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Monthly SEO retainers · Clients in 14 countries

A senior SEO team for
a fixed monthly fee.

Set hours, a named strategist and a shared tracker that shows every task. Retainers suit businesses that want SEO handled every month without hiring in-house. A good SEO lead costs about US$6,800 a month in Dubai, and more in London or New York, before tools.

Book a free strategy callCompare retainer plans

From US$950/mo (AED 3,500) · 30 days' notice · Unused hours roll over for a month

Retainer hours · OctoberGrowth plan · 40 hrs
38.5 hrsused, 1.5 roll over
  • Content14 h
  • Technical9 h
  • Links & PR8 h
  • Reporting4 h
  • Strategy3.5 h
Sprint 2114–27 Oct
  • Fix 214 redirect chainsDone
  • Rewrite off-plan page, EN + PTIn review
  • FAQ schema on 12 Portuguese pagesDone
  • Pitch Q3 rent data to PúblicoSent

40 hrs

average monthly hours on our Growth plan

26 months

average retainer length, with no lock-in

1

named strategist on every call

48 hrs

maximum wait for an answer from us

Who it's for

For teams that want SEO off their desk

A retainer makes sense once you know SEO works for you and want it run steadily, without scoping a new project every quarter. Most retainer clients came to us for an audit or a one-off fix first.

Good fit if

  • You've seen SEO bring in leads and you want more
  • You don't have an in-house SEO, or yours needs support
  • You want one invoice and one report each month
  • You publish in two or more languages and need them all kept up

Probably not yet if

  • You haven't had an audit. Start there, it costs less.
  • You need a one-off site migration. We quote those separately.
  • You expect a big jump in the first 30 days

A month on retainer

Where October's hours went

Logged hours from a Growth plan for a Lisbon property developer. The client sees this exact view in the tracker, updated daily.

Week 1

1–7 Oct

10 h

  • Sprint planning call1h
  • Crawl and Core Web Vitals check3h
  • Fix 214 redirect chains4h
  • Brief two Portuguese pages2h

Week 2

8–14 Oct

10 h

  • Write off-plan page, English4h
  • Write Portuguese version from its own brief4h
  • Internal links to both pages2h

Week 3

15–21 Oct

9.5 h

  • Mid-month check-in0.5h
  • Rent data story for outreach4h
  • Pitch five property editors3h
  • FAQ schema on 12 Portuguese pages2h

Week 4

22–31 Oct

9 h

  • Two placements go live2h
  • Refresh three ageing pages4h
  • Monthly report and call3h

38.5 of 40 hours used

1.5 hours roll over to November

What's included

What a retainer covers

Hours flex between these four areas. You see the split in the tracker and approve it on the monthly call.

Every month

Technical upkeep

Crawl monitoring, Core Web Vitals, broken links and redirects. We check your developers' releases before they cost you rankings.

Every month

New and refreshed content

Two to six pages a month in your languages, chosen from the keyword map we agree each quarter.

Every month

Links and mentions

Earned placements in the media your buyers read, plus partner sites and directories, logged with URL and authority score.

Every month

Reporting and strategy

One report, one 30-minute call and a quarterly plan review. Questions from your team answered within 48 hours.

Deliverables

What comes with every plan

The plan size changes the hours. These six things come with all of them.

  • Named strategist

    One senior person who knows your business and joins every call.

    Always

  • Shared tracker

    Every task, owner and hour, visible to anyone on your team.

    Always

  • Quarterly SEO plan

    Goals, target pages and how the hours split for the next 90 days.

    Quarterly

  • Content batch

    Two to six new or refreshed pages in each language you publish in.

    Monthly

  • Link report

    New placements with live URLs and the pages they support.

    Monthly

  • Report and review call

    Rankings, organic leads, hours used and next month's plan.

    Monthly

Process

How a retainer starts

Month one is setup. From month two you're on a regular rhythm you can plan around.

  1. 01

    Audit

    A full audit if you don't have a recent one. It sets the priorities for the first quarter.

  2. 02

    Quarterly plan

    Goals, target pages and the hours split across technical work, content and links.

  3. 03

    Fortnightly sprints

    Two sprints a month, planned in hours, shipped and logged in the tracker.

  4. 04

    Quarterly review

    Every three months we hold the plan up against results and reset priorities.

Results

What year one looks like

Medians across 31 retainer clients who stayed at least twelve months.

+212%

Organic traffic over twelve months

3.4x

Organic leads, month one to month twelve

94%

Of retainer hours spent on shipped work

US$8

Average cost per organic lead in year one

“It's like having an SEO team in the office, minus the hiring.”

We tried freelancers, then a big network agency. The retainer is the first setup where I can see every hour and every task. Twenty months in, organic search brings more leads than our Idealista and Imovirtual listings put together.

Inês Carvalho · Marketing Manager, Casa Lumen · Lisbon
Organic leads per quarterCasa Lumen
486up from 112 in Q1 2025

20 months

on retainer, month to month

4.3x

organic leads in that time

US$7

cost per organic lead

Pricing

From US$950 a month (AED 3,500)

Retainers are priced by monthly hours. Move up or down a plan with 30 days' notice. Unused hours roll over for one month.

See all plans and pricing

Starter

16 hours a month, one language, quarterly planning

US$950/ mo (AED 3,500)

Growth

40 hours, two languages, fortnightly sprints

US$2,050/ mo (AED 7,500)

Scale

80+ hours across several sites or markets, weekly standups

Customquote

FAQ

What owners ask about retainers

Short answers here. Longer ones on the call.

Is there a minimum term?

No. Retainers run month to month with 30 days' notice. Most clients stay because the numbers keep moving.

Can we change plans?

Yes, with 30 days' notice. Seasonal businesses often drop to Starter over the summer and step back up in September.

Do you write in other languages?

Yes. English and Arabic are in-house, and native writers cover French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Hindi. Each language starts from its own keyword research. We never machine-translate.

What happens to unused hours?

They roll over for one month, then expire. We flag any unused balance at the mid-month check-in so nothing gets wasted.

Who will we talk to?

One named strategist joins every call, booked in your time zone, and answers your messages. Specialists do the technical, content and link work behind them.

How do we see what was done?

Every task sits in a shared tracker with hours logged against it, and the monthly report links to each change.

Often paired with a retainer

All services
One-off project

SEO audits

Most retainers start with an audit. It sets the first quarter's priorities.

See the audit
AI search

AEO & GEO

Add AI citation tracking to a retainer for US$820 a month (AED 3,000).

Explore AI search
Google Maps

Local SEO

Branch-level Google Business Profile work, billed inside the same hours.

Explore local SEO

Retainer plans

Hand SEO to a team that
shows its work.

Book a 30-minute call. We'll look at your current SEO, suggest a plan size and send a fixed monthly quote the same week.

Book a free strategy callWhatsApp us
  • No long-term contracts
  • Writers in 7 languages
  • Based in Dubai, working worldwide