Why I Start Every Engagement With Technical SEO
Every SEO project I’ve seen fail had one thing in common: content was added on top of a broken foundation. More pages. More blog posts. More effort. And still—no meaningful improvement.
That’s why I start every SEO engagement the same way: with technical SEO first, then content, then expansion.
Not because technical SEO is flashy (spoiler: it isn’t), but because without it, everything else is harder, slower, and less predictable.
SEO Only Works When the Foundation Is Solid
Before worrying about keywords, blog posts, or AI-generated content, I want clear answers to a few basic questions:
Can Google crawl the site efficiently?
Are the right pages being indexed?
Is there a clear site structure?
Are important pages competing with each other?
Is the site fast enough to not be a liability?
If any of those answers are “no,” content becomes a gamble. Technical SEO doesn’t win by itself—but it removes friction. And in SEO, friction compounds just as quickly as momentum.
Why Starting With Content Is Usually a Mistake
Most SEO advice starts with “create great content.” In practice, that often means:
publishing pages that never get indexed
writing posts that cannibalize existing pages
targeting keywords the site can’t realistically rank for
reinforcing a messy internal structure
This isn’t a content problem. It’s a sequencing problem. Adding content before fixing technical issues is like pouring water into a leaky bucket. You can do it—but you shouldn’t be surprised when nothing fills up.
Step 1: Technical SEO-Remove the Bottlenecks
The first phase of my SEO engagements is about control and clarity.
That usually includes:
crawlability and indexation review
site architecture and internal linking
duplicate content and cannibalization
page speed and performance basics
status codes, redirects, and errors
mobile usability and rendering issues
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s to make sure Google can understand the site without resistance. Once that’s in place, every improvement afterward has a better chance of working.
Step 2: Content That Reinforces Structure
Only after the technical foundation is solid do I move into content. But even then, content isn’t treated as isolated blog posts. It’s built to:
support core service pages
fill clear keyword gaps
strengthen topical relevance
improve internal linking paths
This often means editing, merging, or removing content before creating anything new. More content isn’t the answer. Better-aligned content is.
Step 3: Authority and Expansion Come Last
Once the site is technically sound and the content makes sense structurally, SEO becomes more predictable. This is where: links start to move rankings faster, new pages index and rank more easily, existing content compounds instead of stalling
At this point, growth isn’t forced—it’s earned.
And this is also where many SEO engagements should be focused, but rarely are, because the earlier steps get skipped.
Why This Order Matters More Than Ever Now
Search engines are better than they used to be. They’re also less forgiving.
Thin content, technical debt, and messy site structures don’t get a free pass anymore. AI-generated content has only amplified this—there’s more content than ever, but not more clarity. Sites that win now tend to be technically clean, intentional with content, and looking to grow in focused, logical ways.
That doesn’t happen by accident.
Final Thought
Technical SEO isn’t the goal. It’s the prerequisite. Content, links, and authority only work when they’re built on something stable. That’s why I always start there—and why I believe SEO works best when it’s treated as a system, not a checklist. If you’re investing in SEO and skipping the foundation, you’re making it harder than it needs to be.
