Is It Out of Scope? — SEO & marketing
Is setting up A/B testing infrastructure out of scope for an SEO retainer?
Yes, as a technical build. Recommending what to test is within scope; setting up the testing platform itself isn't.
This comes up when a retainer's conversion-rate observations lead to a recommendation to test page variants, and the client asks the SEO team to also build the testing setup rather than just recommend what to test.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. Recommending which elements to test based on organic-traffic behavior is within a retainer's analysis role; setting up the actual testing platform and traffic-split logic is technical implementation.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — A/B testing platform setup is technical implementation work excluded from an SEO retainer.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
I can recommend what to test based on how organic traffic is behaving, but setting up the testing platform itself is implementation work — that'd need a developer to build.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags A/B testing infrastructure requests outside_scope on SEO contracts, while treating test recommendations grounded in traffic data as within the retainer's role.