An SEO contract comes together from eight parts: the work, the term, the payment, the reports, account access, client data, who owns the work, and how it ends. Each part puts one plain answer in writing before the work starts. Write your answers first, then have a lawyer turn them into contract wording.
What goes in an SEO service agreement?
Eight parts go in an SEO service agreement. Four set the deal: the work, the term, the payment and the way it ends. Four cover what passes between you and the client: the reports, account access, client data and the finished work.
Here's what each part says, and one question to answer in it.
| Part | What it says | A question to answer in it |
|---|---|---|
| The work | Which SEO tasks you'll do, and which ones you won't | What's on the list each month, and what's left off? |
| The term | When the agreement starts and how long it runs | Does it renew by itself, and on what date? |
| The payment | The fee, the day it's due and the way it's paid | What happens when a payment comes in late? |
| The reports | What you'll send the client, and how often | Which data does each report draw on? |
| Account access | Which of the client's accounts you may sign in to | Who on your side signs in, and at what level? |
| Client data | Which client data you may see, and what you may do with it | Who else will see it: staff, a contractor, a partner firm? |
| Who owns the work | Who owns the pages, the words and the reports you make | When does the work change hands, if it does? |
| How it ends | How either side can end the agreement | How much notice does it take, and what gets handed back? |
Six of the parts need a closer look.
The work
List the tasks by name. Then list what isn't included. Two short lists help both sides read the agreement the same way.
If you're starting from someone else's document, give each of the eight parts a second look. For what to change in a borrowed template, see SEO contract templates.
The term and the payment
Set the start date, the length and the renewal. Put the fee, the due date and the way it's paid right beside them.
A term can be long, short or open. DeskTeam360's plan, for one, is a flat monthly rate with no contracts. Your agreement with a client is a separate paper, and its term is for the two of you to set.
The reports and account access
Say what you'll send, how often, and which data it comes out of. For the reporting clause, see reporting terms in an SEO agreement.
For access, name each account the client lets you into and the level you get. Name who on your side may sign in, too.
How it ends
Say how either side ends the agreement and how much notice it takes. Then list what you give back on the last day: logins, files and reports.
What should a professional SEO services contract say about results?
A professional SEO services contract can promise the work and the reports. Leave a ranking promise out of it. Google's page on hiring an SEO says, "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google".
It also warns businesses about SEOs who claim they can guarantee rankings. And if an SEO guarantees first place in the search results, Google's advice is to find someone else.
So the results part of the contract can say three things:
- What you'll do. Point back to the work list.
- What you'll report. Name the numbers and the place each one comes out of.
- What isn't promised. Say in plain words that no place in the search results is promised.
Questions to take to a lawyer before you sign a client:
- How do we word the line that says a ranking isn't promised?
- If the contract names a goal, what happens when the goal isn't met?
- Can the client end the agreement early over results, and how?
Our team's call is a short one, with no obligation attached, and it's a place to sort out who'll do the tasks on your work list.
What does an SEO services agreement say about client data and who owns the work?
This part of the agreement says two things: who may see the client's data, and who owns the work once it's made. California's privacy law has words on the first. The US Copyright Office has words on the second.
Client data
Start with a list: which of the client's accounts and files you'll see, and who on your side will see them. Then read what California's privacy law says. For the law's own words, see Which California rules apply when a helper works under my brand?.
The law has a name for a person that handles personal information on a business's behalf, under a written contract: a "service provider". It says that contract bars the service provider from selling or sharing the information. The law's list of what the contract bars goes on past that first item.
The same law speaks to helpers. It says that when a service provider brings in someone else to help handle the data, the service provider must tell the business. The helper, it says, has to work under a written contract that holds it to the same limits. We print these words whichever helper you pick, and our own team is one of them.
To be covered, a business has to do business in California and meet at least one of three tests:
- Its yearly revenue is over a set amount. The law's base figure is $25,000,000, adjusted over time. California's privacy agency gives the adjusted test as $26.625 million or more, effective January 1, 2025.
- In the law's words, it "annually buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households".
- It gets 50 percent or more of its yearly revenue from selling or sharing personal information.
The law also says what data it means. By the law, "personal information" is information that, in its words, "could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household". Its list names an email address, an Internet Protocol address, search history, and a person's use of a website.
The law says two kinds of data are left out of the term: deidentified data and aggregate consumer information. Aggregate means data about a group, with single people's identities removed, that can't be linked to a consumer or household.
Whether your agency is a "service provider" under this law is a question for a lawyer. So is whether a helper who signs in to a client's tracking account handles personal information.
Questions to bring to that talk:
- Which of the client's accounts and files will we see?
- Who else will see them: staff, a contractor, a partner firm?
- Does our agreement say whether we name our helpers to the client?
- What happens to the client's data on the day the agreement ends?
Who owns the work
Say in writing who owns the pages, the words and the reports, and when. Then hold your wording up against what the US Copyright Office says about a "work made for hire".
The Office says a work made for hire comes about in two ways. One is work an employee creates as part of that employee's regular duties. The other is a certain type of work made under an express written agreement with the party that ordered it.
For ordered work, the Office lists four tests, and the work has to pass all four. The work fits one of nine listed categories. A written agreement exists. That agreement says the work is a work made for hire. All parties sign it.
When a work is made for hire, the Office says the author and copyright owner is the employer, or the party that ordered the work.
We don't list the nine categories here, and we don't say whether any kind of marketing work is in them. That's a question for a lawyer. If a helper makes part of the work, bring your agreement with that helper to the same talk.
The fee in your contract is one side of your margin, and what the work costs you is the other. For what to count in your margin, see SEO agency profit margin.
A contract is a set of plain answers: what you'll do, what you'll send, who sees the data, who owns the work, and how it ends. To sort out who does the work behind those answers, book a short call with our team. There's no obligation.
This isn't legal or tax advice.