For small business
Everything a retainer promised. Visible this time.
The common story: a monthly fee, a slide deck, two articles, and no clear sense of what happened in between. Helix does the same disciplines every day, shows you every action, and costs a fraction of the retainer.
The comparison
Where the retainer money goes
Agency pricing is mostly labour: writing, editing, publishing, account management and reporting. That labour is real, and a good agency earns it. But for a business that needs consistent execution rather than more strategy, you are paying senior rates for production work.
A typical retainer buys
- Two to eight articles a month
- A quarterly technical audit
- Ads reviewed weekly at best
- A monthly report, after the fact
- Limited visibility between reports
Growth plan gives you
- 60 articles per month, published and interlinked
- A 180-check technical audit every week
- Google Ads reviewed and optimised daily
- AI assistant visibility tracked across four assistants
- Every action logged, explained and reversible
This compares delivery models, not named companies. Agencies vary enormously and a good one is worth more than any software.
What you get, module by module
SEO & technical audit
Your technical foundation, audited every week and fixed without a ticket queue.
Details →Blog & AEO content
Articles structured so search engines rank them and AI assistants quote them.
Details →AI visibility
See exactly which AI assistants mention your business, and which name someone else.
Details →Paid ads autopilot
Google Ads optimised every day against your rules, with a full log of every change.
Details →Leads & attribution
Follow the journey from first click to a scored prospect, and connect real revenue back to the work that caused it.
Details →Analytics & reporting
One place where search, ads, content and AI visibility are measured the same way.
Details →Integrations
Helix works on the stack you already have, with read-only access until you say otherwise.
Details →Backlinks & PR
Know who links to you, who stopped, and where an honest mention is worth pursuing.
Details →Objections
Fair concerns
“AI content is rubbish.”
Most of it is, and for a consistent reason: it is produced with no inputs. A model given nothing about your pricing, process or customers writes something true of everyone in your category. Helix works from a brand profile and real query data, requires sources for factual claims, and flags what it cannot verify.
“Sixty articles a month will look like spam.”
It would if they were sixty variations of the same page. The quota exists to cover a genuine topic map — buyer questions, comparisons, local pages, service detail. If the useful topics run out, publish fewer. The cap is a ceiling, not a target.
“I don't want software touching my ad account.”
Start read-only. Watch what it would have done for a month. Turn on autopilot when the proposals look right, with hard spend guardrails it cannot exceed.
“What if it makes things worse?”
Every change is logged with a one-click revert and the agent starts in ask-first mode. Structural decisions are always escalated to you.
Our recommendation
Growth at $469 a month (or $372 a month billed yearly, two months free) for most businesses replacing a retainer: 60 articles a month, Google Ads autopilot, lead tracking that turns anonymous visits into scored prospects instead of a traffic chart, and up to 3 sites. Start on Starter at $199 a month ($159 billed yearly) if your priority is fixing the technical foundation and getting a publishing habit going before you touch paid — ads reporting is included there, and autopilot is a $149 add-on.