Strategy
Part of Nine steps to build a technical SEO strategy: outcomes, sampled crawls, scoring and review points
Five columns and six steps for a technical SEO planning template
A technical SEO planning template only works when every row ends in a decision. Here are the five fields to lock in and six steps to build the file.
What to take away
- Most teams start the template with a crawler export. The better first move is to write down the decisions the plan has to support.
- Every row needs the same five fieldsissue, evidence, owner, effort and review date.
- Use six ordered build steps, from setting the scope to agreeing how each fix will be reviewed.
- Treat the file as a decision log rather than an audit export.
- Add a data-protection row when a fix touches analytics tags or cookies.
Start with the decision, not the crawl
Teams often open a spreadsheet, paste a crawl export and call it a plan. Hundreds of rows, no owners, no dates, so nothing moves.
A template only earns its keep when each row ends with a decision someone has made. Write that decision at the top of the sheet: what changes, by when, and who signs it off.
Technical fixes often stall for human reasons rather than tooling ones. A row with a named person and a review date gets done; a row without them waits for a meeting that never happens.
The five fields every row needs
Field / What belongs in it
- Issue
- The problem in one line, in plain language
- Evidence
- The page, report or date that proves it
- Owner
- One named person, not a team
- Effort
- A rough size, in days or a band
- Review date
- When the row is checked again
Two extra columns are tempting and usually harmful. A priority score drifts as soon as two people score the same issue, and a status dropdown goes stale the week after it is filled. Sort the sheet by review date instead, and keep the evidence date beside it so old rows are visible.
Five fields every row needs
- Issueproblem in one line, plain language
- Evidencepage, report or date that proves it
- Ownerone named person, not a team
- Effortrough size, in days or a band
- Review datewhen the row is checked again
Six steps to build the template
Work through the steps in order, because the structure should follow the decisions you have already agreed.
- Set the scope.Decide which site or section the sheet covers and what decision the plan needs to support.
- Gather evidence.Crawl the site with Screaming Frog SEO Spider and check indexing and performance evidence in Google Search Console.
- Validate findings.Confirm that each issue is real and relevant; use Google PageSpeed Insights for performance evidence where appropriate.
- Write one issue per row.Keep the issue concise and record the affected page, report or date in the evidence field.
- Assign ownership and effort.Name one person responsible for the work and estimate effort using a consistent team scale.
- Agree a review date.Set when the change will be checked and record the decision once it has been reviewed.
For example: Issue: a key page returns a 404; Evidence: page URL and crawl result; Owner: web developer; Effort: medium; Review date: 14 November. The date here is only an example, set about four weeks after the crawl.
Six steps to build the template
- Write the decision the plan supports
- Lock the five columns above
- Set the evidence rulepage and date
- Assign one owner to every row
- Size effort in bands, then total
- Give every row a review date
Use the measurement and reporting guide to decide how outcomes will be reviewed. Keep individual fixes here; roll recurring problems up into the wider strategy rather than turning every crawl finding into its own objective.
Add a data-protection row when tags change
Many technical fixes touch tracking. A new analytics tag, a tag manager change or a cookie banner fix can alter what Search Console and your analytics tool show, and some tags need consent first. Add one row for each such change, with the tag, the consent rule and a review date, so the sheet records why a trend moved.
The Information Commissioner's Office guidance on cookies and similar technologies, which covers the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, is the reference for that row. Put the rule in the template as a row with a date, not as a note in a side document nobody opens.
Common questions
How many rows should the first version hold?
Start with a list a team can clear in one quarter. For example, a small team clearing about one row a week could close roughly 13 rows in a quarter. Better to leave gaps than to pad the sheet.
Who should own the file?
One named person in the SEO or web team, with a review slot in the diary. Shared ownership without a name tends to mean nobody updates the dates.
Should it carry commercial targets?
No. Keep targets in the strategy document and let the template record work, owners and dates. Mixing the two makes the file hard to update when forecasts move.
