How to Bill Clients as an SEO Consultant

SEO work has a natural two-act rhythm: a chunky one-off audit to kick things off, then a calm monthly retainer that quietly funds the ongoing grind of content, links, and technical fixes. Fee-Lion is built for exactly that shape — get paid up front for the audit, put the retainer on autopilot, and bill any extra hours without chasing anyone.

Act one: the audit estimate with a deposit

Your audit is real, billable work before a single ranking moves, so quote it as a fixed-scope estimate and ask for a deposit so you’re paid to start.

1. From the left sidebar, open Estimates and create a new one for the client.
2. Add a fee line for the audit itself (a flat qty × rate), then break out the pieces — technical crawl, keyword research, competitor analysis — as separate fees or tasks (hours × rate) so the client sees what they’re buying.
3. Set your tax and a deposit % on the estimate. To stop re-typing these, save them once under Settings → Preferences (Estimates, tax, deposit defaults).
4. Send it. The client opens a magic-link portal — no login — approves, and pays the deposit by card. The money lands in your own Stripe.

Tip: A 50% deposit on the audit is common, and it does two jobs at once — it funds the work and it quietly filters out tire-kickers who were never going to commit to a retainer.

Act two: the monthly retainer on recurring invoices

Once the audit lands and the client agrees to ongoing work, switch from one-off billing to a retainer that bills itself on the same day every month.

1. In the sidebar, go to Invoices and create a recurring invoice for the retainer amount.
2. Set the cadence to monthly and pick the billing day — the 1st keeps it tidy.
3. Turn on auto-pay so the client’s card is charged automatically each cycle. Invite them to enroll from the portal once and you’ll both stop thinking about it.

That’s the whole point of a retainer: predictable income for you, predictable progress for them, and zero monthly “did you get my invoice?” emails.

Billing extra work outside the retainer

Retainers cover a set scope, but SEO clients always want one more thing — a site migration, a penalty recovery, a batch of new landing pages. Track that time and bill it cleanly instead of eating it.

• Use Time Tracking (or the built-in timer) to log hours against the client as you work.
• When the month closes, bill tracked time to an invoice — either a separate one-off or added to the next cycle.
• Big new initiative? Spin up a one-off estimate first so the client approves the spend before you start.

Keep an eye on the money

Open the Reports section to watch retainers renew, spot any invoice slipping past due, and drill into which clients drive your revenue. If a card declines on a recurring charge, you’ll see it before it becomes a problem — and you can send a reminder in a click.

Tip: Tag your invoices “audit” and “retainer” so your revenue report instantly shows how much of your income is steady recurring money versus one-time projects. That ratio is the health score of an SEO practice.

What’s next

• Collect a deposit on an estimate
• Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices
• Turn on auto-pay
• Bill tracked time to an invoice