SEO

The Narqix view of SEO

Rankings are a signal, not the goal. The goal is more qualified visitors who become leads or customers. Every task you do should connect to pages that make the client money: service pages, location pages, product pages and the content that feeds them.

Definition of done

For an SEO audit:

• Findings ranked by impact and effort, top 10 actions first
• Each finding states the problem, the evidence, the fix, and who should make it
• Baseline numbers recorded (clicks, impressions, indexed pages, conversions from organic) with the date

For an SEO change or page:

• Change made, checked live, and recorded in the change log with date
• Page indexed or submitted for indexing
• Before and after measurement scheduled (usually 4 and 12 weeks)

Quality checklist

Technical

• Important pages can be crawled and indexed; no accidental no-index tags
• One canonical version of each page; no duplicate versions with and without www or trailing slashes
• XML sitemap includes only live, indexable pages
• No broken internal links or redirect chains longer than one hop
• Mobile pages load fast and do not shift while loading
• Structured data valid and matching what the page shows
• HTTPS on every page

On-page

• One clear search intent per page; no two pages targeting the same intent
• Title and meta description unique, specific, and written for people
• One main heading that matches the topic
• Content answers the searcher's question better than the current top results
• Internal links from related pages with descriptive anchor text
• Images compressed with useful alt text

Local (for service businesses)

• Business name, address and phone identical everywhere they appear
• Business profile on the main map listing complete: categories, services, hours, photos
• A dedicated page for each core service and each real service area
• Review request process in place (the client asks real customers; we never write reviews)

Content and authority

• Content written by or reviewed with someone who knows the subject
• Facts sourced and dated
• Links earned through useful content, digital PR and real partnerships
• No bought links, link schemes or mass-produced thin pages

Pre-launch checklist (site launches, migrations and redesigns)

• Full crawl of the old site saved, with every URL and its traffic
• Redirect map from every old URL with traffic or links to its closest new match
• Titles, descriptions, headings and structured data carried over or improved
• Staging site blocked from search engines; live site open to them
• Analytics and webmaster tools verified on the live domain
• New sitemap submitted on launch day
• Post-launch crawl within 24 hours to catch broken links and redirect errors
• Daily check of index coverage and organic traffic for the first 2 weeks

Reporting KPIs

KPI	Notes
Organic clicks, brand and non-brand separately	Non-brand growth shows SEO is working
Organic leads or sales	The headline number
Impressions and average position for target topics	Context, reported as trends
Pages indexed versus pages submitted	Health check
Technical errors open	Should trend toward zero
Local map listing actions	Calls, direction requests, site visits
Earned links from relevant sites	Quality over count

Compare month over month and year over year. Seasonal businesses must be compared with the same month last year.

Access and security rules

• The client owns the analytics property, webmaster tools property, map listing and site. You are added as a user, not the owner.
• Request the lowest role that lets you work. Read access is enough for audits.
• Never change site code, plugins or server settings directly unless the Scope Sheet says so. Hand changes to the developer with a clear ticket, or make them in staging first.
• Log every on-site change you make with date and before and after values.

Common mistakes

Open the list

• Reporting rankings for a handful of keywords instead of traffic and leads.
• Creating many near-identical location pages with the city name swapped.
• Changing titles on pages that already rank well without a test plan.
• Ignoring search intent: a "how to" page will not rank for a "hire a company" search.
• Forgetting that SEO results take weeks to months, and not setting that expectation at kickoff.
• Deleting old pages instead of redirecting or improving them.
• Publishing AI-drafted content without expert review, sources and editing.

Red flags to escalate

Red flag	Level	What to do
Organic traffic drops more than 30 percent week over week with no seasonal cause	P2	Investigate the same day, alert Delivery Lead and client
Manual action or security warning in webmaster tools	P1	Alert Delivery Lead in 15 minutes
Site set to no-index or blocked after a release	P1	Alert developer and Delivery Lead
Client asks to buy links, fake reviews or copy competitor content	P2	Decline, explain the risk, inform Delivery Lead
Migration planned without a redirect plan	P2	Raise before launch
Another vendor making SEO changes without coordination	P3	Raise in the weekly report

---

© Narqix Academy