Estates panel 2
What search work costs for a unit on a park
Two suppliers can quote the same list of tasks and differ by a factor of ten. This page explains where that gap comes from and how to read a proposal before you sign it.
Why two quotes for the same job differ so widely
Search work has no unit of measurement a buyer can check. A quote of £300 a month and a quote ten times larger can describe an identical list of tasks. The difference is usually hours, seniority and whether anything gets delivered.
A firm on Stafford Park has no way to audit that from the outside. The only real defence is a proposal that states deliverables rather than activities.
Activity language sounds like ongoing optimisation and monthly monitoring. Deliverable language sounds like two rewritten capability pages and one technical fix list. Only the second kind can be checked at the end of the month.
The three models
How search work is normally priced
Fixed fee for a defined piece of work
A fixed fee suits anything with a clear end. An audit, a baseline, a set of page rewrites and a technical fix list all have a finish line. The risk sits with the supplier rather than with you.
This is the model behind the £400 AI Visibility Sprint. Seven days, five shipped fixes and a dated re-check.
Monthly retainer
A retainer buys a block of work every month and suits work that never finishes. Content, technical maintenance and reporting all sit in that category.
The honest version of a retainer states what a month contains. A retainer that only promises effort is a standing order with a report attached.
Payment by result
Payment by result sounds fair and rarely is. Rankings can be bought on phrases nobody searches for. A lead can be counted twice.
The model also pushes a supplier towards short term tactics. Anything that risks a penalty in year two is perfectly rational for someone paid on month three.
What a fixed £400 can honestly cover
A fixed fee of £400 covers a baseline and a small number of shipped fixes. It does not cover a content programme, a rebuild or six months of anything. Saying so plainly is the whole point of quoting a fixed number.
The Sprint runs for seven days. It tests whether four assistants name your firm for the questions your buyers type, ships five concrete fixes, and sets a dated re-check.
Anything larger than that needs either a bigger fixed fee or a retainer. A supplier quoting £400 for a full programme is either misunderstanding the work or planning not to do it.
The floor
What £600 a month buys
A fixed block of work each month: the technical fix list worked through in priority order, one or two substantial pages written or rewritten, and a Search Console report on what actually moved.
It is deliberately month to month. If the work stops being worth the fee, you should be able to stop it without an argument about a contract term.
Five questions to put to any proposal
Five questions separate a real proposal from a template. Ask all five before any money moves.
| What ships this month | A named list of deliverables. Two rewritten pages and a fix list is an answer. Ongoing optimisation is not. |
|---|---|
| Who does the work | The person on the call or somebody else. Ask directly, because the gap between the two explains most price differences. |
| What the reporting source is | Google Search Console and Google Analytics are checkable by you. A supplier only reporting from its own rank tracker is marking its own homework. |
| What happens if it does not work | A re-check date and a written view at that date. Nobody can promise a position, and everybody can promise a review point. |
| How the work stops | Notice period, ownership of the pages written, and access to every account created on your behalf. |
What a Telford unit should not pay for
Bulk directory submissions are the clearest waste. A hundred low quality listings create a hundred chances for your Halesfield or Hortonwood address to be rewritten into something inconsistent.
Guaranteed first position offers are the second. Nobody controls the ranking system, so a guarantee is only ever a refund clause with marketing wrapped around it.
Paid press release distribution is the third. The links carry no weight and the coverage reaches nobody who buys what you make.
Anything sold on volume is the pattern here. Ten pages a month, fifty links a month and a hundred listings a month are all counts rather than outcomes.
The two published figures
AI Visibility Sprint, fixed FIXED
Seven days. Agreed before anything starts and not adjusted afterwards.
per month, retainer floor FIXED
Month to month, no minimum term. The floor rather than the price.
marginal cost of an organic click MECHANISM
A ranked page does not charge per visitor, which is why the spend stops looking expensive in year two.
Public consultation
Common questions about what this costs
Why is there no price list beyond a retainer floor?
The floor is the honest part. £600 a month is the point below which the block of work described cannot be delivered properly. Above that the figure depends on how many pages a site has and how much technical debt it carries.
Do you charge for the first conversation?
No. A call to work out whether the Sprint or the retainer fits your firm costs nothing and carries no obligation.
Can we start with the Sprint and stop there?
Yes. Plenty of firms should stop there. The Sprint produces a written baseline and five shipped fixes that stay useful whether or not anything follows.
Is there a minimum term on the retainer?
No. The retainer runs month to month and stops when you say so. A minimum term protects the supplier and nobody else.
Does a unit on a park cost more to work on than a shop?
The cost is usually similar and the work is not. A shop needs the map pack and a steady flow of reviews. A unit needs capability pages and specification detail that a buyer two counties away can read.
See both figures in full
The pricing page sets out both figures and the reasoning behind each one. Nothing on it changes after work has started.
£400 fixed for the Sprint. £600 a month is the retainer floor.