An RFP should make proposals comparable without forcing every vendor into identical tactics. Complete the shared brief, then add the relevant GEO, SEO, Reddit or PR module. Mark unknowns as pending rather than inventing data. Ask vendors to label included, optional, excluded, client-dependent and third-party-cost items.
Provide company and brand entities, offer, markets and languages, ideal customer, buying cycle, approximate deal-value band, current acquisition channels, seasonality and excluded markets or topics. State the business problem—such as branded search without service-page progression—rather than a generic visibility goal.
List websites and language versions, service pages, cases, research, coverage, encyclopedia profiles, social accounts, analytics, search consoles, advertising and CRM. Provide the latest available crawl, index, query, referral, enquiry and sales data with dates and definitions. If incomplete, make baseline construction a phase-one deliverable.
Require methods, team roles, client inputs, approval, fact checking, data handling, account ownership, confidentiality, brand/community risk, change control and escalation. External publication and account activity must stay within authorisation. Prohibit fabricated cases, false identities, spam and undisclosed commercial relationships.
GEO: platforms, languages, prompt set, fact ledger, source audit, remediation and retesting. SEO: technical scope, page/query mapping, consolidation, implementation and monitoring. Reddit: community map, rules, disclosure, participation principles and removal/risk log. PR: markets, media types, narrative, assets, spokesperson, outreach, placement nature, disclosure and evaluation. Define purpose and quality—not just volume.
For every deliverable record format, coverage, owner, client dependency, date, acceptance and revision allowance. A technical audit is not accepted merely because a PDF arrived; issues must be reproducible, prioritised and verifiable after implementation. Article acceptance should test intent, evidence, uniqueness, localisation and linking—not word count alone.
Separate process, output and outcome measures. Process covers approvals and implementation; output covers accepted pages, outreach or community activity; outcome covers search visibility, qualified citations, service-page progression, enquiries and opportunities. State source, baseline, observation window, external variables and scale/change/stop rules.
Define ownership of accounts, raw data, source files, assets, query/prompt sets, contact records, technical configuration and reports. Handover should include live assets, drafts, known issues, maintenance cadence, access revocation and final review. Preserve URLs, tracking and publication history if the vendor changes.
Should an RFP disclose budget?
A range or resource boundary helps vendors design a viable scope. Ask them to separate core, optional and third-party costs.
Should vendors provide a complete strategy for free?
Ask for method, scope and samples, but deep research and execution-ready strategy are normally paid work. Define pitch-use and intellectual-property rules.
How should a new channel recommendation be handled?
Require audience evidence, strategic fit, pilot scope, incremental cost, risk and stop criteria before changing the scope.
Can all four services sit in one RFP?
Yes, if shared governance is separated from specialist modules, owners, budgets and acceptance. A bundled proposal should not hide weak evidence in one discipline.
Source：Google Search Central：SEO Starter Guide
Source：AMEC：Integrated Evaluation Framework
Source：Reddit Help：Reddiquette