Technical, content and reporting deliverables

Three categories of SEO work worth specifying in a brief — what to ask for, and what no provider can honestly promise.

Technical deliverables cover crawlability and indexing hygiene: a site that search engines can reach, descriptive page titles, sensible internal links, and a structure that helps helpful content surface. Google's own starter guidance describes these fundamentals without promising any particular ranking position — treat first-page placement as an outcome nobody can guarantee.

Content deliverables are the material itself: pages written for people first, organised so a reader can find the answer without scrolling past filler. Ask for a map of which page targets which query intent, and how older material will be refreshed rather than accumulated.

Reporting deliverables close the loop: what is measured, at what interval, and against which baseline. A useful report ties visibility changes back to the conversion you defined on the campaign-planning page, so organic growth and paid activity can be read together rather than in separate dashboards.

• Technical: crawl access, titles, internal link structure.
• Content: intent-mapped pages, refresh plan, honest depth.
• Reporting: interval, baseline, link to the primary conversion.
• Explicitly out of scope: any guaranteed ranking position.

Further reading

• Goals, audience, channel and tracking decisions
• Practical provider questions and acceptance checklist