Mastering the Art of Prescreening: Essential Questions to Ask for Undefined Roles

What is your current website's URL?

Just as we cannot chart a course without knowing our starting point, we also cannot plan a fruitful SEO strategy without knowing your website. Please share the URL so that we can do an intensive audit. Remember, every voyage starts with a single step, or in this case, a website link!

What Content Management System (CMS) are you using?

The kind of CMS you're using can steer our SEO efforts in specific directions. Is it WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or something else? Your CMS, essentially, is the sparkling vessel that’s going to sail us to the target.

Do you have access to the back-end of your website?

To successfully carry out our SEO journey, we'll need the keys to the ship, that is, access to your website's back-end. It’s as critical as a captain having access to his ship’s steering wheel.

Have you ever performed any SEO optimizations on your website before?

If we know the journey your SEO has been on, it's easier to plan its future trajectory. Any previous SEO efforts will give us an idea of where your ship has sailed before and what the sea conditions were like.

What is the target audience for your website?

These are the people we want to reach through our impressive voyage. Knowing your audience helps us set the course accordingly, making sure we make stops at ports they're most likely to visit.

Are there any geographical locations you specifically target?

Every successful voyage requires a destination. Please let us know if there are particular regions or areas that we should focus on during our journey.

What are the main services or products you offer?

This is the treasure we're striving to get noticed. It’s paramount we know the value proposition, this way, we navigate in the direction of the relevant audiences that will be interested in these products or services.

What are the top three to five competitors' websites?

Knowing the competition helps us understand the stormy seas we may encounter, and equips us to better tackle and devise a successful SEO strategy.

Do you have Google Analytics or any other page tracking tool installed on your website?

This is the compass that will guide us on our voyage. These tools will provide us with invaluable data to inform our decisions and chart a successful course.

Do you have any established keywords for your business/website?

Keywords are our guiding stars! Knowing the right ones can lead us directly to our desired audience.

Have you ever been penalized by Google or any other search engine?

Have there been any capsizes or fouled anchor in the past in form of penalties? Knowing these will allow us to take corrective action and avoid them on our journey ahead.

Who are the existing personas or users of your website?

The people already aboard our ship - your site's current users - provide valuable insights into who we are effectively reaching, helping us to adjust our course if necessary.

What do you expect to achieve with on-page SEO?

Helping us understand your expectations from this voyage will allow us to align our efforts better. Remember, a clear vision leads to strategic action.

Is your website currently mobile responsive?

In a world that’s increasingly mobile, a mobile responsive website is as necessary as a ship being seaworthy for a voyage. So does your website pass this litmus test?

Are you able to create and update content for the website?

En route our journey, regular updates, changes might be necessary, the capability to produce high-quality content regularly is a handy tool in our SEO toolbox.

Do you have a sitemap and a robots.txt file set up?

These navigational tools can guide search engine robots, helping them understand the structure of our ship - your website - and are essential for a successful journey.

Are there any specific pages you'd like to rank higher on search engines?

Identifying specific pages for higher ranking is like setting sight on the lighthouse that will guide us home. Your input here will help fine-tune our SEO efforts.

Is there any duplicate content on your website?

Duplicate content can lead to confusion not just for your audience aboard our ship, but for the search engine's algorithms as well - comparable to having conflicting navigational maps. Proactively identifying and addressing this issue will ensure smooth sailing!

What is your website's current load speed?

The speed at which a website can load is like the guild wind - it will decide how fast we reach our destination. A slow-loading site can hinder our progress and drive potential customers away.

Do you have internal linking across your web pages?

Internal linking is comparable to a well-knit crew - they support, inform, and direct each other. This not only keeps users on your site longer but also helps search engines understand the structure of your site better.