Can I hire you for just the audit?
Yes. Most people do. It is one week and fixed price, and it tells you whether you need the retainer at all. If you continue, the audit fee credits fully toward month one.
Does the retainer require an audit first?
Yes. Until the audit is done neither of us knows whether you need three months of content work, a citation push, or nothing at all. I would rather scope from findings than from a call.
Why is it called an SEO retainer and not a GEO retainer?
Because it is good SEO that gets you named in AI answers. The engines pull from the same pages Google ranks, and the work that gets those pages cited is mostly the fundamentals done properly, plus a layer of checking what the engines actually say and fixing what stops them. Calling it something new would be marketing, not accuracy.
What if I am not sure which one I need?
Book 30 minutes. You describe the problem, I tell you what I think. No proposal unless you ask for one.