Month-to-month vs. long-term SEO contracts: which should you sign?

Month to month, or a short minimum, as long as you own every account and everything they make for you. SEO takes time to show, but you don't need a long lock-in to see if it's working. What matters more than the term is what you keep when you leave.

How long SEO takes, in Google's words

Google's own starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months. It suggests waiting a few weeks to judge whether a change helped. So a short minimum is fair: the work needs time. A long contract just adds lock-in on top.

Google also says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself. Its SEO starter guide is a good place to start, even if you hire someone later.

What you should own, either way

• Your Google Business Profile. A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. That should be you. Add the agency as a manager: managers can edit almost everything, but can't add or remove users or delete the profile.
• Your Search Console property. You should be the verified owner and give the agency a user role. For an audit, Google advises read access only.
• Your domain and website. Registered to you, in your account. The same rule applies to monthly website plans.
• The work itself. Pages, posts and reports they write for you should stay with you when you leave. Get that in writing.

What you're locked into

Read the contract for four things, in plain numbers: the minimum term, the notice period, any early-exit fee, and whether it renews on its own. Then ask what happens to the work when you cancel. If pages they wrote come down when you stop paying, you were renting them.

What to ask before you sign

Google publishes its own list of questions for hiring an SEO. A few of the best:

• Can you show me examples of your previous work?
• Do you follow the Google Search Essentials?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
• How do you measure your success?
• Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site?

Add two of your own: Can I go month to month after the minimum? And what do I keep if I leave?

Walk away from anyone who guarantees a #1 ranking. Google says no one can, and that it never accepts money to rank sites in its organic results.

When a longer contract is fine

If you already know the agency's work, the longer term really is cheaper, and you own every account, a longer contract can be a fair trade. The risk isn't the length. It's length without ownership.

Our terms, as the worked example

We don't sell SEO on its own. Getting seen (Google Business Profile, local listings, a launch announcement) is part of Launch Partner: a 6-month minimum, then month to month. Our $100/month website plan has a $400 early-exit fee only in the first 6 months, and your domain and content stay yours. Every price we charge is on our pricing page.

Related: Do you have to pay monthly for a website? · Why is my website not showing up on Google?

Sources: how long SEO takes: Google Search Central: SEO starter guide; questions to ask, audit access and ranking guarantees: Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?; profile ownership: Google Business Profile Help: owners and managers; Search Console roles: Search Console Help: owners, users and permissions. Our own terms are published on the pricing page.