Monthly SEO packages can look alike from the outside: a price, a tier name and a list of jargon. What matters is the work that happens each month and whether you can see it. This guide explains what a monthly SEO package should include, step by step, using our own packages as a worked example.
What is a monthly SEO package?
A monthly SEO package is an ongoing search engine optimization service sold at a fixed monthly price. The first month is spent setting up the campaign; after that, each month adds on-page improvements, content, links and reporting. Tiers usually differ in how many keyphrases and pages are optimized and how much content and link building is delivered.
Month one: setting up the campaign
A good package starts by understanding the website before changing it. In the first month you should expect:
- Technical website analysis: crawling the site for errors, speed and indexing problems.
- Competition analysis: who ranks for your searches and why.
- Backlink and duplicate content analysis: the links you already have and pages that compete with each other.
- Mobile usability check.
- Keyword research and selection, then keyword mapping so each target search has one page responsible for it.
- Tracking: Google Analytics with conversion tracking, so results are measured in enquiries and sales, not only rankings.
This is why the first month often costs more. For example, our Silver package is $490 a month but $680 in the first month, which includes the campaign setup.
On-page optimization
These are the changes made to your own website:
- Title tags and meta descriptions written for the target keyphrases.
- Headings (H1 and below) that match what each page is about.
- Image optimization, a custom 404 page and robots.txt optimization.
- Structured data (JSON-LD schema) so search engines understand the page.
- An XML sitemap created and submitted, and internal links restructured.
Content, every month
From the second month, a package should produce content. In our packages this means official blog posts and informational articles each month (1 on Silver, 2 on Gold, 4 on Platinum), plus guest blog articles written for outreach, and infographics on the higher tiers.
Link building and authority
Search engines still treat links from relevant, reputable websites as a sign of trust. Ethical link building in a monthly package includes earned media content assets (4, 8 or 16 a quarter across our tiers), guest blog outreach (2, 4 or 8), Q&A posting, press release distribution and, on the higher tiers, competitor and broken link building. Be wary of any package that promises a number of links without saying where they come from.
Reporting you can check
Ongoing SEO should come with monthly reports you can understand. Look for:
- A search engine rank report and quarterly keyword ranking reports.
- A Google Analytics report showing traffic and conversions.
- An activity report listing the work done that month.
- A task management platform where you can see work in progress.
How the tiers compare
- Silver, $490 a month: up to 20 keyphrases and 10 pages optimized.
- Gold, $990 a month: up to 50 keyphrases and 20 pages, plus competitor and broken link building and A/B testing of search titles and descriptions.
- Platinum, $1,990 a month: up to 100 keyphrases and 50 pages, with the most content and links and ongoing user experience reporting.
You can compare every deliverable in our SEO packages, or read how search engine optimization works first.
What a monthly SEO package cannot promise
No one controls Google's rankings, so an honest package never guarantees a position. What it should guarantee is the work: a documented plan, the deliverables listed for your tier, and clear reports showing what was done and what changed. Established websites typically start to see movement within three to four months; new websites take longer.
