SEO proposal template

An SEO proposal template that you’ll love

Landing SEO clients requires convincing them that you are the right SEO agency for them when they ask for a quote. The easiest way to get started is with an SEO proposal template.

Unfortunately there are too many shady players in the SEO game. SEO takes time and is an uncertain science. Some operators exploit this for a quick buck or for overpriced superficial changes. As a professional SEO agency your task is to convey your knowledge and prove to your client that your proposal has true value. You need to show that you are not cowboys that will land the client with a Google penalty nor are you selling hot air. The question is, how to convey the value?

With a compelling online proposal that shows you “get it”.

Your SEO services should not be a checklist of what you will do. Yes by all means break down your processes and ease understanding but focus on highlighting the value your agency brings to the table. Above all, show that you understand your client’s needs and demonstrate why they are in safe hands. Differentiate yourself by explaining why you follow a certain approach.

Don’t forget to tailor your document to the client. By customizing the proposal template to each client and situation you can dramatically improve your win rate. Our data suggests that a personalized proposal will more often than not beat a generic one. It’s for this reason that we make our templates easy to adapt. How? By leveraging software to easily and quickly build proposals that appear tailor made for the reader.

Here at Nusii we’ve put a lot of effort into creating an intuitive interface that is loaded with features for quick personalization. Our features include, but are not limited to, reusable sections, drag and drop builder, autofills, and smart variables that auto-update client details. You’ll be able to choose and customize one of our templates (or your own!) and send multiple proposals out easily. Now, that’s a time saver!

Can’t wait to get started? Have a look at our templates or sign up for a free trial.

How to create an SEO Proposal from a template

You might be a marketing agency that offers SEO services, an SEO consultant or a specialist SEO team. Either way you’ll need to send out proposals to clients and if you want your business to grow it’s important to get this right. You’ll need to strike a balance between being very clear on what services you are offering and persuasively conveying the value you bring. Using a template helps but ultimately your ability to customize it in a way that will land you clients is what will make the difference. We’ve identified 7 critical parts of any proposal and we’ll walk you through what to do and what to avoid for each one. Let’s get started!

1. Cover & title

Well the first part is kind of straight forward but nevertheless a lot of agencies try to overcomplicate it. The key to a good proposal title is making sure it is descriptive. If you are only providing SEO auditing services, for example, then a good title would be SEO Audit Proposal. It’s easy to forget that proposals are often forwarded to different members of a team or land in a busy inbox so it’s best to stay on point.

The cover image is the first visual element your prospective client will see so it’s worth making sure you are picking something that really represents both your agency and the content of the proposal. SEO proposals lend themselves to abstract imagery, you don’t necessarily need to include SEO elements in the image although you should choose a modern and digital-friendly vibe. Once you have made your choice you should check that the title and information that appears on the background is legible. If you are using Nusii proposal software you can easily tweak the shade overlay to help white lettering stand out or to adjust the contrast to your taste. Of course you can also switch up the colors and font but try to stay consistent throughout the document to reinforce your branding.

2. Problem & goals

If your client needs SEO services there is usually an underlying problem they are trying to fix. This might range from wanting to implement a site redesign, develop a content strategy, conduct a technical audit or simply build more backlinks. Before sending your proposal you should make time to get on a Zoom call and talk to your client so you make sure you are on the same page. The most important part of this call is to capture their needs.

During the call you may find the client does not articulate the needs in the same way that you think of your services. They might tell you they want to “rank better” or, even worse, “get to number 1”. We’ve all heard this before but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, you just have to dig deeper to find out what the ultimate goal is and what SEO needs need fulfilling. Correctly identifying this is crucial to your proposal.

In this section of the proposal you will clearly and concisely define the needs that you uncovered in the call. This will reassure the client that you were listening and understand them. That already puts you ahead of others who skip over this section.

Once you have stated the needs, you should state the goals of your proposals. The goals should be a response that correlates directly to the needs. If they are unrelated then something is wrong. Let’s go through a simple example:

Problem/Need: “The client website receives less organic traffic from search engines than it used to. The client has identified a correlation with dipping e-commerce revenue.”

Goal: “Identify the cause of declining organic traffic and suggest changes to improve rankings on high purchase-intent traffic”

Notice how the goal is the answer to the problem.

3. Proposed solution

In this part of the proposal you will explain what you plan to do exactly. This is what most people think of when we talk about SEO proposals. Our main advice is to avoid the temptation to list everything you will do. Instead you should aim to show how you will add value. Focus, for example, on building trust by demonstrating your expertise, on highlighting the areas where you go beyond regular services and on the past and current clients that you already work with. If they are from the same industry this will implicitly show that you’ll bring more value than another agency who does not have industry references.

Sometimes it is worth explaining some pitfalls to the client, such as why they should avoid agencies who promise number 1 rankings in a certain amount of weeks. However, if you choose this kind of argument you should be careful not to be overly critical and instead persuasively explain why your approach is more reasonable, intelligent and likely to succeed.

Highlight the process that you use and why you believe in it. There’s no need to go into a deep level of technicality here. Just stick to high level concepts and show proof that your methodology is grounded in the latest SEO best-practice and that it delivers results.

Setting the right tone is also important. You should be authoritative but not arrogant. Show that you’ve thought this through but don’t talk down to the client or assume he/she knows nothing of SEO.

4. Scope

With SEO proposals in particular, defining the scope is crucial. Some clients may expect you to provide an audit even though they only contracted a link building campaign. Others will expect you to implement changes, not just recommend them. SEO can be slow to produce results and clients understandably get anxious so it is very important to set a clear scope from the outset.

Having said that, try to keep this section brief and concise.

5. Benefits

This is probably the most overlooked part of a winning proposal. It is where you explicitly state the benefits of working with you and preps the customer to accept the pricing on the following section.

Right at the beginning of our proposal we looked at needs and goals. The benefits should be a logical extension of the needs and goals that we stated. Let’s use the same example as looked at earlier:

Problem/Need: “The client website receives less organic traffic from search engines than it used to. The client has identified a correlation with dipping e-commerce revenue.”

Goal: “Identify the cause of declining organic traffic and suggest changes to improve rankings on high purchase-intent traffic”

A logical benefit might be as follows: “Gain understanding of the underlying causes of account performance. Receive clear instructions on how to improve rankings for the right keywords and ultimately add revenue to your bottom line”

You might want to include a short case study here focused on the benefits a previous client got from a similar project.

6. Pricing

Pricing is always delicate and it helps to know the client budget in advance. In your initial client call, even if you can’t get a read on the precise budget you can tease out what might be the drivers of their decision (quality, price, trust etc)

Based on the information you have you will need to build a value based pricing section. According to our studies optional pricing will result in a higher win rate. Let us explain. Optional pricing is a method of allowing the client to choose between packages at different price points. This tiered system means that you don’t lose clients on pricing alone and you don’t lose out on high paying clients by being too conservative. As you have multiple tiers you can set the highest one as high as you feel you’re worth.

7. Timeline and cta

Before asking for a signature, be sure to be clear on schedules and timelines. One way to incentivize sign-off is to frame the project length using the sign-off date as a marker. This will help the client understand that the quicker they sign, the earlier they’ll see results.

If you’re using Nusii you’ll enjoy e-signatures which also raises win rates as clients love to e-sign. Another advantage is it helps you track when the client opens, reads and signs which means you can time your follow up communication to perfection.