For agencies, DMCs, and tour operators hiring
Look for proven work on city + category URLs (luxury Rome, Cappadocia honeymoon DMC), Search Console fluency, and multilingual hreflang if you serve DE/FR markets. Ask for before/after impression growth on money pages, not only rankings on brand terms.
Scope should include: technical audit, keyword map, internal linking plan, content briefs, and quarterly reporting. Link building may be a separate SOW—see travel-backlink-building.
For SEO specialists pitching travel clients
Lead with trade understanding: FIT briefs, MICE, consortia vs direct. Package audits + 90-day roadmap + sample content brief. Show directory and OTA coexistence strategy so clients do not fear channel conflict.
Red flags and fair pricing
Avoid guaranteed #1 claims, opaque ‘secret networks’, and bulk AI city pages. SMB retainers often run €800–3,500/month depending on markets and languages; project audits €1,500–5,000.