SEO Diagnosis or Implementation?

A traffic decline alone does not identify the fix. First establish reliable measurement, affected segments and competing explanations.

• We trust the measurement: tracking did not change around the time of the drop.Analytics
• We know which pages, queries or markets changed.SEO
• We have listed at least two possible causes.SEO
• We know which check would tell those causes apart.SEO

A reproducible defect with an agreed solution, owner and acceptance criteria can be scoped as a project.

• The problem can be reproduced on demand.Developer
• The fix is agreed, not just suspected.SEO
• One person owns the fix.Decision maker
• We have written how we will check the fix is done.SEO

For each proposed action, record the observed problem, likely cause, missing evidence and dependency.

• Each proposed action names what was observed, and where.SEO
• Each one names the evidence that is still missing.SEO
• Each one names what it depends on, such as a developer, a reviewer or a release.Developer

Recurring measurement suits repeated decisions. Managed execution suits a continuing backlog that needs a responsible owner.

• We know which decisions repeat, and how often.Decision maker
• We know whether there is a continuing backlog, and who would own it.Decision maker

State the decision, affected market and pages, available evidence, scope boundary and expected deliverable. Include what should happen if the initial diagnosis is wrong.

Write down the one thing that happens next, so the checklist ends in a decision.