The best SEO Service Delivery Model

I have been thinking over the best SEO service delivery model and wondering what model works best for clients as well as for SEOs out of the following:

1. Monthly Retainer
2. Hourly basis
3. One time cost for on-page
4. Retainer for off-page (link building)
5. Dedicated resource for SEO work

Please suggest what works best in your case and what would clients prefer generally.

Thanks much!

I think the answer to your question is going to depend very much on the client and the SEO. I can imagine situations in which each of those scenarios might work. It all depends on what the client hopes to accomplish and how much money and effort they themselves can devote to the optimization process.

I think an SEO needs to be prepared to be flexible, and to ask lots of questions to ferret out what the client really wants and what will satisfy them. Sometimes the client isn't even sure (which is at least partly an artifact of SEO often being considered a "black art," so to speak). So there's no one best way, IMHO.

I think that hourly jobs are acceptable in any condition because you pay for only those hours which are used for your website.