Is It Out of Scope? — SEO & marketing
Is adding social media templates out of scope for a SEO / marketing project?
Yes, as asset creation — though guidance on what content or messaging performs well (informed by SEO/content research) is a reasonable adjacent input, distinct from designing the templates themselves.
Social media sits in the same general "marketing" bucket as SEO in a lot of clients' minds, so a request for post templates sometimes arrives at the SEO team's desk even though template design is a different function than organic search work — closer to graphic design or social media management than to SEO.
Is it out of scope?
Designing the templates themselves is out of scope. Advising on what topics or messaging tend to perform well, based on keyword or content research already being done for SEO, is a reasonable adjacent contribution — but that's input into someone else's asset, not the asset itself.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — The retainer covers organic search strategy — designing social assets falls outside it, even where content insights from the SEO work could inform someone else's templates.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
Designing the templates themselves is outside our retainer — that's more of a social/graphic design deliverable. I can share what content themes and messaging have been performing well from an SEO/content perspective, which might be useful input for whoever's building them out.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags template-design requests outside_scope on SEO contracts while distinguishing them from requests for content strategy or messaging input, which can read as inside scope depending on the contract's content deliverables — the explanation separates the two so the account manager can offer the legitimate piece while declining the rest.