SEO proposal template: eight sections, and what each one has to say

A proposal loses in the first paragraph when it opens with the agency: the years, the team, the awards. The client is not reading to find out about you. They are reading to find out whether you understand their business, what will happen if they say yes, and what it will cost them in money and in their own time. The template below is eight sections in the order those questions arrive, with guidance in italics that comes out before you send it.

Download the SEO proposal template (Word, opens in Google Docs)

Everything in square brackets is yours to replace. It is free and it is not gated.

Why most proposals lose

Three reasons, and they are the same three every time. They open with the agency instead of the client. They promise rankings, which the client cannot invoice and the agency cannot guarantee, instead of enquiries, which both can count. And they hide the work behind a package name, so the client cannot tell what they are buying or hold anyone to it. A proposal that is specific about the client's own searches, honest about the timeline and plain about the work beats a prettier one that is vague on all three.

The eight sections

1. Where you are now

What the searches say: what people in the client's area search for when they need what the client sells, and where the client appears today. Use their own Search Console and Business Profile figures, name the two or three searches that would change the business if won, and list the three things holding the site back with the evidence. This section is the proof that you looked. Nothing else in the document does as much work.

2. What we are aiming for

Goals in enquiries, calls, bookings or sales, with a number and a month: "enquiries traced to search from four a month to twelve by month six". A ranking is a step on the way and does not belong here. If you cannot commit to a number, say what you will commit to instead, which is usually the work and the reporting, and say why.

3. The work, month by month

The first thirty days are the profile, the technical fixes and the tracking. Days thirty-one to ninety are the pages, the citations and the review process. Months four to six are the competitive searches, the links they need and the content that supports the money pages. Write what happens when, so the client can hold you to it at day ninety rather than discover at month six that nothing has.

4. What we need from you

Access to Search Console, the Business Profile, the website and analytics. An hour a month to approve pages and answer the questions only they can answer. Photographs of the team and the work. Who to send review requests to. Clients who know this in advance do it; clients who find out later resent it.

5. How we report

One page a month, every number from an account they own, enquiries first. Describe it exactly, or better, attach the template. The SEO report template is the one we use.

6. Investment

The fee, what it covers, and what it does not, one line per item. A scope written for this client is what they are paying for, so a package name is a step backwards. State what is not included, because the things a client assumes are included, and are not, are where the relationship breaks: advertising spend, a redesign, photography, purchased links.

7. Terms

Start date and the first review date. Notice period. That every account is created in the client's name and stays with the client, which is the clause that separates an agency from a hostage-taker. What happens to the pages and content if the engagement ends.

8. The next step

A call, on a date, to walk through the document and answer questions. Name who to contact and how. A proposal that ends without a next step ends.

How long it should be

As long as section one needs and as short as everything else allows. Four to six pages is usual. The client reads section one and section six first, then the timeline; the rest they check later. Put the effort where it is read.

Before you send it

• Every bracket replaced, every italic line removed.
• The client's own numbers in section one, not industry averages.
• A goal in enquiries in section two, with a month against it.
• Nothing promised about a ranking, anywhere.
• What is not included, stated.
• Read it as the client: does it answer what happens if I say yes?

If the work behind the proposal is going to be delivered by a partner under your brand, section three and section five are the ones to align with them first, because the timeline and the report are what the client will measure you against. How that arrangement works is on the white label SEO page, and the audit that fills section one is the SEO audit.