Is It Out of Scope? — SEO & marketing
Is producing an extra explainer video out of scope for a SEO / marketing project?
Yes, as production — though advising on the topic and messaging most likely to perform, based on keyword and content research already underway, is a reasonable adjacent contribution.
Video is increasingly part of how content ranks and gets discovered, which can make a video request feel adjacent to SEO work. But there's a real difference between advising on what a video should cover based on search demand, and actually scripting, filming, and editing it.
Is it out of scope?
Producing the video is out of scope. Recommending a topic based on keyword or search demand data, and flagging what messaging tends to perform well, is a reasonable extension of existing SEO/content research — but that's input into someone else's production, not the production itself.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — The retainer covers organic search strategy and content guidance — video production itself is excluded as a separate discipline.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
Producing the video is outside our retainer — that's a production discipline. Based on what's performing well in search, I can suggest a strong topic and key points to cover, which should help whoever's producing it; happy to share that research.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags production requests outside_scope on SEO contracts while distinguishing them from topic/content research requests, which frequently are inside scope — the explanation separates the two so the account manager can offer the legitimate research contribution while declining the production ask.