The short answer. A good SEO agency splits its time between technical work, content, authority (links, mentions and coverage) and reporting. The first months lean towards technical fixes. After that, most of the time goes into content and authority. Every month you should get a list of what was done, with links, and a report on what changed.
Month one: find out where you stand
The first month should look different from the rest. It's mostly finding out what's wrong and what matters:
- A technical crawl of your site, and a list of fixes in order of impact
- Research into the searches and questions your customers use, and who ranks for them
- A check of what AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews say about you
- Checks that your analytics, Search Console and conversion tracking are working
- The quick technical fixes, done
- A plan for the next 90 days, with named deliverables
Months two and three: the foundations
Most of the technical list should be fixed by the end of month three. Alongside that, expect structured data, your business details made consistent across your site and listings, and your most important pages rewritten so they answer questions clearly.
Months four to six: content and authority
Once the foundations are in place, the balance shifts. Most of the time now goes into new pages for searches you should be showing up for, refreshing pages that are slipping, and earning links, mentions and coverage on other sites. This is usually when growth from search starts to show.
Month seven onwards
New topics, more coverage, improving pages that get visits but not enquiries, and technical checks in the background. Every quarter, the plan should be reviewed and reset.
What your monthly report should show
- What was done, with a link to each page, fix, listing or piece of coverage
- Clicks and impressions from Google and Bing, against last month and last year
- Enquiries, calls or sales from search
- Movement on an agreed set of keywords
- How AI tools describe and recommend you
- What will be delivered next month
Signs of a padded plan
- The same tasks every month, with no change as the site improves
- Rankings for searches nobody makes
- Activity reported without links to the actual work
- No mention of enquiries or sales
- Links bought in bulk, which Google treats as spam (we explain why in should you buy backlinks?)
How our plans work
Our search plans follow this pattern, with AI search checked and reported every month. Each plan lists its monthly deliverables and has a fixed price. See plans and pricing.