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These terms explain, in plain English, how our SEO, GEO and AEO retainers work: how long they run, how multi-year agreements save you money, and what happens if you want to leave early.
Who these terms apply to
They apply to every SEO, GEO and AEO retainer, including the Essential, Growth and Scale packages and any custom search retainer, that Kickass Online Ltd agrees with a business customer on or after 10 November 2026. Retainers agreed before that date keep the terms they were signed on.
They sit alongside our terms of service. Where the two differ, these retainer terms apply to your retainer. Anything specifically agreed in your signed proposal applies over both.
Retainers are sold to businesses. If you buy as a consumer, your statutory rights are not affected, including any right to cancel within 14 days.
The minimum term is 12 months
Every retainer has a minimum term of 12 months from the start date in your proposal. Search work compounds. The audit, technical fixes, research and first content in the early months pay back over the following year, so we plan and staff each retainer for at least that long.
Multi-year agreements cost less
You can choose a 24-month or 36-month term instead. In return for the longer commitment, your monthly fee is lower than our standard rate and stays fixed for the whole term. The saving is set out in your proposal.
Fees and payment
Fees are invoiced monthly in advance, plus VAT, and are due within 14 days. Your fee does not change during your minimum or multi-year term. After that, we give at least 60 days’ written notice of any change.
If an invoice is more than 14 days overdue, we may pause work after giving you 7 days’ written notice, and we may charge interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
After the minimum term
When your term ends, the retainer carries on month to month at the same fee. Either of us can end it with 30 days’ written notice, by email. You can give that notice at any time: the retainer then ends 30 days later or at the end of your term, whichever is later.
Leaving early
If you end a retainer before its term is up, other than for one of the reasons under When there is no charge, you pay an early termination fee made up of:
- Half of the monthly fees still to run in the current contract year. A contract year is each 12-month period from your start date.
- On a 24-month or 36-month agreement, the multi-year saving you have received so far. That is the difference between our standard rate when you signed and your discounted fee, for each month already invoiced.
Your retainer ends at the end of the month in which you give notice, and that month’s fee is payable as normal. We invoice the early termination fee at the same time, payable within 14 days.
Why it is set this way. When a retainer ends early, we lose the capacity we reserved for you and the value of work we front-loaded in the first months. We also stop paying for the work we no longer have to do, so the fee is half the remaining fees for the contract year, not all of them. It never comes to more than you would have paid if the retainer had run its course.
A worked example. You are on the Growth package at £2,000 + VAT a month on a 12-month term, and you give notice in month 5. The month 5 fee is payable as normal. Seven monthly fees would have followed, so the early termination fee is half of 7 × £2,000, which is £7,000 + VAT.
When there is no charge
You can end a retainer early without an early termination fee if:
- We are in material breach of the agreement and do not put it right within 30 days of you telling us in writing.
- We become insolvent or stop trading.
- We raise the fee or cut the agreed scope during your term without your agreement.
- We both agree in writing to end it early.
If we end a retainer early ourselves, for any reason other than your non-payment or material breach, there is no fee, and we refund anything you have paid in advance for work we have not done.
Changing package
You can move up to a larger package at any time, and the new fee applies from the next invoice. Moving to a smaller package takes effect from the start of your next contract year.
What you keep
Everything we produce for you and you have paid for is yours: content, pages, research, reports and the accounts we set up, which are created in your name. When a retainer ends, for any reason, we hand everything over within 10 working days.
Questions
Email info@kickassonline.com and we will explain anything in these terms before you sign. This page summarises our standard terms. It is not legal advice, and if your signed proposal says something different, your proposal applies.