What should you assess before preparing an SEO proposal?

Before preparing an SEO proposal, clarify the client’s business goals, audience and competitors, existing SEO results, website content, budget, and timeline. Then use a light website audit to help establish the proposal’s direction. A domain name alone is not enough to determine the scope of services. Start with a discovery conversation and an understanding of the current situation so you can explain why the work is needed and what time and resources it will require.

Start by asking: What does the client want to achieve through SEO?

In its 2023 guidance on proposals, Semrush places a discovery call before proposal writing. The point is not simply to ask which keywords the client wants to target, but to understand their business, challenges, and expectations. Start by organizing the following questions:

• Industry and products: What are the main products or services? How does the client believe their products differ from those of competitors?
• Business goals: Do they want more leads, sales, organic search traffic, or newsletter subscriptions? What conversion actions are they hoping for?
• Target audience: Which locations and groups of people do they serve? What needs or pain points do those people have, and what terms might they search for?
• Competitors: Who does the client consider their main competitors? How do they currently differentiate themselves?

For example, two clients may both say they “want more traffic,” but one may actually want more requests for quotes, while the other wants more subscriptions. Making those expectations specific gives the proposal a clear goal rather than just a list of tasks.

Understand previous efforts, then conduct a light website audit

Next, ask what SEO work has already been done, what results it produced, and what challenges arose. Participants in a Warrior Forum discussion also recommend asking how developed the website’s content is: Does it have almost no content, or does it already have a reasonable collection of blog posts? This is practical advice from a discussion about taking on client work, not a fixed rule for every project.

• Ask the client about their history: Cover existing SEO work, known results, past problems, and the services they want.
• Supplement this with observations from the website: Use a light audit to outline current performance and needs, tying the proposal’s recommendations to actual findings.

Semrush’s approach is to conduct a light audit before the proposal and leave the full audit until after the contract is signed. This arrangement helps tailor the proposal, set realistic goals, and demonstrate expertise. It does not mean a comprehensive diagnosis has been completed before the proposal, nor is it a process every provider must follow.

Check whether the budget, timeline, and resources can support the work

Once the needs are clear, ask about the available budget, the intended duration of the engagement, and how soon the client expects to see ranking results. The last point is an expectation that forum participants recommend clarifying upfront; it should not be reframed as a guaranteed deadline for results.

Screaming Frog’s 2023 event recap notes that, before pitching an idea to a manager, you should be able to reasonably explain the time and resources required. The article also says this advice applies to client communication. Before preparing the proposal, therefore, review the planned work, required inputs, and client expectations together. If you cannot yet explain the scope of work and resource requirements, gather the missing information rather than simply describing the potential results.