Got an SEO proposal but the scope of work is vague — what should we put in the contract?

Definitely make sure an SLA is included in the contract. In the past, we paid an agency 20,000 TL a month and just kept getting automated dashboard exports every single month. If they aren't going to touch the code, they need to put that in writing from day one. If you don't have an in-house developer and the agency won't do the technical fixes, you'll just be left sitting on pages and pages of to-do lists.

When defining the technical scope, list out items like server response times, Core Web Vitals metrics, 404 and 301 redirects, sitemap, and robots.txt configuration one by one. If the agency won't be touching the code, the contract should also specify the level of detail required for the task tickets handed over to your developer. Otherwise, you'll get endless finger-pointing between your developer and the agency over who's supposed to do what.

We worked with an agency last year for 24,000 TL a month. The contract clearly stated 8 new blog posts and 12 existing product updates per month. However, because we didn't define boundaries on the technical side, we ended up having to pay our developer an extra 35,000 TL in coding fees over 4 months. If it's clear the agency won't write code, you need to budget for developer costs from the start.

The essential clauses you should add to the contract are: 1) A clear definition of whether technical fixes will be handled by the agency or assigned to the client's developer. 2) The exact number and minimum word counts of content to be produced and updated monthly. 3) An explicit commitment that no spam or private blog networks (PBNs) will be used in backlink outreach. 4) At least one monthly in-person or video performance review meeting.

People always say stay away from agencies promising guaranteed rankings or first-page results, but the real danger is those charging a monthly retainer without delivering any actual work. I've seen agencies claim we're constantly monitoring the site and literally send nothing but two keyword rank reports over 6 months. If there's no concrete deliverable, align the payment schedule accordingly.

def talk through the contnet part carefully. an agency once tried to pass off gibberish ai-generated text to us as actual content. honestly make sure who writes the copy, who signs off on industry terms and revision limits are spelled out in the contract or youll be paying for total garbage.

I recommend drafting an addendum that clearly defines the boundaries of responsibility for each party. By adding a Statement of Work (SOW) schedule to the contract, operational tasks directly managed by the provider should be separated from tasks assigned to the client's development team, complete with a weekly or monthly sign-off workflow.

So what happens if the agency breaks a page or messes up the design while making changes to the site? Who's legally liable for that? Do we need to add a mandatory backup clause to the contract?

edit: I wrote something wrong above, sorry about that.

It's rare to find an explanation this clear.

To get into the details: Every "we'll look at it later" in a meeting means unbilled work.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for posting. btw solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you're going this route, sort this out first. People defend habits, not processes. Resistance comes from there.

In legacy systems, the most expensive thing is unknown dependencies. Hope this helps.

I didn't know that.

I disagree with you on this point. Everyone rushing into seo proposal gets stuck at the same point.

The cheapest quote is usually the least thought-out one. Hope this helps.

I agree.

How did you solve this? If scope grows, either time or budget must grow. There is no third option.

Every "we'll look at it later" in a meeting means unbilled work.

The answer above hits the nail on the head. The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

The discussion got scattered, let me summarize. When you try to change everything at once, nothing settles.

If I were you, I'd go this route.