Is It Out of Scope? — Web design
Is link building out of scope for a web design project?
Yes. Link building is an SEO discipline entirely separate from design work, even on projects where SEO-friendly design choices were part of the brief.
Occasionally a design client, having heard "SEO" mentioned during the project (usually in reference to clean markup or page speed), assumes the agency also handles link building — outreach to get other sites linking back.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. Link building is outreach and content marketing work with no overlap with visual or UX design, regardless of any SEO-adjacent design decisions made during the project.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — The design engagement covers design deliverables — SEO disciplines like link building are excluded outright.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
Link building isn't part of this design engagement — what we did cover was making sure the design and markup wouldn't get in the way of SEO efforts, not running outreach ourselves. Happy to point you to an SEO specialist if you'd like a referral.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags link-building requests outside_scope on design contracts by default, since they fall outside any design deliverable regardless of how the SOW describes SEO-adjacent design work.