Discipline 04 · Retained

SEO that earns
its place at
the table.

The OSOF™ discipline, run as a 12-month retainer. Technical, editorial and architectural. By people who can actually do all three, not three different freelancers passing files.

What actually happens, every month.

01 · Foundations

Technical audit and fixes

Crawl, index, render, schema, internal links, page weight, Core Web Vitals. Fixed in our build, not handed to your dev as a 40-page PDF.

02 · Architecture

Topical authority maps

The clusters your category should own, mapped against the ones it currently does. Then a 12-month editorial calendar that closes the gap.

03 · Editorial

Long-form content, written by humans

4–8 pieces per month, briefed by us, written by senior writers, published on your site with the meta and schema baked in.

04 · Authority

Earned coverage and digital PR

The unsexy work of getting your name in places search engines respect. No outreach blasts, no PBNs, no bought links. Ever.

05 · Reporting

Monthly review, in person

One hour a month, in your office or ours, with the founders. Not an account manager with a screenshot of GA4.

06 · Compounding

Quarterly playbook updates

Every 90 days we rewrite the playbook based on what's working. Strategy is not a deliverable. It's a posture.

Common questions.

How quickly will we see results?

Honest answer: directional movement in 8–12 weeks, meaningful commercial movement at 6 months, the curve gets serious at 9–12. Anyone selling you faster than that is selling you risk. Our average retained client triples organic revenue inside 18 months. But we plan for the 18, not the three.

Do you do paid search too?

Yes, but bundled into a wider engagement. We don't sell standalone PPC. We found we couldn't do it well enough.

Will you sign an NDA?

Always, before the first call. Mutual. Standard form, no negotiation needed in 19 cases out of 20.

What size of business is this for?

Most of our clients sit between £2m and £80m turnover. Below that the retainer is hard to justify; above that we usually run alongside an in-house team rather than replacing it.

Can we just do the technical audit?

Yes. Starting at £6,400 + VAT, three weeks. Includes a 90 minute walkthrough with your dev team. About 1 in 4 audit clients become retained ones. The rest get a clean roadmap and our blessing to run with it.

What if it isn't working?

Break clause at month six, no questions, no kill fee. We've used it twice in twelve years. Both times we agreed the fit was wrong before the client did.

Want a second opinion on your search?

Thirty minutes, free. We will tell you what we'd do differently and you'll get a one-page roadmap whether or not we work together.

Book the call →