the result.

Fractional leadership plus specialists

A fractional head of search or marketing works a few days a month to set strategy and manage vendors, while specialists do the production. It suits companies that have outgrown a single provider but are not ready for a full-time leader. Our fractional CMO page describes the leadership side.

How to outsource SEO, step by step

Write a brief, ask every candidate the same questions, compare scoped proposals rather than packages, audit with view-only access, start with a defined first phase and agree the report before the first invoice. Each step protects the next.

Write a one-page brief

State what the business sells, where, to whom, and which outcomes matter: calls, booked jobs, online orders or demo requests. Add the budget range, the deadline if there is one, what has been tried, which pages or claims cannot change, and who inside will approve work. A brief that fits on one page forces the priorities into the open and gives every candidate the same starting point.

Shortlist providers and ask the same questions

Google suggests asking any SEO for examples of previous work, whether it follows Google Search Essentials, what results it expects and in what timeframe, how it measures success, its experience in your industry and your city or country, how long it has been in business, and whether it will share every change it makes with the reasoning behind it. Ask all candidates the same list so the answers are comparable, and notice who asks good questions about your business in return.

Ask for a scoped proposal, not a package

A package lists the same deliverables for every client. A scope lists what this site needs this quarter, in order, with the hours or outputs behind each line. Ask each candidate to name the first three problems it would fix and why. The answers tell you more than any price list, and our guide to choosing an SEO company shows how to compare two proposals line by line.

Give view-only access for the audit

Google’s guidance is to grant an SEO that offers an audit read access to Search Console only, and not write access at that stage. Apply the same rule to analytics and your content management system: let shortlisted providers look, not change. Owner-level access before a contract is signed is a warning sign in itself.

Start with a defined first phase

Make the first phase a bounded piece of work with dates: the audit, the urgent fixes, the page map and a first set of pages. It shows how the provider works with your team before the program scales, and it gives both sides an honest point to stop if the fit is wrong. An SEO audit is the most common first phase.

Agree the report before the first invoice

Settle which numbers the monthly report leads with, where each comes from and what counts as a qualified inquiry. Then hold every report to that template. A provider that changes the headline metric each month is choosing the number that looks best.

Local SEO outsourced: profiles, reviews and location pages

Local SEO outsourced to a specialist covers the Business Profile, citations, reviews and location pages for businesses that serve customers in a town or region. Google’s third-party policies set firm rules for anyone who manages a profile for you.

Your Business Profile stays yours

Google’s Business Profile third-party policies say that end customers must retain ownership or co-ownership of their profile at all times, and that within seven business days of your notice a provider must let you regain exclusive control and give up its own permissions. Google’s owners and managers help page explains the roles: a profile has one primary owner, and managers can edit and respond to reviews but cannot add or remove users or delete the profile. Give a provider manager access.

Fees and disclosures you should receive in writing

A provider that charges a management fee for your profile must tell you in writing, before it manages the profile, that Business Profile is a service Google provides at no extra cost, and must show the fee on your invoices. Providers that mainly serve small and medium-sized businesses must also share Google’s “Working with a third party” disclosure notice. If those statements never arrive, ask why.

Reviews: what a provider may and may not do

The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, makes it unlawful to offer compensation or incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, and bars fake reviews, undisclosed insider reviews and review suppression. Google’s policies also require explicit approval, not verbal consent, before a third party responds to reviews on your behalf. A provider should help you ask every customer the same way and reply well, nothing more.

Location pages that are not doorways

Google’s spam policies list pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page among doorway-abuse examples, along with substantially similar pages that sit closer to search results than to a browsable site. A location page earns its place when it says something specific: the team that covers the area, jobs completed there, local rules or response times. Ask a provider how it decides which towns deserve a page.

Choosing a local SEO outsourcing company

Look for a provider that keeps profiles in your name, reports Business Profile data separately from other platforms as Google’s policies require, explains how it builds citations and refuses incentivized reviews. Our local SEO services page covers the work for direct clients, and white label local SEO covers agencies that resell it.

Outsource SEO projects, or pay a monthly retainer?

Buy a project when the problem has a clear end, such as an audit, a migration or broken tracking. Buy a retainer when the work compounds month to month, as content, links and technical upkeep do.

Projects that outsource well

Four projects come up most often when businesses outsource SEO projects: a technical audit that names specific URLs and fixes, keyword research mapped to one page per buyer question, migration support with a redirect map before a redesign or platform change, and analytics and conversion tracking so that results can be measured at all. Each produces a document or a working system you keep, and each can be done by one provider and acted on by another.

Why is SEO a monthly fee?

Because the work that moves results does not finish. Competitors publish, Google changes its systems, pages age and links are earned a few at a time. Google says it makes significant, broad changes to its search systems, which it calls core updates, several times a year, and smaller updates continually. A monthly fee pays for steady production and for someone watching your data between those changes.

Why does SEO cost so much?

Because it is skilled labor across several disciplines, and the hours add up: diagnosing a site, writing pages with real research, earning mentions from people who owe you nothing and reporting honestly. Tools are a small part of the bill. A low fee does not make the work cheaper; it reduces how much of it gets done, which is why our affordable SEO guide is mostly about where a small budget should go.

Outsourcing SEO work in blocks

Some businesses outsource SEO work in quarterly blocks: an audit and fixes in one quarter, a content program in the next, a digital PR push after that. It suits companies with in-house capacity between blocks. The risk is losing momentum between them, so keep someone inside watching Search Console while the provider is off the account.

How much does it cost to outsource SEO?

It depends on the size of the site, the strength of the competition and how much of the work you hand over. Progression’s own retainers run from $1,500 to $10,000 a month and above, and published US market bands run wider in both directions.

Progression’s published SEO prices

These are the prices on our SEO services page. We do not work below about $1,500 a month, because below that we cannot put an experienced person on an account often enough to change anything. The notice period is thirty days.

Published US price bands for outsourced SEO work

For comparison, these are the published US price bands for each kind of work from our SEO pricing guide. They are market figures, not a Progression rate card, and a quote follows a written scope.

What moves an outsourcing quote

Five things move most quotes: the number of locations or markets, the size and technical condition of the site, how much content is needed and how much research each page takes, how strong the competitors are, and who implements technical fixes. Reporting frequency and meetings add less than buyers expect. Our marketing agency pricing guide covers how agencies build fees across channels.

SLAs and contract terms when you outsource SEO services

A good outsourcing contract fixes the scope by month, the response times, the term and notice, who owns the work, who may subcontract it and what happens at the end. It promises effort and evidence, never a ranking.

Scope written by month, not by keyword

Write the scope as outputs and hours for each month or quarter: which audits, which fixes, how many researched pages, what outreach, which reports. Avoid scopes defined by a list of keywords to rank, because rankings are an outcome nobody controls and they invite the provider to choose easy phrases nobody searches.

Response times and change windows

Agree how fast routine questions are answered, how fast urgent problems are handled (a site outage, a security warning or a manual action notice in Search Console) and when changes may be released. Ask the provider to notify you the day it sees a manual action, since Google’s spam policies say a site that violates them may rank lower or disappear from results.

Term, notice and exit

Long terms are not always unfair, since SEO takes months, but a long term with no exit protects the provider rather than you. A notice period of thirty days is reasonable, and it is ours. Whatever the term, the contract should say what you receive when it ends: files, logs, access removed and a short handover.

Ownership of content, code and data

Under the Copyright Act, a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights, as 17 U.S.C. 204 says, and commissioned work counts as work made for hire only in the categories 17 U.S.C. 101 lists, and only with a signed written agreement. So write it down: pages, images, code, reports and data produced for you belong to you on payment. This is not legal advice; have counsel review the clause.

Subcontracting and data handling

Ask for a clause that names any subcontractor and requires your approval before a new one starts. If your site or CRM holds personal data of people in the European Union, the GDPR’s Article 28 already says a processor may not engage another processor without the controller’s prior specific or general written authorization, and the same obligations must flow down. Similar logic is worth applying to every outsourced SEO contract.

Guarantees you should not accept

Google states that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and its guidance tells site owners to beware of SEOs that claim a “special relationship” with Google or a “priority submit”. A contract that guarantees positions either measures something trivial or promises something the provider cannot deliver. Guarantees of effort, response and reporting are the ones worth having.

Access and onboarding: give the provider access, never ownership

Every system an SEO provider needs can be shared without handing over ownership. Grant the least access that lets the work happen, write down who has what, and raise access only when the contract and the work require it.

Search Console

Google’s Search Console permissions page describes owners, full users and restricted users. Owners have full control, including adding and removing users; full users see all data and can take some actions; restricted users see most data. Every property needs at least one verified owner, and a property can have no more than 100 users who are not owners. Keep your business as the verified owner and add the provider as a user.

Google Analytics

In Google Analytics only someone with the Administrator role can add or change users, and roles can be set at account or property level. Give the provider the role its scope needs, often Viewer for reporting or Editor where it configures tracking, and keep administration inside the business.

Business Profile

Add the provider as a manager. Managers can edit the profile and respond to reviews but cannot add or remove users, which keeps control with you. If several locations exist, make sure each profile has an owner inside the business before anyone else is added.

Website, hosting and the content management system

On WordPress, the default roles run from Administrator, who controls the whole site, through Editor, who can publish and manage everyone’s posts, to Author, who can publish and manage their own posts, and Contributor, who can write their own posts but not publish them. Give content work an Editor or Author account and reserve Administrator for technical work that needs it. Google’s guidance adds that an SEO with FTP access to your server should be willing to explain every change it makes.

The domain registration

Keep the domain registered to the business, in an account you control. ICANN’s registrants’ benefits and responsibilities page says the registrant assumes sole responsibility for the registration and use of the domain name and must keep contact details accurate. A provider never needs to own your domain to do SEO.

Offboarding: ending an outsourced SEO contract cleanly

A clean exit removes access, collects the work product and keeps the history. Plan it at the start, write it into the contract and you can change providers without a dip in visibility or a gap in your data.

Remove users and verification tokens

Remove the provider’s users from Search Console, analytics, the Business Profile, the website and hosting. In Search Console, a verified owner can regain access with an ownership token that is still on the site, so remove those too; Google’s help page lists them under unused ownership tokens. Change any password that was ever shared.

Collect the work product

Ask for the audit files, the page and keyword map, briefs and drafts, the change log, the list of every link earned with its linking page, reporting templates and any disavow file. If the provider built dashboards, ask for them to be transferred or exported before the last day.

Keep the history in your own accounts

Because Search Console and analytics stay in your name, the performance history stays with you. Annotate the date the provider left, so later changes in traffic can be read against it.

Hand over without a dip

Give the next provider, or your own team, the change log and the open task list before the old provider leaves. Pending redirects, half-finished pages and unanswered developer tickets are what usually cause a dip during a change of provider.

KPIs and reporting for outsourced SEO

Lead with outcomes, inquiries and revenue from organic search, and use rankings and traffic as supporting evidence. Take every number from your own accounts so the provider cannot grade its own work.

Outcomes first: inquiries and revenue

Count calls, forms, bookings and sales that start from organic search, by landing page. If your sales cycle is long, carry the landing page and source into your CRM so opportunities can be traced back. Those numbers decide whether outsourcing is paying for itself.

Search Console as the source of record

Google’s guidance on third-party SEO tools says those tools do not have access to its internal ranking data, that their predictions are their own, and it strongly encourages using Search Console, Google’s first-party tool. Use rank trackers for trends if you like, but take clicks, impressions and indexing from Search Console.

Leading indicators that show the work is landing

Before inquiries move, look for pages indexed that were not, impressions rising for pages in the plan, more searches showing your pages on the first results page, and links earned from relevant sites. These show progress in the months before revenue does.

A reporting cadence that keeps both sides honest

Monthly reports with a short written commentary, a quarterly review that re-plans the next quarter, and a dated change log. Ask for bad news in the same month it happens, with the provider’s explanation and how confident it is in that explanation.

How to vet an SEO outsourcing company

Check who does the work, what that work looks like, which methods they refuse, how they report and whether clients like you would hire them again. A short paid first phase tests a prospective SEO outsourcing partner on all of it.

Ask who will actually do the work

Ask for the names and roles of the people on your account, where they are based, and whether any part of the work goes to a subcontractor or a partner agency. The answer matters for quality, for data protection and for knowing whom to call when something breaks.

Look at real work, not ranking screenshots

Ask for a redacted audit, a content brief, a published page and a link report, and ask the provider to explain why each was done. Screenshots of rankings with no site, date or context prove nothing about the work.

Check methods against Google’s policies

Ask which tactics they refuse. A credible provider names Google’s spam policies without prompting: link spam, which includes buying or selling links for ranking and excessive link exchanges, scaled content abuse and doorway pages. Google also notes that you should never have to link to an SEO.

Call references that match your situation

Google recommends checking an SEO’s business references. Ask for two clients in a similar market or of a similar size, then ask them what went wrong and how it was handled, because how a provider behaves in a bad month is the real test.

Does it matter where the provider is based?

Location matters less than overlap: working hours that meet yours, fluency in your customers’ language and an understanding of your market. Buyers looking for an SEO outsourcing company in the USA usually want those things plus contracts under US law; ask for them directly rather than assuming them from an address.

Will they ask about you?

Google’s guidance says a good SEO should be interested in your business: what makes it unique, who your competitors are and how your customers find you. A provider that quotes before asking those questions is pricing a package, not your site. The best SEO outsourcing company for you is the one whose questions make your brief better.

Red flags when you outsource SEO

Walk away from guaranteed rankings, secret methods, link packages, review schemes and requests for ownership. Each one either breaks Google’s rules or leaves you unable to leave.

Guarantees and special relationships

Google’s guidance says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking and warns against SEOs that allege a special relationship with Google or a priority submit service. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in its organic results.

Audits that arrive by email out of the blue

Google tells site owners to be wary of SEO firms and agencies that email them out of the blue, and says it receives the same spam itself. An unsolicited audit claiming your site is missing from search engines is a sales script, not a diagnosis.

Link packages and link swaps

Packages of links sold by the dozen, partner pages built only to cross-link, and keyword-rich anchor text in guest posts all fall under link spam in Google’s policies. When a provider cannot show you each linking page and explain why that site linked, assume the links were bought.

Secrecy about methods or changes

Google advises caution if a company is secretive or will not clearly explain what it intends to do, and notes that deceptive content created on your behalf could get your site removed from Google’s index. Ask for a change log from the first week.

Where to report a deceptive SEO provider

Google’s guidance points US businesses deceived by an SEO to the Federal Trade Commission, and businesses dealing with a company in another country to econsumer.gov. Keep the contract, invoices and the provider’s reports, which show what was promised and what was delivered.

What happens in the first six months of outsourced SEO

Expect access, a baseline and an audit first, fixes and the first pages next, then content, links and local work, with a review at six months that decides on evidence. Dates depend on access, approvals and the state of the site.

Month one: access, baseline and audit

Access is granted at the agreed roles, the baseline is recorded from your own accounts, and the audit identifies what stops pages being crawled, indexed or chosen. You should finish the month with a prioritized fix list and a page map you understand.

Months two and three: fixes and first pages

Technical fixes are released, starting with those that block indexing, and the first new or rewritten pages go through your review. Search Console begins to show which planned pages are being seen. Delays here are usually approvals and developer time, so name the person who releases changes.

Months four to six: content, links and local work

Content production settles into a rhythm, outreach starts to earn mentions, and local profiles and location pages are improved where relevant. Leading indicators, such as impressions for planned pages, should be visible even if inquiries lag.

Month six: decide on evidence

Review the baseline against the present, separate what the provider did from what changed in the market, and decide whether to renew, rescope or end. Our guide to how long SEO takes covers why some sites move faster than others.

Outsourced SEO and AI answers

AI answers in search are now part of what an SEO provider should cover, and Google treats that work as SEO. Ask how a provider measures visibility in AI answers, and be wary of anyone selling it as a separate trick.

How buyers use AI assistants to shortlist SEO outsourcing services

Business owners can ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Google’s AI Overviews questions such as which kind of provider suits a small firm, what outsourced SEO services usually include, or what to put in an SEO contract. That is a reason to state your own scope, prices, terms and methods plainly on your own pages and to ask candidates where their own claims are documented.

What Google says about AEO and GEO

Google’s guide to optimizing for generative AI search says that, from Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience and therefore still SEO. Its page on AI features adds that there are no additional technical requirements to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.

What to ask a provider about AI visibility

Ask which questions it will track, which assistants, how it records answers over time and how that work overlaps with the SEO you are already buying. Google’s own hiring guidance suggests checking whether a provider’s AEO or GEO advice is aligned with Google’s official guidance. Our answer engine optimization agency page covers the work for businesses, and agencies that want to resell it can read our white label AEO page.

Should I outsource SEO? A quick self-check

Outsource when search matters to revenue, the work exceeds your team’s skills or hours, and someone inside can brief, approve and review. If any of the three is missing, fix that first.

Can I do SEO on my own?

Often, at the start. Google says the owner of a small local business can probably do much of the work, and its starter guide covers the basics. Checking indexing in Search Console, completing your Business Profile, writing one useful page per service and asking customers for reviews are all work you can do yourself. Our small business SEO page sets out a month-by-month plan.

Are SEO services worth it for your business?

They are worth it when a customer is worth enough, buyers search for what you sell, and the site can turn visits into inquiries. Work out what one new customer is worth before talking to anyone, then ask whether a realistic number of extra customers covers the fee within a year. If it does not, a project may be worth it where a retainer is not.

Signs you are ready to outsource your SEO

You have a site that converts, a clear list of services and markets, a person who can approve work each week, and a budget you can sustain for at least two quarters. You also have a problem your team cannot solve alone, such as a migration, an indexing fault or a content backlog. With those in place, outsource your SEO with confidence.

How Progression works when you outsource SEO to us

We publish our prices and our thirty-day notice period, take access rather than ownership, and report against inquiries rather than rankings. If we are not the right fit, we say so and, where we can, point you to who is.

Your accounts stay yours

Your analytics property, Search Console, Business Profile, hosting and ad accounts stay in your name, and we work through the access you grant. We report average position but do not lead with it, and we do not report third-party domain authority scores.

Working beside an in-house marketer

An in-house marketer usually makes the engagement better and can make it cheaper. We often work as strategy and specialist execution alongside an internal owner, which is a more effective structure than either alone.

If you bring SEO back in-house

We document the work and hand it over cleanly. We would rather you did that than stayed on a retainer you have outgrown.

Related services and guides

Pages on this site that buyers usually read next to this guide.

• SEO services: our retainer, prices and what it covers
• SEO pricing guide: pricing models and published US price bands
• SEO agency: what the day-to-day work involves
• SEO consultant: direction for a team that executes
• How to choose an SEO company and compare proposals
• SEO audit service: the usual first phase
• Technical SEO agency
• Local SEO services for businesses that serve an area
• Small business SEO, including what to do yourself
• Affordable SEO services: where a small budget should go
• Link building agency
• Digital PR agency
• SEO content writing service
• Website migration services
• How long SEO takes
• Marketing agency pricing guide
• How to choose a digital marketing agency
• Fractional CMO services
• Answer engine optimization agency
• White label SEO, for agencies that resell search work
• White label AEO, for agencies that resell AI visibility work
• White label local SEO
• White label link building

Frequently asked questions