SEO onboarding questions to ask every new client

The SEO onboarding questions to ask every new client fall into four groups: goals, past SEO work, account access and reporting. Put them on one form, send it before the first call, and go over the answers together.

What goes on an SEO onboarding form?

An SEO onboarding form holds a short block of basics, then four groups of questions: goals, past SEO work, account access and reporting. Each group is there for a reason, and it helps to tell the client that reason on the form.

Start with three of the groups: the basics, account access and reporting.

The basics

• Who's our main contact, and how do they like to be reached?
• Who approves changes to the site?
• Who else on your side wants to hear from us?
• What's the site's address? Are there other sites or subdomains we ought to know about?
• Who built the site, and who can change it today?

Account access

• Which analytics tool is on the site, and who holds the login?
• Who holds the logins for the site's content system, its hosting and its domain name?
• Is there a business listing for local search, and who manages it?
• Does anyone who no longer works with you still have access to any of these?

Ask for a user of your own on each account, under your work email. That way the client's own password stays with the client.

Reporting

• Who reads the report, and what do they do with it?
• Which numbers do you already watch: calls, forms, bookings or sales?
• How do you count a lead today?
• Which day of the month suits you for the report?
• Would you like a call with each report?
• What did you like, or not like, about reports you've had before?

These answers shape the first report you send. For what goes into the report your answers will feed, see How do I create a white label SEO report?.

How to send the form

1. Send it once the contract is signed, before the first call.
2. Say at the top how you'll use the answers.
3. Mark the questions you can't start without.
4. Keep the words plain. If a term might be new to the client, explain it inside the question.
5. Go over the answers on the first call, and ask about any that came back blank.

The form is one step among several in a new account. For the first 30 days with a new SEO client, see SEO client onboarding.

Which questions about goals and past SEO work come first?

Goals come first, then past SEO work. Ask what the client wants from search before you ask what's been done, so you can read the site's history with the goal in mind.

Questions about goals

• What do you sell, and which product or service matters most to you this year?
• Who's your customer, and where are they?
• What does a new customer do first: call, fill in a form, book or buy?
• Which searches would you like to be found for?
• Which searches bring you people who aren't a fit?
• Who do you see as your rivals in search?
• A year from now, what would make you say this was money well spent?

Write the answer to that last question at the top of your notes, in the client's own words. It's a good line to read back on each report call.

The goals tell you what the client hopes for, and the first week is the time to say what you can promise. For what to promise an SEO client in week one, see SEO client expectations.

Questions about past SEO work

• Has anyone done SEO on this site before? Who was it, and when did the work stop?
• What did they change on the site? Is there a list?
• Did anyone build or buy links to the site? Who did it?
• Has the site been rebuilt, moved or given a new address?
• Has search traffic ever dropped all at once? When?
• Do you still have the reports from that time?
• What were you promised, and what did you get?
• Does the last firm still have a login to any account?

If the client can't answer one, write "not known" and note who might know. A blank answer is something to check when you first look over the site.

Which Google Search Console access levels should you ask for?

Google says each user of a Search Console property is assigned a permission, and three of them are owner, full user and restricted user. Its help page says what each one can do and doesn't say which one an agency ought to ask for, so that pick is yours and the client's.

Settle these questions before you ask for a permission:

1. What will you do in the account? Reading data for a report is one job. Taking actions in the account is another.
2. Who's the owner on the client's side today? If nobody's sure, finding out is the first task.
3. Who else has a user on the property, and does the client still want each of them there?
4. Would the client rather give more access later, once the first work is done?
5. What happens to your user when the work ends?

There are two ways to make the pick. One is to ask for the lowest permission that lets you do the work you've sold. The other is to ask for more, so you don't have to come back when the work grows. Either can be right for an account. Talk it through with the client, then write down what you agreed and who granted it.