The complete SaaS SEO checklist: 169 checks, startup to enterprise.

• Conversion events fire for every revenue action: trial, demo, contact
• Search Console verified, sitemap submitted, coverage reviewed monthly
• MQL and SQL definitions written and signed with sales
• Organic-to-revenue attribution traced in the CRM, one real deal end to end
• Dated baseline on file: rankings, sessions, referring domains, AI citations per platform
• One dashboard a CFO can read without a translator

Verification example from the full list: for attribution, pick one closed deal and walk it back to its first organic touch. If the walk breaks, the item stays unchecked.

• Buying committee documented: who researches, who evaluates, who signs
• Bottom-funnel sourced first: pricing, alternatives, versus, integrations
• Intent read from the live results page before any page type is assigned
• One primary keyword per page, no exceptions, cannibalization audited
• A zero-volume list of precise buyer queries tools undercount
• CPC checked as an intent signal, priorities scored by revenue proximity

The thirteen queries this very page targets are the zero-volume item proven in public: eleven of them report between zero and twenty monthly searches, and buyers ask every one of them. The keyword-research discipline hub carries the full methodology.

• Three tiers live: pillars, sub-pillars, cluster posts, every URL slotted into one
• Commercial and informational pages separated, linking rather than competing
• Every important page within three clicks of home, zero orphans
• Anchors specific, five to eight words, never repeated to one destination on a page
• Breadcrumbs by topic parentage with BreadcrumbList markup
• Redirect map one-to-one, no bulk homepage dumping, no chains

• Marketing pages render server-side or static: H1, copy, and links in view-source
• Rendering parity confirmed: what Googlebot sees matches what users see
• Core Web Vitals pass in field data: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1
• One self-referencing canonical per page, parameter duplicates resolved
• Schema stack validating: Organization, Article, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, SoftwareApplication
• Staging noindexed and passworded, 404s return 404, chains flattened
• Enterprise: quarterly log-file analysis, crawl budget managed, SEO checks in the release pipeline

The thresholds are the Core Web Vitals thresholds Google documents, and they are field-data thresholds: lab scores are rehearsal, the CWV report in Search Console is the performance.

• One H1 carrying the primary keyword, titles at or under 60 characters, metas at or under 155
• Real heading hierarchy, no skipped levels, no bold text pretending to be headings
• Every section opens with a direct answer before it elaborates
• Named author with a live bio page, honest visible date matching schema
• Outbound citations land on the exact page that states each claim
• At least one verified fact per page that competitors do not have

Claim density is the standard underneath all six: numbers, names, and sources per section, because specifics are what readers trust and machines quote. The content marketing pillar holds the full production system.

• Pricing page built for search: real numbers or honest ranges, plan comparison, pricing FAQ
• One alternatives page per named competitor, honest enough to be credible
• Versus pages for the head-to-heads buyers already search
• Integrations directory with a quality bar per page, no thin duplicated stubs
• Case studies with verified figures and named clients where possible
• At least one free tool or calculator earning links passively
• Security and trust page live for the enterprise committee

• Five-signal test before any outreach: real traffic, topical fit, readable content, clean outbound profile, no farm fingerprints
• Known farm categories auto-rejected, one shared permanent reject list
• Steady monthly cadence of new referring domains, no spikes
• Anchors natural and brand-heavy, exact match rare
• Original data published at least twice a year
• Reported in referring domains and outcomes, never raw link counts

The five-signal test exists because DR and traffic are exactly the metrics farms optimize; reading the actual content is the filter that works. Our link building pillar documents the full discipline.

• AI crawler access decided deliberately: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended
• Citations baselined per platform before any optimization
• Citable elements retrofitted into money pages: statistics, quotations, precise sourced claims
• Question-shaped headings with direct answers beneath
• Share of answer measured monthly on the prompts real buyers put to assistants
• Both scoreboards in one report: rankings and pipeline beside citations per platform

The retrofit item is not taste, it is measured: the peer-reviewed GEO benchmark presented at KDD 2024 found citations, quotations, and statistics raised source visibility 30 to 40 percent in a ten-thousand-query benchmark. The AI search sub-pillar carries the full workstream.

• Markets prioritized by pipeline potential before anything is translated
• Hreflang implemented as a complete matrix, zero return-tag errors
• Localized keyword maps per market, not one map machine-translated
• Written RACI: one accountable owner per SEO workstream
• Standing SEO and engineering sync with a ticket SLA

• CTA matched to each page's intent stage, trial and demo paths split
• Proof placed beside every ask, not three scrolls above it
• Every cluster post carries an exit path to a fitting money page
• Attribution chain reconciled quarterly, organic session to pipeline
• Board scorecard monthly, in revenue units

• Weekly: Search Console anomalies, ranking movers, publish gates run
• Monthly: refresh queue shipped, new links tested, citation log updated
• Quarterly: full crawl, cannibalization audit, keyword re-run, link toxicity review
• One accountable owner for the program, named and known
• No rankings guarantees given or accepted, ever