Technical readiness (the floor)

• Mobile-first responsive, no horizontal scroll.

• Page load < 3s on 4G mobile (use PageSpeed Insights).

• Core Web Vitals: LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS < 0.1.

• Sitemap.xml live, submitted to GSC + Bing.

• Robots.txt verified, no accidental blocks.

• Schema markup on Organization, LocalBusiness, Services, Articles.

• SSL/HTTPS enforced sitewide.

Content readiness

• Every page has a title (under 60 chars) + meta description (140-160 chars) that match search intent.

• H1 per page, H2/H3 properly nested.

• Service pages have at least 600 words of substantive copy.

• A content calendar — committed, not aspirational.

Local readiness (for service businesses)

• Google Business Profile claimed, optimized, 50+ reviews target.

• NAP consistent across top 30 Canadian directories.

• Location-specific landing pages for the top 5 cities you serve.

Analytics readiness

• GA4 installed, events firing for form submit + CTA click + phone tap.

• Search Console verified, ownership confirmed.

• Conversion attribution working end-to-end.

Talkerstein recommendation

If you score below 20/30, hold off on SEO and fix the foundation first. SEO performance on a broken site is wasted spend. Most agencies will take the contract anyway — they get paid; you don't get results.

Related

• Local SEO Checklist Canada

• Talkerstein SEO service

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