The SEO checklist we run on every new client

When we take on a new SEO retainer, week one is always the same: an audit, a punch list, and shipping fixes before we touch content strategy. It is shocking how often we double organic traffic in a quarter just by fixing the basics.

Here is the checklist, more or less in priority order.

The technical foundation

Crawlability

• robots.txt allows crawling of pages you actually want indexed
• sitemap.xml exists, is current, and is submitted in Search Console
• No accidental noindex on key pages (we have seen this so many times)
• Canonical tags point at the canonical URL (not paginated, not query-string variants)

Speed

• Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5s on mobile
• Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1
• Total Blocking Time under 200ms
• Images served as AVIF/WebP, sized correctly, lazy-loaded below the fold

Structure

• One <h1> per page, descriptive and unique
• Heading hierarchy is, in fact, hierarchical (no <h2> then <h4>)
• Internal links use descriptive anchor text — not "click here"

On-page

• Title tag is 50–60 chars, leads with the keyword, includes the brand
• Meta description is 140–160 chars and reads like a human wrote it
• Open Graph and Twitter card images are set (this is a click-through win, not a ranking one)
• Schema markup for Article, Product, LocalBusiness, FAQPage as relevant

Content

• Pages target real, search-volume keywords (not what the founder wishes people searched for)
• Each page has a clear primary intent (informational, transactional, navigational)
• Thin pages are merged or expanded — no 200-word "service" pages
• Internal links surface deep pages from your hub pages

Authority

• The site has at least one quality backlink (a directory, a partner, a press mention)
• We have a plan for earning more: guest posts, HARO, partner outreach, comparison pages
• We monitor Search Console for new linking domains weekly

Reporting

Every month we ship a one-page report:

1. Organic traffic vs last month
2. Top 10 ranking gains and losses
3. Top 10 landing pages by conversion
4. What we shipped this month
5. What we'll ship next month

That's it. No 40-page PDFs. No vanity metrics.

The compounding effect

SEO is a brutal game for the first 60 days. It is a wonderful game from month four onward. If you can resist the urge to switch strategies every six weeks, the compounding gets ridiculous.

Want us to audit your site? Drop us a line — first audit is on us.