SEO RFP template: how to write a request for proposal for SEO services

A request for proposal asks suppliers to quote on terms you set out in advance. When you are choosing an SEO agency, it does two jobs. It gives every agency the same information, so their proposals can be compared. And it forces you to decide, before any sales call, what you actually want: the goal, the budget, and what has to stay on your side.

Without an RFP, each agency asks about different things and prices different things. One proposes a keyword list and two articles a month, another an audit with pay-for-results billing, a third a bundle with a Google Ads campaign. You end up comparing three different services rather than three prices for the same one.

Send an SEO RFP when you are hiring an agency for the first time, replacing your current one, entering a new market or adding AI search visibility to your SEO. Send one before a new website or a redesign, too: Google says that is a great time to hire an SEO, and the earlier, the better. For a small one-off job, such as an audit on its own, a short email with your site address and goal is enough.

Important: this template is for private businesses that choose their own supplier. It is not a public-sector tender document or a template for grant-funded projects, which follow their own rules and paperwork. It is not legal advice either.

If you are commissioning a new website rather than ongoing SEO, use our website brief template instead. It has its own SEO section and questions about redirecting old URLs.

The template has ten parts. The first five describe your business and what you need. The next five tell the agency the terms you expect and how to respond. Google suggests checking whether an SEO asks what makes your business unique, who your competitors are, how search results can help and how your customers find you. A good SEO RFP answers those questions up front.

The whole document fits on three or four pages. A longer RFP rarely brings better proposals, but it does slow down the replies. Put the details, such as a full page list or a Search Console query export, in an attachment or share them on the call.

1. Agree on the goal and budget internally. Before you write to agencies, decide what should change over the next 12 months and what you can spend each month. Without that, the RFP will be too vague and the proposals random.
2. Collect your baseline data. Clicks from Search Console and leads from GA4 for the last 12 months, your most important pages, dates of migrations and redesigns, and notes on previous agencies. Our free SEO audit gives you a quick technical snapshot with a 1–100 score.
3. Describe the scope of work. For each area, mark whether it is required, optional or out of scope.
4. Set your working requirements. Accounts, content rights, links, notice period and the data the report must be based on.
5. Pick your questions for agencies. 10–12 questions you want answered in writing, not just on a call.
6. Define the proposal format, timeline and criteria. How pricing should be laid out, deadlines for questions and proposals, when calls and the decision happen, and which weighted criteria you will use.
7. Send the same RFP to 3–5 agencies. Answer questions for everyone at once, so every agency works from the same information.

Give agencies at least 7–10 working days to respond. A solid proposal means reviewing your site, keywords and competitors, which takes longer than filling in a price list. Also set an earlier deadline for questions, usually a few days after sending, and a decision date, so agencies know when to expect an answer.

Goal: leads, not "first place"

State the business result SEO should deliver and how you measure it today. "More bathroom remodeling leads from organic search in our city, currently about … a month in GA4" tells an agency far more than "we want to rank high on Google." If you do not track leads yet, say so. Setting them up as key events in GA4 will then be the first task in every proposal.

Do not ask for guaranteed rankings. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google and warns against SEOs who claim to. Instead, ask what results the agency expects, in what timeframe and how it will measure progress. That is one of the questions Google itself lists in its guide to hiring an SEO.

Baseline: what to share before agencies quote

The more an agency knows at the start, the fewer generic promises its proposal contains. Describe your CMS (for example WordPress, Shopify or a custom build), the number of pages, languages, recent migrations and traffic drops, and what your previous agency did. Add who has access to which accounts and whether the data is complete. Missing data is information too: write "none" rather than guessing.

If you want agencies to look at Search Console before they quote, add them as restricted users. Google advises giving an SEO read access only at the audit stage, without write access. A restricted user can view most data but cannot manage the property. In GA4, the equivalent is the Viewer role. Once you have chosen, remove access for the agencies you did not hire.

Scope: three columns instead of a wish list

Typical areas are a technical audit and fixes, service or category pages, new content, links, local SEO and your Google Business Profile, AI search visibility, tracking and reporting, and support for a migration. For each one, mark required, optional or out of scope. For content and links, ask for a monthly number and a description of what it means. Otherwise one agency prices in-depth guides and another short posts, and both write "2 pieces of content a month."

Put AI search visibility inside the SEO scope rather than treating it as a separate project. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond SEO best practices. It also suggests checking whether an agency's "AEO" or "GEO" advice is aligned with its official guidance. So ask how the agency measures whether your business shows up in ChatGPT answers and Google AI Overviews: how many questions, in which tools and how often. Our own approach is described on the AI visibility audit page.

Terms written into the RFP save time on both sides. An agency that will not accept them can say so before the call rather than at contract stage. The most important ones:

• Accounts owned by your business. Search Console, GA4, Google Tag Manager, your Business Profile and your ad account belong to you, and the agency gets permissions. In Search Console, an owner has full control of the property and grants access to others. In GA4, users are managed by the Administrator role. On your Business Profile, stay the primary owner and add the agency as a manager: managers can edit the profile but cannot add or remove users.
• Content rights. Copy, photos and graphics created during the engagement are transferred to you, and the contract spells out how.
• Links stay. Links earned during the engagement remain after it ends, and the link list is part of the report. The agency does not buy links: Google treats buying or selling links for ranking purposes as spam.
• Notice period. State what you expect, for example one month, and whether you accept automatic renewal.
• Reports from your own data. Every month: what was done, how leads and clicks changed in your Search Console and GA4, and what comes next. Rankings next to that data, not instead of it.
• Site changes only with approval. A list of changes before release and a change log. Google points out that you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire.

What to check in the contract, and how to get your accounts and data back from a previous supplier, is covered in our guide to switching SEO agencies. This template is not legal advice: for a large contract, have a lawyer review it.

Questions the agency answers in writing

Some of these come from Google's guide to hiring an SEO, others from our list of 12 questions to ask before you sign with an SEO agency. Pick 10–12 and ask for the answers in the proposal, not just on the call:

1. What results do you expect in our case, in what timeframe, and how will you measure them?
2. What will you do in the first three months, and in what order?
3. Who exactly will work on our site, and how will we communicate?
4. Can you show us a sample report or a demo of your client portal?
5. What experience do you have in our industry and our market (city, country, languages)?
6. Do you follow Google Search Essentials, and where do your links come from?
7. Will we approve site changes before release, and will we get a list of every change?
8. How do you measure visibility in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews?
9. What exactly does the fee cover: how many keywords, pieces of content, links or hours a month?
10. How long is the contract, what is the notice period, and are there exit fees?
11. What happens if there is no progress after three months?
12. Can we speak to a current or former client?

Below is an extract of the template filled in for a fictional home renovation company serving one city and its suburbs. The numbers are examples only; use your own from Search Console and GA4.

Sample cover email for your SEO RFP

Subject: Request for proposal – SEO for [website]

Hello, we are looking for an agency to run SEO for our website [address] from [month]. Attached is our request for proposal with details of our business, goal, current site and scope of work. We are sending the same RFP to a few agencies. Please send any questions to this address by [date] and your proposal by [date]. We will invite shortlisted agencies to a call in the week of [date]. This request does not commit us to signing a contract. Best regards, [name, role, phone]

A short email with the details in an attachment works better than a long message: the agency can pass the PDF to the specialist who will write the proposal, and you know everyone received the same thing.

When the proposals arrive, score them in one table. Each criterion has a weight, and each proposal gets 0, 1 or 2 points for it: 0 for no answer or a generic one, 1 for a partial answer, 2 for a specific answer backed by evidence (a report, an example, a contract clause). A proposal's score is the sum of weight times points. The weights below are our suggestion. Change them if something matters more to your business, but do it before you open the proposals, not after.

How to compare SEO pricing

Convert every proposal to a 12-month cost: the monthly fee times 12, plus one-off costs such as an audit, implementation or a setup fee. Only then compare. With pay-for-results billing, work out what you would pay if the contracted keywords reach the top 10, and check whether customers actually search for them. We explain the differences between the models in pay-for-results SEO vs. a monthly retainer.

Do not automatically pick the cheapest proposal. When the price gap is large, the scope usually differs: the number of pieces of content, links or hours. Ask about it on the call and write the answer next to the score. Our own plans and contract terms are on our SEO pricing page.

• No goal. "Please quote for SEO" with nothing about what should change or how you measure it.
• A long keyword list instead of a goal. The agency will price the keywords, but you will not know whether they bring customers. Describe your services and customer questions instead, and let the agency justify its keyword choice in the proposal.
• Copying a public-sector tender template. Procurement forms and declarations say nothing about SEO and put smaller agencies off replying.
• Different information for different agencies. An answer given to only one agency makes the proposals impossible to compare.
• A deadline that is too short. Two days for a proposal invites a standard package.
• Asking for a guaranteed #1 ranking. An honest agency will not give one, so you end up rewarding those who promise more than they can deliver.
• Sending it to a dozen agencies. You will not read that many proposals properly or talk to everyone. Three to five vetted firms is better.
• Leaving out working requirements. Questions about accounts, content and links only come up at contract stage, or when you switch agencies.
• No budget information. If you have an upper limit, give it or a range. Agencies will fit the scope to it instead of guessing.

If you first need to know what scope of work is actually required, start with an SEO audit or set out your goals in our SEO strategy template. The strategy gives you ready answers for parts 2–5 of the RFP.