Package design
Backlinks monthly, sold beside a social media retainer
Clients rarely ask for links. They ask why the Instagram looks good and the website does not move. This is a layout for answering with one package instead of two invoices.
SMM SEO Pro editorial team ·
Our view
Sell the calendar, buy the links by the piece
A fixed quota of links per month forces you to buy placements you would never pick. Put a link budget in the package instead, and spend it on the campaigns that have something worth linking to.
- Fixed quotas push you toward filler sites in slow months
- A budget line lets one strong placement replace five weak ones
- Clients understand a budget faster than a link count
Three package sizes, side by side
| Starter | Standard | Campaign-heavy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social deliverables | 8 posts, 1 platform | 16 posts, 2 platforms | Daily posts plus 4 short videos |
| Link budget per month | $60 at cost | $250 at cost | $800 at cost |
| Typical placements | 2 to 4 at low authority | 3 to 5, one mid-range | 3 to 6, one or two premium |
| Link target | Homepage or best post | One money page plus one article | Launch page, hub and two articles |
| Report | One page, monthly | One page plus call | One page, call, and a plan for next month |
| Best for | Local shop, new account | Ecommerce or clinic, steady content | Seasonal brand with a launch |
What a month actually contains
Week one is planning. The social lead lists what will be posted, the SEO lead picks which of those pages deserves a link, and both write down one question the month should answer.
Weeks two and three are delivery. Placements go in the basket early because a placement usually takes about a day after payment, and you want the article live before the post that mentions it.
Week four is the report. Short beats thorough here. Two charts, one list of orders from your ordered-links page, and three sentences on what you will change next month.
Resist the urge to rebrand the same hour of work. The pricing ranges page shows how to cost the link line without hiding it inside a social fee.
One more habit worth stealing. Name an owner for each line, so that when a post slips by three days, everyone knows the article date has to slip with it. The scorecard helps you vet whoever supplies the links.
Before you put the package in a proposal
- Write what happens if the client stops paying for social but keeps the links (the links stay live, the posts stop)
- Say plainly that the link budget buys placements, not rankings
- Pick one page per month that gets the link, and tell the client which
- Keep the per-link cost visible so a $400 placement is never a surprise
- Agree who approves the anchor text before the basket is paid
- Log each order so the report matches what was bought
- Decide the pause rule: when two core updates land, do you hold new links for a month?
Google's March 2025 core update began on 13 March and finished in April. Reading link results inside that window is guesswork, which is a good reason to report monthly and not weekly.