Technical SEO Checklist for Agencies: How to Ensure Client Success

As an agency, your goal is to provide clients with the best results, especially when it comes to improving their online visibility and performance. Technical SEO is a critical element that directly impacts a website’s ranking, usability, and overall success. However, many agencies overlook the importance of a comprehensive technical SEO strategy in their campaigns. By ensuring your clients’ websites are technically optimized, you can drive long-term results and enhance user experience.

In this blog, we’ll go over a technical SEO checklist for agencies that will help you ensure client success while improving rankings, boosting performance, and delivering exceptional results. Let’s dive into the essential steps that every agency should take when implementing technical SEO for clients.

“IN TODAY’S WORLD, ENDPOINT PROTECTION IS NO LONGER A LUXURY; IT’S A NECESSITY. FAILING TO SECURE ENDPOINTS IS LIKE LEAVING THE FRONT DOOR OPEN FOR CYBERCRIMINALS, EXPOSING BUSINESSES TO THEFT, DISRUPTION, AND FINANCIAL LOSS.”

Raj Samani, Chief Scientist at McAfee

What Is Technical SEO for Agencies?

Before we dive into the checklist, it’s important to understand what technical SEO entails. Technical SEO refers to the optimization of a website’s backend structure to ensure that search engines can crawl, index, and render it correctly. It’s all about the architecture of the website and improving its technical aspects to increase organic visibility.

For agencies, technical SEO isn’t just about fixing technical problems; it’s about enhancing the website’s overall user experience, which directly affects rankings. A website that is fast, mobile-friendly, secure, and easy to navigate will attract more users and be better understood by search engines.

Why Technical SEO Is Crucial for Agencies

For agencies, technical SEO plays an integral role in a client’s success. Here’s why:

• Search Engine Ranking: A site with proper technical SEO will rank higher in search results, bringing in more organic traffic.
• User Experience: Websites that load fast, are mobile-optimized, and provide secure browsing ensure a better user experience, reducing bounce rates.
• Competitive Edge: Proper technical optimization helps your clients outperform competitors in search engines, especially when they’re facing highly competitive niches.
• Client Retention: Delivering consistent, measurable improvements in performance increases client satisfaction and builds trust in your services.

Technical SEO Checklist for Agencies

Here’s a detailed technical SEO checklist for agencies to follow to ensure client success:

1. Crawlability and Indexing

• Ensure Search Engines Can Crawl the Site: Check that there are no errors in the robots.txt file that may prevent search engines from crawling important parts of the site.
• Submit XML Sitemap: Submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines discover all important pages.
• Check for Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to identify and fix crawl errors (404s, 500 errors, etc.).
• Review Internal Linking: Ensure internal links are optimized and provide proper structure to help search engines understand page hierarchy.

2. Website Speed Optimization

• Page Load Time: Test your website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse. Websites should load in under 3 seconds.
• Image Optimization: Compress and resize images to improve loading times.
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Reduce the file size of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML by minifying them for faster loading times.
• Leverage Browser Caching: Use caching to reduce the load time for returning visitors.

3. Mobile Responsiveness

• Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure the website is responsive, meaning it adjusts to different screen sizes, especially for mobile devices.
• Mobile Usability Testing: Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to verify the mobile usability of the site.
• Touchscreen Optimization: Ensure buttons, links, and navigation menus are easy to use on touchscreen devices.

4. Site Security (HTTPS)

• Implement HTTPS: Ensure the website is served over HTTPS, not HTTP. This enhances security and is a ranking factor for Google.
• SSL Certificate: Install an SSL certificate on the site to enable HTTPS. This helps protect user data and builds trust.
• Mixed Content Issues: Ensure there are no mixed content issues (where some content is loaded over HTTP instead of HTTPS).

5. Structured Data (Schema Markup)

• Add Schema Markup: Implement structured data to help search engines understand the content of the site better. This can lead to rich snippets in search results, increasing CTR.
• Types of Markup to Consider: Add markup for articles, products, reviews, events, and local businesses, depending on the website’s focus.

6. Fix Duplicate Content

• Identify Duplicate Content Issues: Use tools like Siteliner or Copyscape to find and resolve duplicate content issues.
• Use Canonical Tags: Implement canonical tags to tell search engines the preferred version of a page, especially in the case of duplicate or similar content across the site.
• Avoid Thin Content: Ensure pages don’t have too little content. Google tends to rank pages with valuable, comprehensive content higher than thin or duplicate pages.

7. Optimize URL Structure

• SEO-Friendly URLs: Ensure that URLs are descriptive, concise, and include relevant keywords.
• Use Hyphens to Separate Words: Avoid underscores and use hyphens to separate words in URLs.
• Implement URL Redirects: Set up 301 redirects for any pages that have been moved or deleted to preserve SEO value.

8. Site Architecture and Navigation

• Logical Site Hierarchy: Ensure the website has a clear and logical site hierarchy that search engines can easily crawl.
• Breadcrumbs Navigation: Implement breadcrumbs to improve user navigation and make it easier for search engines to understand site structure.
• Fix Broken Links: Use tools like Screaming Frog to identify and fix broken links, which can harm both SEO and user experience.

9. Core Web Vitals

• Focus on User Experience Metrics: Google’s Core Web Vitals measure aspects of the user experience, including loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Use Google Search Console to track these metrics.
• Improve LCP, FID, and CLS: Focus on improving Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to enhance website performance and rank higher.

10. Analytics and Tracking Setup

• Install Google Analytics: Make sure Google Analytics is installed and tracking all pages correctly. Check that it is set up to track goals and conversions.
• Implement Google Tag Manager: Use Google Tag Manager to manage and deploy marketing tags (like conversion tracking and remarketing).
• Use Google Search Console: Monitor and fix any technical issues through Google Search Console, track your client’s search traffic, and measure keyword performance.

How to Ensure Client Success Through Technical SEO

To ensure success for your clients through technical SEO, follow these best practices:

• Regular Audits: Perform regular technical SEO audits to identify any potential issues that might affect your client’s site performance.
• Track Progress: Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and SEMrush to track improvements in rankings, traffic, and site health.
• Stay Updated with SEO Trends: SEO is an ever-evolving field, so it’s essential to keep up with the latest technical SEO trends and updates to stay ahead of the competition.
• Transparent Reporting: Provide clients with detailed reports that show the work you’ve done and the positive impact it’s had on their site’s performance.

Conclusion

Technical SEO is the foundation of any successful digital marketing campaign. For agencies, offering clients a comprehensive technical SEO strategy is not only about improving rankings, but also about creating a site that performs well, enhances user experience, and drives conversions. By following this technical SEO checklist, your agency can help clients achieve long-term success, outperform competitors, and build lasting relationships.

Make technical SEO a priority in your campaigns to guarantee improved website performance, higher rankings, and overall client satisfaction. By doing so, you’ll be positioning your agency as an expert that delivers measurable results and value to your clients.