Member Avatar for levsha

I am totally new to the SEO world. I got a client though, for whom I am doing SEO. He has a laundry/dry clean/moving/shoe repair kind of business and a website for it.

I have no idea how much I should charge him. Also I am not sure whether it has to be a one time thing or ongoing work with monthly payments. We agreed that he pays me $300 and gives one month to work on his site, and we'll see what happens after that.
I have done a lot of work on the site - both on-page and off-page.
Am I supposed to be supporting it and getting paid monthly?
And if so, what should my work be?
I am just lost.

Could you please give me any guidelines? Thank you!

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Practical next steps for that make the initial month look professional and turn it into repeat business: treat the first month as a paid audit + setup deliverable you can document and hand over. That gives the client a tangible outcome (baseline metrics, implemented quick wins, and a prioritized 90‑day plan) and gives you a clear scope to move onto an ongoing arrangement if they want continuity.

Key items to include in the audit/report (deliver these, not just say them):

  • Technical crawl & priority fixes (404s, redirects, mobile issues, speed).
  • Analytics & Search Console baseline plus goal/phone-call tracking setup.
  • Google Business Profile and citation/NAP audit for local consistency.
  • Keyword map tied to specific service pages (laundry, moving, shoe repair, etc.).
  • Small content plan: which landing pages or service pages to add or improve.
  • Competitor snapshot and 30/60/90 action roadmap.

How to price and structure work: use a one‑time setup/audit fee and then a retainer sized to the hours you expect to spend each month. A simple formula to estimate a retainer is:
retainer = hours_per_month * hourly_rate + tool_costs + contingency.
Offer a defined package (X hours + Y deliverables) and a minimum commitment (commonly 3 months) so your work can show measurable movement. Consider splitting content creation or paid tools as separate line items.

How to keep the client: report monthly with a tight, simple deck: baseline vs current, leads attributed to organic, work completed, and next month’s plan. Use call tracking or form goals to show real revenue impact. Avoid guaranteeing rankings; guarantee transparency, documented tasks, and measurable outcomes. Build on ’s emphasis on showing dollars and ’s maintenance idea by offering a clear “maintenance” package once the agreed goals are met.

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Member Avatar for funny-tech

I really think these questions should all be answered before taking on any serious clients.

Different people have different ideas of how they want to do business but here's how I would do it. Make an agreement. Explain to him what SEO means and that is does not happen over night. I really don't see how you would do one time payments because SEO takes months to compete for tough keywords. Because of this, I would think you would want to do an ongoing monthly fee. Give him projections as ot where you will be 3 months down the road of the SEO campaign. Have a monthly call and send him a monthly report. If he sees constant improvement every month and you can show him that, he will stay for a long time.

Just remember, it's all about the relation. You can have a good relationship and bad results and keep a client, but you can't have good results and a bad relationship.

Also, if you can show him how the SEO is contributing to dollars going into his pocket, he will never drop you. Track things and be able to show him when someone came from Google and chose his business. That's what clients really care about.

Member Avatar for levsha

This is the kind of answer I was hoping for.
Thank you so very much!

Member Avatar for mukeshsoftona

Thank you for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info . nice way of your posting.

Member Avatar for Celier

You got some nice and informative posts, as I can see. I will only add a little thing: indeed you can do monthly work for him, but make sure you deliver quality work. Before even starting a campaign, let your client know how and when will you achieve certain rankings (top 10 in 1 month, top 5 in 2 months, top 3 in 3 months). After achieving the desired result, ask for a monthly fee to maintain that result. Something like ~$100 (less or even more) to keep him in top 3.

m2c.

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