SEO Merchant Accounts & Payment Processing Solutions.

It's a merchant account set up for SEO companies, SEM and PPC agencies and digital marketing businesses. It lets you charge client cards for retainers, projects and ad management fees, store cards for monthly billing, and handle disputes over services that take months to show results.

SEO services involve intangible deliverables, longer fulfillment periods, and higher chargeback rates due to client expectations around result timelines.

Many agencies start there. The trouble comes with growth: Stripe prohibits selling online traffic or engagement and telemarketing, and Square bans telemarketers and high-risk services. Agencies selling large retainers, link packages or cold-call campaigns often get reviewed and frozen once disputes come in.

There's no SEO-specific code. Most agencies process under 7311 Advertising Services or 7392 Management, Consulting and Public Relations Services. Marketing software and SaaS tools use software codes like 5734 or 7372.

SEO and local SEO agencies, PPC and SEM management, social media agencies, content and link-building services, digital PR, web design, reputation management, lead generation and pay-per-call, white-label SEO resellers and marketing SaaS.

Yes, our payment gateways support multi-currency processing for global search engine optimization services. Clients can pay in multiple currencies, and your funds settle to your US bank account.

Absolutely. Our payment solutions integrate seamlessly with most marketing automation platforms and client management systems.

Most qualified SEO companies receive approval within 24-48 hours using our specialized underwriting process.

Business documents and your EIN, ID for each owner, a voided check, recent bank statements and any processing statements. Underwriters also like to see your client agreement, a sample monthly report and your cancellation and refund terms.

We specialize in helping SEO businesses that traditional banks have declined. Our industry expertise often leads to approval where others failed.

Often, yes. Many agencies come to us after Stripe, Square or PayPal froze their account. We look at why it happened and what's changed. We also work with merchants on the MATCH list.

Yes. New agencies without processing history may start with a monthly processing limit or a small reserve that comes down as you build history. Signed client contracts help.

Yes. We set up subscription billing for retainers. Get the client's consent to store their card, and spell out the amount, billing date and how to cancel in the agreement. Visa requires that consent before you charge a stored card, plus a simple way to cancel.

Don't. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and ranking guarantees are the fastest way to a "not as described" chargeback. Promise the work you'll do, like audits, content and outreach, and report on it every month.

Most disputes say the service wasn't provided or wasn't as described. Results take months, so a client who expected page one in 30 days may dispute the charge. Clear scope, signed agreements and monthly reports are what win these cases.

The signed agreement or proposal, proof the work was delivered such as reports, published content and campaign dashboards, client emails approving work, and login or activity records. Send them with a short summary that matches the dispute reason.

Yes. Google's spam policies treat links bought to manipulate rankings as link spam, while paid placements marked sponsored or nofollow are fine. Underwriters want to see what you sell and how you describe it to clients.

It can. Outbound telemarketing has its own high-risk merchant code, and agencies that sell mostly by cold call see more disputes. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule also bans misrepresentations in business-to-business calls.

Your cost has three parts: a percentage of each transaction, a small per-transaction fee and any monthly fees. For agencies billing large retainers, the percentage matters most, so compare the full pricing in writing, not just the headline rate. ACH bank transfers cost less for big invoices. There are no setup fees with Adaptiv.

No. There are no setup fees or application fees.

Recurring and subscription billing for retainers, invoicing and payment links, a virtual terminal for phone payments, ACH, real-time reporting on payments and disputes, chargeback alerts, and security features like card tokenization and 3D Secure. Clients abroad should be able to pay in multiple currencies.

It depends on your history and how you sell. New agencies, large prepaid packages and outbound sales can mean a rolling reserve. Agencies with clean processing history often start with a low reserve or none.

Visa's VAMP program flags merchants at a 1.5% fraud-and-dispute ratio with at least 1,500 disputes and fraud reports in a month, and Mastercard starts at 1.5% and 100 chargebacks. Banks usually act well before that, so aim to stay under 1%.

Yes. Many agencies take larger retainers by ACH bank transfer to cut fees and save card payments for smaller invoices. ACH vs. wire transfers compares the options.