The Technical SEO & Site Health Checklist: How to Brief an Agency for Real Results
You've hired an SEO agency. Or you're about to. The brief lands in your inbox, and it's full of promises about "boosting rankings" and "driving traffic." But if the brief doesn't start with a technical audit, you're building a house on sand. Technical SEO is the foundation—crawlability, indexation, site speed, and structured data are what let Google even see your pages. Without them, every link you build and every keyword you target is wasted. This checklist walks you through exactly what to demand from your agency, what to watch out for, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that kill campaigns before they start.
1. The Crawl Audit: Your Site's First Impression on Google
Every SEO campaign begins with understanding how search engines see your site. A technical SEO audit isn't optional; it's the diagnostic that reveals broken pages, orphaned content, and crawl budget waste. If an agency skips this step, they're guessing.
What to ask for in the brief:
- A full crawl of your site using a tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.
- A list of all 4xx and 5xx errors, with recommendations for 301 redirects or fixes.
- An analysis of crawl budget: which pages Googlebot is spending time on, and which are being ignored.
- A review of your XML sitemap and robots.txt file.
- Wrong redirects: A 302 instead of a 301 can confuse Google about permanence, potentially affecting link equity.
- Blocked resources: A robots.txt disallow on your CSS or JS files can prevent Google from rendering your pages correctly.
- Orphan pages: Pages with no internal links are invisible to crawlers, no matter how good the content.
2. Core Web Vitals: The Performance Baseline You Can't Ignore
Google's Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID/INP, CLS) are part of its ranking system. Poor scores don't just hurt user experience—they can impact your rankings. But here's the risk: many agencies promise to "fix Core Web Vitals" without understanding the underlying technical causes.
What to ask for in the brief:
- A baseline measurement of LCP, INP, and CLS using Google's PageSpeed Insights or CrUX data.
- A detailed report of what's causing slow LCP (e.g., large images, slow server response, render-blocking resources).
- Specific recommendations for reducing CLS (e.g., setting explicit width/height on images, avoiding dynamic ad injections).
- A plan to optimize INP by reducing JavaScript execution time and breaking up long tasks.
- Quick fixes that break UX: Removing animations or lazy-loading everything can harm user engagement.
- Ignoring mobile: Desktop scores might look fine, but mobile scores are what Google uses for ranking.
- Chasing perfect scores: A high PageSpeed Insights score doesn't guarantee rankings. Focus on the real user experience, not the lab test.
3. On-Page Optimization: Beyond Meta Tags
On-page optimization is where technical SEO meets content. It's not just about stuffing keywords into title tags. It's about intent mapping, structured data, and ensuring every page serves a clear purpose.
What to ask for in the brief:
- A keyword research process that maps search terms to user intent (informational, navigational, transactional).
- A content strategy that identifies gaps—questions your audience is asking that you're not answering.
- Implementation of schema markup (e.g., FAQ, Product, Article) where appropriate.
- A review of duplicate content issues and canonical tag usage.
- Keyword cannibalization: Multiple pages targeting the same keyword confuse Google and dilute rankings.
- Thin content: Pages with 200 words and no value get ignored by Google and users alike.
- Wrong canonical tags: Pointing the canonical to a different page than intended can remove the original from index entirely.
4. Link Building: Quality Over Quantity, Always
Link building is a critical part of SEO. A single high-quality link from a trusted site can be more valuable than many low-quality directory links. But the wrong approach can lead to penalties.
What to ask for in the brief:
- A backlink profile audit: what's your current Domain Authority and Trust Flow? Are there toxic links you need to disavow?
- A link acquisition strategy that focuses on relevance, authority, and natural placement.
- A process for outreach that prioritizes editorial links (earned, not bought).
- A plan for monitoring new links and flagging suspicious patterns.
- Black-hat links: Buying links from private blog networks (PBNs) or spammy directories. Google's Penguin algorithm catches this, and penalties can be manual or algorithmic.
- Over-optimized anchor text: If every link says "best SEO agency," it looks unnatural. Vary your anchors.
- Ignoring nofollow: Nofollow links don't pass equity, but they can still drive traffic and build brand awareness. Don't dismiss them.
5. Analytics & Reporting: The Metrics That Matter
SEO reporting is often a black box. Agencies show you rankings and traffic, but those are vanity metrics if they don't tie to business outcomes. You need to know what's working and what's not.
What to ask for in the brief:
- A dashboard that tracks organic traffic, conversions, and revenue (not just rankings).
- A breakdown of performance by page type (blog, product, category) and by search intent.
- Regular audits of your backlink profile and Core Web Vitals scores.
- A clear explanation of attribution: how do you know SEO drove that sale?
- Data cherry-picking: Showing only the keywords that improved, ignoring the ones that dropped.
- Delayed reporting: Monthly reports that arrive two weeks late are useless for making decisions.
- No action items: Reports should end with "here's what we're doing next," not just "here's what happened."
6. The Agency Brief: What to Include for Maximum Clarity
Your brief to the agency should be as detailed as their report to you. Here's a template to ensure you're both on the same page.
| Section | What to Include | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Current State | Existing traffic, rankings, technical issues, Core Web Vitals scores | Baseline for measuring progress |
| Goals | Revenue targets, traffic goals, specific keyword targets | Aligns effort with business outcomes |
| Constraints | Budget, timeline, technical limitations (e.g., can't change CMS) | Prevents unrealistic promises |
| Risk Tolerance | Are you willing to experiment? What's the penalty for a Google manual action? | Guides link building and content strategy |
| Reporting Cadence | Weekly, monthly, quarterly? What metrics? | Ensures accountability |
Checklist step: Before signing, ask the agency to walk you through a sample report from a current client. If they can't or won't, that's a red flag.
7. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your SEO Campaign
Even with a solid brief, things can go wrong. Here are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
- Ignoring site migrations: If you're moving to a new domain or changing your URL structure, a misconfigured redirect can destroy years of SEO work. Always audit the migration.
- Over-relying on automation: Tools are great for scale, but they miss context. A human needs to review every recommendation.
- Chasing algorithm updates: Google makes frequent algorithm adjustments. Focus on fundamentals, not reacting to every update.
- Neglecting mobile: A significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile. If your site isn't optimized for small screens, you're losing visitors.
Summary: Your Action Plan
Technical SEO is the foundation of any successful campaign. Without it, your content, links, and keywords won't get the chance to perform. Use this checklist to brief your agency, verify their work, and avoid the common pitfalls that derail campaigns.
Final checklist for your agency:
- Full crawl audit with error identification
- Core Web Vitals baseline and optimization plan
- On-page optimization with intent mapping
- Link building strategy focused on quality
- Transparent reporting with actionable insights
- Quarterly re-audit to catch new issues
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