Yes. The $197 audit fee credits toward the first month of any retainer if you engage within 90 days of audit delivery.
How the credit works
If you engage either Local SEO Management at $1,297/month or Full Stack at $1,897/month within 90 days of receiving the audit, your first month’s invoice is reduced by $197. So:
- Local SEO Management first month: $1,297 - $197 = $1,100
- Full Stack first month: $1,897 - $197 = $1,700
After month one, billing returns to the standard monthly rate. The credit is one-time, not recurring.
The 90-day window
The window starts the day the audit deliverable lands in your inbox. You have 90 days to make a retainer decision. After day 90, the credit expires.
The window exists because audits go stale. The local search landscape moves fast — algorithm updates, competitor moves, GBP feature changes — and a six-month-old audit is meaningfully less actionable than a fresh one. If you wait beyond 90 days to engage, we’ll likely need to redo enough of the audit that the credit doesn’t make sense.
If you’re at day 80 and still deciding, just email me — I’d rather extend by a couple weeks than have you rush a decision against the deadline.
What the credit doesn’t apply to
A few exclusions worth being explicit about:
- Strategy Engagement at $2,497. The Strategy Engagement is a one-time deliverable, not a retainer. It overlaps with the audit in some ways and including a credit would be double-counting. If you’re considering a Strategy Engagement after an audit, reach out — there’s usually a more appropriate path.
- Hourly consulting at $125/hr. Hourly work is project-scoped and the credit math doesn’t carry. The audit-to-hourly path is rare anyway; most hourly clients come in with a specific narrow problem.
- Multiple audits, one retainer. The credit is one audit per retainer. If you bought audits for three locations and engage one retainer, only one $197 credits.
Why the credit exists
Two reasons.
First, fairness. If the audit surfaces a roadmap and you decide the right move is to have me execute it, charging twice for overlapping discovery work is wrong. The audit covers most of the discovery a retainer would do in month one anyway.
Second, alignment. The credit gives you a low-risk way to evaluate me — buy a $197 audit, decide if my analysis matches your situation, then engage (or not) with the audit cost effectively waived. If the audit’s mediocre, you keep the deliverable and walk away with or without a refund. That’s the alignment honest pricing should produce.
The credit isn’t a discount or a loss leader. It’s just the math of not charging twice for the same work.