SEO packages explained: what should actually be included each month

An SEO package should state the work it covers, the evidence you'll receive and who implements changes. It should also say how priorities and fees can change. A useful monthly record shows completed work, blocked work, observed results and the next decision. Rankings and revenue stay outcomes nobody can guarantee.

For the wider plan, see our guide to SEO for small business.

What is included in an SEO package?

An SEO package is an agreement about work, not a promise about Google:

A retainer isn't necessarily a prepaid bank of hours. A fee tied to outcomes still has to explain its methods and evidence.

Keep four things apart:

A provider can commit to its own work and service standards. Google says no one can guarantee the top spot. Nobody can buy priority placement in organic results either. Promising an audit by Friday is fine. A promise about how Google will respond isn't.

Work moves through the same stages each time:

If you buy advice only, implementation is a separate job with its own owner. That's fine, as long as it's written down.

Packages draw on six categories of work:

Not every category needs work every month. A monitoring month can end in a documented decision to change nothing. Before you sign, the scope should answer:

• which business, locations, site and accounts are covered

• what the objectives are, and which pages or templates

• what quantity or capacity you're buying

• who reviews, and who implements

• what's excluded

• what counts as complete, and when it's due

• which dependencies can move that date

Technical diagnosis and fixes

Expect a dated scope, the URLs checked, prioritised findings and the evidence behind them. An automated export can be an input. The deliverable explains what matters and what doesn't. Not every reported 404 or excluded URL needs fixing. A common mistake is judging an audit by its page count.

For fixes, the scope should say which are included and who can change the site. It should also say how each gets retested. Record the pages or templates, the change, the date and the result. A passing URL Inspection live test only confirms Google can access a page. It doesn't mean the page is indexed.

Advice can be complete while the defect stays open. The monthly report should show both states.

What you pay for depends on the contract wording. Check whether advice alone satisfies a line item, or whether it promises the change itself. Larger development, migrations and hosting need their own line and price. Our DIY SEO audit checklist helps you check your own foundations first.

Page improvements

Name the pages and what will change on each, from titles and headings to links and markup. Keep a before and after record, then check the published page. Say who edits the copy and metadata. Template or markup changes may need your developer. Our guide covers schema markup when markup is in scope.

Check a title change in the HTML or your CMS. Don't search your business name and expect the same wording. Google builds title links from several sources. The result can differ from your edit.

Content creation and refreshes

Specify the page's purpose, its reader, the source material and the expert input. Add the editor, review rounds and who publishes. A deliverable might be a new service page, a revised buying guide, merged pages or an accuracy update. A word count can define scope. It doesn't prove usefulness or ranking potential.

For a published page, acceptance might look like this:

If the product is a draft, call it a draft and say who owns the rest. Don't quietly redefine a promised page as a document. Our service page guide shows what a useful service page includes. Our guide to content strategy covers editorial scope.

Agree an estimate for the specific scope, with its dependencies. Working time, approval time and the time search engines take to process a change are three different clocks.

Local presence

For an eligible business, define the profiles and locations covered. Include categories, services and hours. Add customer routes, listing fixes and a responsible review process.

Name who makes profile edits and who approves them. Listings the business must claim or verify itself may sit outside the scope. Useful work is more specific than a fixed post or photo quota. Don't invent a branch or a suburb page requirement to fill a package. Our profile guide covers Business Profile eligibility and management.

Review requests must stay neutral and optional. No provider should promise a rating or script what customers write. Our reviews guide covers responsible review requests. A profile owner can add an agency as a manager without sharing a password.

Authority and outreach

Specify the audience, the relevant publications or organisations and the planned research and outreach. Then say how placements get judged. A provider can document the work it controls. It can't guarantee an editor's decision, or that a page stays live. An outreach target isn't a promised link.

Keep a link ledger:

Google's spam policies treat links bought for ranking as link spam. Paid links are fine when they're tagged as paid, with a nofollow or sponsored attribute. Judge each placement on relevance, not a formula.

Reporting and strategy

Ask for:

• a work log

• observed search and business measures

• open limitations

• your decisions and the next priorities

Keep completed tasks, implementation status and outcomes apart. Rankings and traffic are context. Qualified enquiries, sales and the profit they bring answer the business question better, where records are reliable.

The provider writes the report. You own the decisions. A strategy call is a deliverable when it ends with decisions and named owners. A colourful report doesn't prove strategy happened.

Record the filters behind any Search Console comparison. The Performance report lets you set the date range and search type. You can then break results down by query, page, country and device. Matching settings make a claim easier to check.

Search Console still isn't a full record of enquiries. Rare queries are hidden for privacy. Ask whether custom dashboards or extra analysis cost more. Our ROI guide shows how to measure business outcomes from SEO.

What do Elev8d's published tiers include?

We publish our tiers. Checked in October 2026, Elev8d's SEO service page lists these tiers:

All three prices are shown excluding GST. Ongoing SEO runs month to month, with no exit fees. The cards list these inclusions:

• SEO audit: a technical and on page audit, a competitor gap analysis and a prioritised action roadmap.

• Growth SEO: technical, on page and content work, monthly link building and plain English reporting.

• Competitive SEO: everything in Growth, more new pages and articles each month, plus digital PR and authority links.

These are our advertised offers, not a market survey or a quote for your site. "More" is a comparison, not a quantity. The descriptions don't set:

• monthly page or article counts

• link placements

• developer hours or location limits

• turnaround times

We agree those after reviewing your website and business. The page also promises direct access to the senior people doing the work. Link building describes work and method. It isn't a promise about an independent publisher's decision. The cards don't mention AEO or GEO, so don't assume a tier includes either.

The service page now says you own the pages and content we create. Links are different. They sit on other people's websites.

The two audits are different products:

The free audit doesn't include the paid deliverables. Ongoing SEO clients get the paid audit in their monthly fee. If you only want the audit, you pay the audit price.

Ask any provider to put revisions, exclusions, licences and notice terms in writing. That includes us. Our cost guide helps you understand SEO pricing.

A sample month and its work ledger

Start by turning a vague label into a checkable commitment:

The defect has to be diagnosed before it becomes real scope.

Take one example $2,000 monthly scope for a small service business, in Australian dollars excluding GST. It's a teaching example, not a quote, a labour rate study or an Elev8d tier:

These are portions of one fee, not hours or unit prices. Software, overheads and pass through costs follow the actual contract. Don't multiply the shares by an assumed hourly rate and call it capacity.

Here's the same month as a work ledger:

Each row also needs an owner. The draft isn't published. The outreach isn't an earned link yet.

If approval stalls, record the date, the person needed, the effect on the plan and the next step. The provider might reschedule, substitute approved work or carry capacity forward. None of those happens automatically. The monthly fee may still be payable under the agreement. Blocked work still can't be reported as a finished publication.

How should the package change over time?

The mix should follow the business's stage, not the calendar:

These are states of need, not fixed months. A law firm may need legal review, as our guide to SEO for law firms explains. A shop may need product template work. A service business may need real local coverage. Neither industry nor account age sets a fixed budget split.

How do you judge deliverable quality?

Judge the work by its evidence, not its volume. Price, country and AI assistance don't establish quality either:

A common mistake is counting tasks instead of checking what changed.

Check technical work against the promised change. Open the page, inspect the current setting or response and compare the dated test. If the claim is better indexing, check indexed status separately. If it's a faster page, compare like for like tests and real visitor data. One score doesn't prove commercial benefit.

For content, look at the approved draft, the revision history and the live page, if publishing was included. Local work needs the current profile fields and a dated work record. A quick scroll won't show a profile's full edit history. Open each placement at the publisher's own URL. A placement existing doesn't prove editorial quality.

Ask for access that suits the task, with consistent report settings. Don't demand other clients' records. A redacted or permission cleared sample can show process. Your own deliverables should have an evidence trail:

Completed advice and completed implementation are different states. Keep them on separate lines.

Who implements changes and provides inputs?

Every change needs a named owner. There are three honest ways to split the work:

A project can mix models across categories. Name the model for each one.

The business supplies:

• accurate service information and approved evidence

• relevant expertise and decision makers

• access to the right accounts

• feedback on lead quality

Agree review dates and a backup reviewer. A five business day turnaround is a negotiable arrangement, not a standard. It never justifies unapproved regulated claims.

A properly authorised provider can help run a compliant review request process. The business stays responsible for the accuracy of its instructions.

These roles show who does or approves the work, not legal ownership. Use named access, never shared passwords. Google suggests read only Search Console access at the audit stage.

When plans change, record:

• the original scope and the new evidence

• the proposed substitution and its cost or timing effect

• the dependencies and the approver

• the revised acceptance test

If an urgent defect or a migration eats planned capacity, show what moved and why. Agree whether unused time expires or rolls over. Reserved capacity isn't the same as a promised deliverable.

Write down the included revision rounds and how factual corrections work. Agree what counts as a new brief. Fixing a provider's own error shouldn't become a new project without reference to the contract.

What should AEO and GEO line items produce?

Providers use these labels differently, so ask what each one actually covers:

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) usually means making answers easy for search features to use. Generative engine optimisation (GEO) usually means visibility in generative AI tools. Neither label is standard. Neither guarantees visibility.

Shared groundwork should appear once in the work ledger. A technical repair that serves SEO, AEO and GEO is one output. Three labels don't justify charging for it three times.

Google says its AI features need no special optimisation. Normal SEO practice applies. Eligible pages still aren't guaranteed inclusion. So don't buy a mandatory "AI schema" install for Google's AI features. Those rules don't cover every other AI provider either.

Ask for outputs like these:

Our guide to generative engine optimisation covers the GEO method itself. A visibility sample needs a repeatable method:

Keep non appearance as well as appearance. A changing prompt set can't support a clean before and after. Citations aren't visits and recommendations aren't sales. A sample share isn't market share either.

Search Console counts AI feature traffic within the Web search type. Our AI citations guide covers Google AI search eligibility and content.

Ask how the provider uses AI, who checks facts and sources and what can go into approved tools. AI assistance isn't a quality problem by itself. Google's spam policies target scaled content made mainly to manipulate rankings, however it's produced.

The OAIC recommends due diligence on AI products. It also says not to enter personal, especially sensitive, information into public generative AI tools. Agree controls for confidential data and subcontractor access.

How do hours and performance fees work?

The contract decides what you're buying. Fee models fall into five broad types:

• a fixed project fee

• a recurring scope of work

• a capacity retainer

• hourly work

• a fee linked to outcomes

A fixed fee doesn't have to buy a set number of hours. You should still understand the resources behind it and how extra work gets approved. Our cost guide compares the pricing models in detail.

Say a contract buys 10 hours at $200 an hour. The arithmetic is $2,000. That's an example contract, not a market rate or a quality measure. Check whether meetings, reporting, software and revisions use the same hours.

A performance fee isn't dishonest by default. It doesn't make rankings or revenue controllable either. First ask what triggers payment: a ranking, an accepted enquiry, a sale or collected revenue. A common mistake is signing before the billable event is defined. Agree these terms before you compare prices:

• the baseline, and how brand searches are treated

• the attribution model and window

• seasonality, refunds and duplicates

• eligibility rules and audit access

• the maximum fee and the dispute process

Here's how a month might reconcile under an example contract, in Australian dollars excluding GST:

The example assumes the contract defines billable enquiries this way and all six meet its other rules. They aren't necessarily new customers, or enquiries SEO caused. List media, development, software or call tracking costs separately. If a cap applies, show the cap calculation.

A rank based fee needs the exact searches, location and device. It also needs the result type, the measurement schedule and how brand terms count. Don't choose it just because you only pay after a rank appears. A measurable event can still be commercially useless, or the result of earlier work.

Claims about future performance need reasonable grounds. A promise about delivery or reporting is a different kind of commitment. Our guide helps you decide whether SEO is worth it at a given fee.

What should the contract and exit include?

Put the money, the rights and the exit in writing. The contract should cover:

• total fees, the GST basis and any setup charges

• pass through costs and recurring licences

• included capacity

• notice, renewal and pause arrangements

• scope changes and exit obligations

Month to month alone doesn't explain notice, payment timing or when subscriptions end. A fixed term or renewal clause isn't automatically unfair. Unfair contract term protections can cover standard form contracts with small businesses. Only courts make final decisions about whether a term is unfair. Get any clause that worries you reviewed.

Account control and intellectual property are different things. Our agency guide covers access and rights in more depth.

Agree who owns newly commissioned copy or code. Then agree when ownership passes, what existing material is only licensed and whether editable files are included. IP Australia says IP created by a contractor belongs to the contractor unless the contract says otherwise. A common mistake is assuming a paid invoice settles ownership.

You can't own an independent publisher's page or guarantee a link stays live. Check continuity and costs for licensed items if the relationship ends.

Agree the exit handover up front. Name a recipient for each item:

Agree the schedule and any charges in advance. Timing depends on scope, records and transfer mechanics. A clear contract reduces uncertainty but can't promise a dispute free exit.

Confirm you can reach every system before removing provider access. Transfer dashboards and automations. Agree what data is kept or deleted. Never paste passwords into the handover document. Our guide shows how to plan a website and account handover.

How do two proposals compare?

Take two example proposals at the same price, $2,000 a month excluding GST:

The second names owners and acceptance tests too. But it isn't the winner just because it's specific. Ask:

• Does the work address a real constraint?

• Are implementation and approvals included?

• Is the capacity plausible?

• Do the methods comply with Google's policies?

• Do extra charges change the total?

A precisely specified but unnecessary task is still poor value. Eight title rewrites or one article won't guarantee rankings either. A good scope leaves room to change priorities. It still holds everyone to account.

Ask each provider to show a permission cleared finished deliverable. Ask how they checked its evidence. Then ask what your business should do first, and why. Our agency guide covers how to choose an SEO provider. If something feels off, our guide helps you investigate SEO provider warning signs.

Check every reported completion:

If the deliverable is advice, don't pretend the website change has happened. Judge outcomes separately, over a fair window.

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Written by Ajay K.Co-founder, Elev8d

Ajay is the co-founder of Elev8d and writes most of what you will read here. Psychology grad turned marketer, which is a fancy way of saying he cares about why people click, not just where things rank. Every guide is written in plain English for Australian businesses, tested on real campaigns before it earns a spot on this site.