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SEO project checklist

Technical, on-page and content work to earn search traffic. 88 items across 7 stages, 27 of them needed from the client.

For: SEO and content

01Before we start

Signed proposal or contractKeyFrom client
Countersigned, not "verbally agreed". Work started on a promise is work that may not be paid for.
Deposit or first invoice paidKeyFrom client
The payment condition in the contract, met. This is the line the sales SOP will not let a project pass.
Decision-maker confirmed by nameKeyFrom client
Who signs things off, and who can say no. A project approved by a committee is a project approved by nobody.
Search Console and Analytics accessKeyFrom client
Read access at minimum, granted to our account rather than shared logins. Without history, the first three months are guesswork.
Day-to-day contact named, and their working hoursFrom client
Including timezone. Half of "they are slow to respond" is a five-hour offset nobody wrote down.
Billing contact and PO or reference number, if they need oneFrom client
Ask now. An invoice rejected in month three for a missing PO number delays payment by a month.
CMS access, or an agreed route to publish changesFrom client
If every title change needs their developer, agree the turnaround now - it is the real constraint on the whole engagement.
Sales-to-delivery handoff completedKeySales
Call notes, proposal versions, commitments, risks and stakeholders - everything promised during the sale, in writing, where delivery can read it.
Scope, exclusions and assumptions restated in our own wordsPM
Written by the people delivering it, not copied from the proposal. Rewriting it is how you find what the proposal left ambiguous.
Project workspace, folders and client portal set upPM
Client invited and confirmed able to sign in - not "invitation sent".
Team assigned with named owners per disciplinePM
One name per discipline. "The design team" is not an owner.
Commercials checked against capacity before any date is promisedPM
The PM SOP puts this before assignment on purpose: a timeline agreed without checking the calendar is a timeline that will be missed.
NDA or data-handling requirements identifiedPM
If they handle health, financial or children’s data, that changes where things may be stored - and it is cheaper to know now.

02Kick-off

Review turnaround agreed in working daysKeyFrom client
How long feedback takes. Every date in the plan is built on this number, so it is agreed rather than assumed.
Feedback consolidated through one personFrom client
Contradictory feedback from three stakeholders is the single most common cause of rework.
Client team introduced, including anyone who can vetoFrom client
The person who appears in week eight to reject everything was always going to appear. Better in week one.
Holidays, launches and blackout dates on both sidesFrom client
Their trade show and our public holidays, on the plan before it is signed off.
Kick-off call held with the decision-maker presentKeyPM
Whole delivery team plus whoever signs off. A kick-off without the decision-maker has to be repeated.
Milestones and delivery dates agreed in writingKeyPM
With internal review dates set before each client-facing date, never on the same day.
Kick-off notes circulated with decisions, owners and next actionsPM
Within 24 hours, while people still agree on what was said.
Communication channel and update cadence agreedPM
Where we talk, how often we report, and what counts as urgent. Written down, so "I messaged you on WhatsApp" is not a delivery method.
Escalation path agreed both waysPM
Who to call when something is going wrong, on their side and on ours, before it is going wrong.
Change-request process explained and acceptedPM
How a new request gets costed and scheduled. Explaining it at the kick-off is a conversation; explaining it in week seven is a confrontation.
Risks and dependencies logged with ownersPM
The PM SOP asks for risks raised early with a proposed solution, not only the problem.

03Discovery

Brand assetsKeyFrom client
Logo in vector, fonts with their licences, colour values, existing guidelines. "We will send the logo" usually means a PNG off the website.
Business goal for this project, in a numberFrom client
More leads, fewer support tickets, faster checkout. Without a number, "did it work" is a matter of opinion.
Who the audience is, and what we want them to doFrom client
Competitors you actually lose toFrom client
Not the biggest names in the category - the ones that come up in your deals.
What must not changeFrom client
The thing their customers recognise, or the integration that cannot break. Cheaper to hear now than to rebuild later.
Target markets, languages and priority servicesFrom client
Competitors you actually lose deals toFrom client
Any past penalties, migrations or domain changesFrom client
A history of one is the first thing that explains a flat graph, and it is never volunteered.
Who approves published copy, and how quicklyFrom client
Requirements written down and confirmed back to the clientKeyPM
In their words and ours. The confirmation is the point: it is where a misunderstanding surfaces while it is still free.
Baseline recorded before anything is changedKeyMarketing
Traffic, rankings, conversions, indexed pages. Without it nothing that follows is provable, including the things that worked.
Existing material reviewed before asking for morePM
Their analytics, support tickets and sales objections are research that is already written down and already paid for.
Dependencies mapped between content, design, build and approvalsPM
Which piece cannot start until which other piece finishes, and who is holding each one.
Missing information listed and requested as one batchPM
One clear request beats eleven emails over three weeks, and gives the client something they can actually work through.
Task breakdown created with owners, reviewers and internal deadlinesPM

04Build

Technical crawl and prioritised issue listMarketing
Status codes, redirect chains, duplicate content, orphan pages, thin pages.
Indexation checked both waysMarketing
What is indexed that should not be, and what is missing that should be. Both are common and both cost.
Core Web Vitals measured on field data, not just a lab scoreMarketing
Mobile usability passMarketing
Titles, descriptions and heading structure reviewed page by pageMarketing
One H1 per page, aligned to the intent the page is actually for.
Keyword map: one primary intent per pageMarketing
Two pages chasing one query is two pages losing to each other.
Structured data implemented and validatedMarketing
Organisation, breadcrumbs, article, product, FAQ - whatever the pages genuinely are.
XML sitemap and robots.txt correct and submittedMarketing
Canonical and hreflang rules set where neededMarketing
Internal linking reviewedMarketing
The cheapest ranking work there is, and the most often skipped.
Content gaps identified against competitorsMarketing
Backlink profile reviewed, toxic links notedMarketing
Local listings and Google Business Profile checked, where relevantMarketing
Rank tracking set up for the agreed termsMarketing

05Internal review

Internal review complete before anything reaches the clientKeyPM
The PM SOP is blunt about this: no drafts, no unreviewed work, no outdated versions sent to a client.
Reviewed against the scope, not just against "does it work"PM
Every requested item, every feedback point, every agreed state present.
No placeholders, lorem ipsum, or test content left anywherePM
Version and file naming correct, and the client is getting the right onePM
Sending v3 when v4 exists costs a review cycle and some credibility.
Recommendations ranked by impact against effortMarketing
An audit that lists 200 issues in no order is a document nobody acts on.

06Client review and sign-off

Written sign-off recordedKeyFrom client
In the portal or in writing. Per the MSA a portal approval is binding, which is exactly why it is worth having.
Feedback collected in one placeFrom client
One thread, one document. Feedback spread across email, calls and messages is feedback that will be missed.
Fixes approved, or handed to their developers with clear instructionsFrom client
Walkthrough delivered rather than a link dropped in a chatPM
Ten minutes of context turns "I do not like it" into specific, actionable feedback.
Every feedback point converted into a tracked item and closedPM
Tracked by version, so "we told you about that" has an answer either way.
Anything out of scope identified, costed and agreed - not absorbed silentlyPM
Quietly absorbing scope teaches a client that scope is free, and the next request will be bigger.

07Handover and close

Someone named as the owner on their sideKeyFrom client
A handover to a company is a handover to nobody. It needs a person with a name.
Final sign-off recordedKeyFrom client
Access confirmed working from their sideFrom client
Tested with them on the call - not "we have sent the details".
Testimonial or case-study permission, in writing, if they are happyFrom client
Ask at the moment they are happiest. Written permission, because the sales SOP does not allow publishing client work without it.
All credentials transferred to the client’s own accountsKeyDev
Nothing important should remain only in our name. This is the item that decides whether they are a client or a captive.
Domain, hosting and DNS ownership confirmed as theirsKeyDev
Billing for any service in our name transferred or cancelledKeyPM
Hosting, plugins, licences, mail. So nothing stops working the day our card expires.
Outstanding items and known issues written down honestlyKeyPM
Everything unfinished, deferred or broken. A handover that hides a known issue is found out, and it is found out by the client.
Repository access transferred or grantedDev
Analytics, Search Console and ad account ownership moved to the clientMarketing
Our access removed or reduced, and the client told what we keptPM
If we keep a login for support, say so in writing rather than leaving it quietly in place.
Documentation written for whoever maintains it nextPM
Written for a person who was not here, which is the only audience that matters.
Training session delivered and recordedPM
The recording is the deliverable. The person trained will leave.
Final files, source files and meeting records stored in the client folderPM
Final invoice raisedPM
Project archived here, with files and notes kept in the vaultPM
Archived, never purged - the knowledge is what makes the next project with them cheap.
Internal retrospective: what to do differently next timePM
Fifteen minutes. The PM SOP asks for one practical process improvement, not a document.
Technical audit with issues ranked by impactDeliverableMarketing
Keyword map and content planDeliverableMarketing
Monthly reporting against the baseline, not against impressionsDeliverableMarketing
Handover pack with every credential and where it livesDeliverablePM
Maintenance or support arrangement agreed, or explicitly declinedDeliverablePM
Explicitly declined is a real outcome, and better than an assumption on either side.
Recording and notes from the training sessionDeliverablePM
Written summary of what was built and what was decidedDeliverablePM
The reasons, not just the result. It is what makes the next change cheap.

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