The first clause most people read in a UK SEO contract is the length, and it is rarely the one that costs them.
A short term with a quiet exit fee can cost more than a long one that lets you walk away. A twelve-month deal you can leave after three months for nothing is safer than a six-month deal that makes you pay the rest. What matters is the sum you would owe on the day you decide it is not working, and who is holding your Google Business Profile when you say so.
This post goes through the clauses I would check before a British sole trader signs, shows the exit sum on one invented year, and sets my own terms beside the list, including where they fall short of it. It is not legal advice. If a contract is large, show it to a solicitor.
The clause table: sign, push back or walk away
For each of five clauses there is a wording I would sign, a wording I would push back on and a wording I would walk away from, and the last column is my judgment, not a rule of law.
| Clause | Sign | Push back | Walk away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term and renewal | A short minimum, then rolling, cancelled in writing | A fixed term of several months with no break point | Renews itself into another full year with no reminder |
| Paying to leave | Nothing beyond the period already paid | A fee that is a share of the remaining months | All remaining payments fall due on exit |
| Your Google profile | You stay primary owner, the company is a manager | The company set it up and will hand it over "on request" | The company is primary owner and the contract is silent on handing it back |
| Content | Yours once the period it was written in is paid | Licensed to you only while you keep paying | Stays the company's and comes down if you cancel |
| Results | Named search terms, an area, a measure and a remedy | "Improved visibility" with no measure | "Page one" or "number one" with no definition |
The rest of this post takes the clauses in the order of what they cost you. Skip to the one that worries you most.
What leaving costs: one year, three terms
On a fee of £350 every four weeks a year is thirteen payments, so leaving after the third payment costs £3,500 on a fixed year, £1,050 on a 24-week term and nothing further on a twelve-week minimum.
Take an invented contract at £350 every four weeks, the price of the SEO and Map Pack plan with a site Sitework builds and hosts. Say the work is not helping after three payments and you want out. Whether you actually owe the remaining months depends on how the exit clause is worded, so this table shows the worst reading of each term, the one you should be looking for.
Worst-case still owed after payment three (invented contract, £350 every four weeks)
| Term | Payments in the term | Left after three | Still owed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed year | 13 | 10 | £3,500 |
| Fixed 24 weeks | 6 | 3 | £1,050 |
| Twelve-week minimum, then rolling | 3 | 0 | £0 more |
Still owed is payments left multiplied by £350. It assumes the contract demands every remaining payment, which is the clause to look for, and it ignores any notice that runs to the end of a paid period. It is arithmetic on an invented contract, not a forecast and not any company's terms.
The point of the sum is that the headline term hides the exit. A UK tradesman who asks "what do I owe if I leave after the third payment?" and gets an answer in writing has done most of the job of reading the contract.
Who owns your Google Business Profile
Google's help pages say only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership and that managers cannot add or remove users, so a company that holds primary ownership of your profile can keep it.
This is the clause I would read second, and for a trade business in England, Scotland or Wales it is the one with the sharpest edge, because the profile holds your reviews and your place on the map. Google's page on transferring ownership says that only the current primary owner can pass it on, and its page on roles says managers have nearly the same access as owners but cannot add or remove users, and that only owners can remove other owners and managers.
Read together, that gives a simple rule. Create or keep the profile in a Google account you control, make that account the primary owner, and add the company as a manager. If the company says it is easier for it to hold primary ownership, ask what the contract says about handing it back, how quickly and in what form. If the answer is "on request" and no more, push back.
One practical detail from the same page: a new owner or manager has a seven-day wait before every feature works, and errors can appear if they try to change ownership in that time. So give a handover a week of margin and do not leave it for the last day of the notice period.
What "results" must mean on paper
Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, so any results clause needs the search terms, the area, the way position is measured and what happens if the target is missed.
Vague results wording is the easiest to sign and the hardest to enforce. "Improved visibility" can be met by almost anything. "First page of Google" is not a single place, because the map and the ordinary results are different lists. A clause you can use names the search terms, the area, a measure and a remedy.
Here is how mine reads, so you can hold any other quote against it. Clause 10 of the Sitework terms applies only to the SEO and Map Pack plan. It agrees up to three search terms and one area in writing after a free Maps check. The target for each is an average Google Maps position of 3 or better on a 7 by 7 grid scan across the agreed radius around your base, within 90 days. If a term has not got there by day 90, billing pauses and the work continues at no charge until it does.
Be clear about what that is not. Your first three payments stand and are not refunded, so the remedy is continued work, not money back. It covers Google Maps results only, not ordinary search rankings, traffic or enquiries. And it ends if you cancel. A guarantee with edges like that is still a better thing to sign than a promise with none.
Renewals, notice and scope
Check three dates before you sign: the end of the minimum term, the notice needed to leave and the renewal date, and write all three in your diary the same day.
I have not found an official UK rule that sets a standard length or notice period for an SEO contract, and the figures quoted on agency blogs come from people selling the service, so I do not repeat them as a norm. The sensible test is your own: could you leave at a point you can name, and would anyone chase you for money?
- Automatic renewal. If the contract rolls into another fixed year, ask for month-to-month rolling or a written reminder before the date.
- Notice formalities. Notice in writing is fair. A required form of delivery that is hard to meet is a sign the exit was meant to be awkward.
- Price changes. Ask whether the fee can rise during the term, and how much notice you get.
- Scope. Ask what is done in the first four weeks and what you will see in each report. If it is not on paper, it is not part of the deal.
Content and access when you leave
Pages and posts written for you should be yours once the period they were written in is paid for, and every account the company set up for your business should come back to you when the plan ends.
Content is the second thing that changes hands on exit. Under clause 6 of my terms, articles and pages written under a plan belong to you once the four-week period they were delivered in has been paid for. Clause 7 says that when a plan ends I remove my access to your Google Business Profile, Search Console and other accounts you shared, and transfer ownership of any account I set up for your business.
There is one limit I should state, since it is a fair thing to ask any supplier. If you cancel inside the first twelve months, the hosted site comes offline when the paid period ends, unless a handover or alternative hosting is agreed. After twelve months the site and the domain are yours, transferred at no charge. If a contract includes a website, ask the same question of it: what happens to the site on the day you leave?
A five-minute read before you sign
Ask for the contract as a document, read the five clauses in the table and put the exit sum, the profile owner and the results definition in one email before you pay anything.
- Ask for the full terms in writing. A sales call is not a contract, and an account manager's answer is not a clause.
- Work out the exit sum. Fee times payments left after payment three.
- Name the profile owner. Write down which Google account is the primary owner, and that it is yours.
- Get the results definition. Terms, area, measure, remedy, in one paragraph.
- Check the three dates. Minimum end, notice and renewal.
If a supplier will not answer those five in writing, that tells you something before any money has moved. If you want to compare what a package should contain before you look at the paperwork, the checklist is in what a local SEO package should include, and the question of who should manage the profile at all is in is it worth paying someone to manage your Google Business Profile. For the timeline a Maps target should be judged against, see can you get into the Google Maps top 3 in 90 days. The plan itself is on the SEO and Map Pack page.