Holdy for SEO & Marketing | Audits, ad sprints, retainers, paid on delivery

Inside a deal

An SEO Commit Link, decoded.

SEO clients buy hope. You sell hope. That's how scope blows up, you never agreed what "done" looks like.

The Commit Link forces the conversation up front: this is the audit (X pages), this is the keyword map (Y terms), this is the report (Z metrics). You deliver the artefacts, the deal closes, independent of what Google does next quarter.

Want a retainer? Each month is its own Commit Link. Predictable, no Net-30 chase, no "we'll see how April rankings look" stalling.

Commit Link

Technical SEO audit,Briska B2B

€1,650

Freelancer → Client

Tom Bakker · Bakker SEO → Briska B2B GmbH

Deliverables (4)

→ Technical audit (12-page PDF, Screaming Frog crawl)
→ Keyword map: 120 terms, intent + difficulty (Sheets)
→ Top-3 competitor gap analysis (PDF)
→ Prioritized 90-day action plan (Notion or PDF)

Out of scope

Implementation, link-building, content writing, ranking guarantees. Each is a separate Commit Link if the client wants it.

Revisions

1 round

Deadline

10 days

Fee mode

Buyer pays

Auto-settle

7 days

Why this matters

Three traps every marketing freelancer walks into.

01

"Why are we still not on page one?"

You sold an audit. You delivered a great audit. The client thinks they bought rankings. Three months in they're upset Google still isn't behaving.

Holdy fix: the Commit Link itemises deliverables,PDFs, sheets, plans. "Out of scope: ranking guarantees" is a line in the contract. Settle on artefacts, not outcomes.

02

"Just one quick keyword question…"

Months after the audit ships, you're still answering Slack messages, debugging Search Console, reviewing their intern's blog. None of it billable.

Holdy fix: answer with a Commit Link. €150 "follow-up consult", funded before you reply. Once they see the price tag, the small questions either get serious or stop.

03

The retainer that quietly stops paying

Month 4 of a 6-month retainer: invoice goes unpaid, client takes a "pause", you've already done the work. The contract is just an email thread.

Holdy fix: structure the retainer as one Commit Link per month, each funded up front. No funding = no work. The cash-flow risk shifts back to the client where it belongs.

Anonymized deal

A recent Holdy SEO deal.

Deal size

€1,800

Keyword map

180 terms

Settle time

11 days

Holdy fee

€117

A B2B SaaS bought a technical-SEO + keyword-strategy package from a freelance consultant. The Commit Link locked: 15-page audit, 180-term keyword map, competitor analysis (top 3), and a 90-day action plan. Buyer paid the full fee, split mode off. Deliverables uploaded day 8, client accepted day 11, funds settled same day. The follow-up retainer started as a separate Commit Link the next week.

vs. the alternatives

Holdy vs. how marketing work usually gets paid.

	Agency retainer	Direct invoice	Holdy
Deliverables in writing	Vague SOW	Email thread	Locked, hashed
Paid before work	50% deposit, maybe	Net-30	100% held by Stripe
Ranking guarantees	Often implied	Implied	Explicitly excluded
Settle on acceptance	Monthly invoicing	Net-30+	Auto in 7 days
Commission	Agency overhead	0% (but unpaid risk)	5–8% (splittable)

Sell deliverables,not rankings.