Is It Out of Scope? — SEO & marketing
Is adding illustrations beyond the agreed set out of scope for an SEO retainer?
Yes. Custom illustration is design production, with no connection to an SEO retainer's scoped work.
This surfaces when a content piece the retainer produced would "look better with a custom graphic," and the request lands with the SEO team simply because they're the ones publishing the page.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. Producing custom illustrations is design work; the retainer's content deliverables cover writing and optimization, not original artwork.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — Custom illustration is excluded from an SEO retainer as design-production work outside its scope.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
I can use stock or existing brand assets in the content we publish, but custom illustration work is outside this retainer — that'd need to go through a designer separately.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags custom-illustration requests outside_scope on SEO contracts, distinguishing them from the stock or existing-asset use that content deliverables typically include.