# SEO Service — Playbook

**Tier scope:** SEO Basic ($497/mo) · SEO Intermediate ($997/mo) · SEO Advanced ($1,997/mo)

**Time budget per month per tier:**
- Basic: ~8-10 person-hours/mo (10 pages cleanup, 1 blog, GBP setup one-time + light maintenance)
- Intermediate: ~16-20 person-hours/mo (25 pages, 2 blogs, 2 citations, 2 backlinks, GBP monthly)
- Advanced: ~32-40 person-hours/mo (full site, 4 blogs, 2 rewrites, 5 citations, 5 backlinks, GBP weekly)

**Owner:** Offshore team lead
**US reviewer:** SEO lead
**Customer-facing SLA:**
- First audit + month-1 plan within 5 business days of intake + CMS access
- Monthly reporting by 5th business day of next month

## Required intake fields

Section A, **Section C-7 (questions 27-32 from C-2 plus 56-60)**. Hard blocks:

- Q27/Q28 — CMS access
- Q56 — target keywords (5-15)
- Q57 — geographic SEO scope
- Q59 — GBP listing (if local biz)

## Cadence overview

| Tier | Pages cleanup | Blog/SEO pages | Citations | Backlinks | Existing page rewrites | GBP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Up to 10 | 1/mo (800-1,200w) | – | – | – | One-time setup |
| Intermediate | Up to 25 | 2/mo (1,200-1,800w + images) | 2/mo | 2/mo | – | Monthly: 2 posts + Q&A |
| Advanced | Full site | 4/mo (1,500-2,500w + custom graphics) | 5/mo | 5/mo | 2/mo | Weekly: 4 posts + reviews mgmt |

## Step-by-step execution

### Month 1 — Onboarding (first 5 business days)

- **Day 1:** CMS access verified; run full Screaming Frog crawl + Ahrefs site audit + PageSpeed
- **Day 2:** Kickoff with US SEO lead; lock target keywords (Q56), priority pages, AEO/GEO scope
- **Day 3:** Run AEO/GEO check (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity); compile findings; deliver audit doc draft
- **Day 4:** Apply Month 1 page fixes per tier (10/25/full site); claim/optimize GBP; submit Month 1 content brief for customer approval
- **Day 5:** US SEO lead review → audit doc delivered → Month 1 work plan confirmed with customer

### Ongoing monthly cycle
- **Week 1:** Write/publish month's blog content (1/2/4 articles per tier)
- **Week 2:** Apply on-page optimizations to additional pages; build/place citations + backlink outreach (Intermediate/Advanced)
- **Week 3:** GBP posts (per tier cadence); Advanced: existing page rewrites (2/mo)
- **Week 4:** Pull rankings + traffic data; AEO/GEO re-check (monthly for Intermediate, monthly for Advanced); prep monthly report
- **5th biz day of next month:** Deliver monthly report

### Content production (per article)
- [ ] Use Frase or Surfer for content brief (target keyword, SERP analysis, entities, FAQs to answer)
- [ ] Claude or ChatGPT-4 for first draft to the brief
- [ ] Human SEO editor: fact-check, brand voice, accuracy, depth pass
- [ ] On-page: meta title, meta description, H1, internal links (3-5), schema (Article + FAQ where relevant), alt text
- [ ] Intermediate: + custom or AI-generated images
- [ ] Advanced: + custom graphics (Figma or Canva)
- [ ] Publish to customer's CMS; submit URL to Google Search Console for indexing

### Backlink outreach (Intermediate/Advanced)
- [ ] Identify 5-10 target sites per month using Ahrefs link intersect + competitor backlink gap
- [ ] Personalized outreach emails (ChatGPT-4 first draft, human edited)
- [ ] Track placements in tracker; only count "live + indexed" as a delivered link
- [ ] No PBNs, no spammy links, no paid link schemes

### Citations (Intermediate/Advanced)
- [ ] Submit to high-authority directories (Yelp, BBB, YP, industry-specific) per month
- [ ] Maintain NAP consistency (name, address, phone) across all citations
- [ ] Track in citation log per customer

### Reporting
- Basic: Monthly PDF — rankings (target keywords), organic traffic, indexed pages, work completed
- Intermediate: + conversions, competitor gap snapshot
- Advanced: + AI search visibility (ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity citation count), share of voice vs. competitors

## Internal QA checklist (per month, BEFORE flagging for US review)

- [ ] Audit doc readable, not data-dumped
- [ ] All committed fixes verified live (view source)
- [ ] Site not broken (homepage, forms, mobile)
- [ ] AEO/GEO recommendations actionable, not generic
- [ ] Schema validates in Google Rich Results Test
- [ ] Citations submitted with consistent NAP
- [ ] Backlinks live + indexed (not just "outreached")
- [ ] Blog content: original (Copyscape pass), brand voice, fact-checked
- [ ] No AI tool names in any customer-facing deliverable

## AI tools used (INTERNAL — never mention to customer)

- Screaming Frog — site crawl
- Ahrefs — backlinks, rankings, competitor gap, content opportunities
- Google Search Console + Google Analytics — performance data
- Surfer or Frase — content briefs, on-page optimization
- Claude or ChatGPT-4 — content drafting, outreach email drafting
- ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity — AEO/GEO visibility testing
- Google Rich Results Test — schema validation
- Looker Studio — dashboards (Advanced)

## Common gotchas

- **Customer slow to provide CMS access** — chase Day 2; if not received Day 3, escalate
- **Customer's CMS is custom/locked** — escalate; may need scope adjustment
- **WordPress plugin conflicts** (Yoast + RankMath) — pick one, document
- **Customer wants instant ranking changes** — set expectation in kickoff: SEO is 3-6 month horizon for meaningful movement; report leading indicators monthly
- **Backlink outreach reply rates are low** — expected (~2-5%); over-deliver on outreach volume to hit committed link count
- **Content gets thin if AI-only** — every article needs a human editor pass for depth and originality
- **5-day onboarding SLA at risk** — escalate immediately

## Deliverable spec (per spec §5.4)

### Basic — $497/mo
- SEO cleanup up to 10 pages
- Foundational AEO/GEO
- 1 blog/SEO page per month (800-1,200 words)
- Meta + titles + headings on-page
- One-time GBP setup
- Monthly rankings + traffic report

### Intermediate — $997/mo
- SEO cleanup up to 25 pages
- Advanced schema + entity mapping (AEO/GEO)
- 2 blog/SEO pages per month (1,200-1,800 words + images)
- + Internal linking + schema
- Monthly GBP posts (2) + Q&A
- 2 high-authority citations per month
- 2 backlinks per month
- Monthly report + conversions + competitor gap

### Advanced — $1,997/mo
- Full site SEO cleanup
- Entity + topical authority build (AEO/GEO)
- 4 blog/SEO pages per month (1,500-2,500 words + custom graphics)
- + Topical clusters + advanced schema
- 2 existing pages rewritten per month
- Weekly GBP posts (4) + reviews mgmt
- 5 high-authority citations per month
- 5 backlinks per month
- Monthly report + AI search visibility + share of voice

Cross-checked against spec §5.4: matches.