SEO
Action plan
Every finding of the site audit and of Search Console as a numbered action, approved before it is done and checked afterwards.
What the action plan is for
An audit can find a hundred things. The action plan turns them into a short list of work that a person agrees to, that someone does, and that is checked afterwards. Each finding of the site audit, and of Google Search Console when it is connected, becomes one action with a number: A01, A02, A03 and so on.
The action plan is at the top of the project's SEO → Plan.
What each action holds
| Column | What it says |
|---|---|
| Code | The action's number. A finding seen again keeps its code; a code is never used twice. |
| Action and why | What to do, and why it matters, with the real figures: the audit and its date, or the Search Console dates with positions, impressions and clicks. Below it, how the action is checked afterwards and the pages it is about, each with a link. |
| Effort | Small, medium or large. |
| Risk | Low, medium or high. |
| Who | Rekhu, a developer, the host, a writer or the client. |
| Status | To approve, Approved, Rejected, Done, Checked or Not passed. |
| Approval | Who approved or rejected it, when, and with which scope. |
The filters above the table show the actions of one status at a time.
Where actions come from
The site audit
Every finding of the latest audit becomes an action, the most important first: for example Write a meta description for every page, Fix broken links, or Give every page one main heading (H1). The action lists the pages it was found on and is checked by the next audit. See Site health.
Search Console
With Search Console connected, three analyses of the last 28 days add their own actions, up to ten of each:
- Searches just below the top. Searches where the site's average position is between 4 and 20 and that are shown often. The action names the page that ranks and aims to move it up. It is checked when, over a full 28 days after the change, the average position is two places higher or in the top 3.
- Click rates below the usual for a position. Searches on page one where far fewer people click than usually do at that position. The action is a search title and description that get the search clicked. The usual share per position is an estimate from a general curve, not a figure from your site, and the action says so. It is checked when the click rate reaches at least half of that usual share.
- Two pages competing for one search. Searches for which two or more pages of the site are shown. They compete with each other, so the action makes one page the page for that search. It is checked when one page gets at least 90 % of the impressions for that search.
Note: without Search Console, the action plan comes from the audit only. Figures read earlier are still used for a while, with their dates.
Approving actions
Approve each action first is a switch above the table, for the agency to set. It is on by default for a new project. With it on, nothing is done before it is approved: the SEO manager and Fix everything with the builder work only on approved actions. With it off, they work from the whole audit.
- Read the action. Open the pages it names and read why it matters.
- Select the actions to decide. Tick them in the first column, or tick the box in the header to select every open action shown.
- Choose the scope. Draft: change nothing live, or Publish: may change live pages.
- Approve or reject. Press Approve or Reject. One action approved on its own, with its own button, gets the scope draft.
- Mark done what others did. For an action a developer, the host, a writer or the client did, select it and press Mark done.
Approved actions are done by Rekhu Builder in the SEO manager's weekly round, or at once with Run a round now on the Overview while the weekly round is on. When an action needs more than its scope allows, or a decision of a person, the run says so. Approving an action with the scope publish is the yes for its live changes: the run does not ask again. Changes to live pages are saved first and can be undone; see Changes to live pages.
Each action's result says what the run did, and which of its pages were left and why. Next to it, the change log adds how many of the action's pages the run really changed. Prices, opening hours, terms and contact details in the titles, descriptions and alt texts it writes come from the fact sheet, never from a page that says something else; such a page is named as left.
Deciding the action plan is the agency's, or a client's with the right Manage the SEO plan. See Clients.
Checked afterwards
An action that is done is not the end. A later audit, or a Search Console period that starts after the action was done, checks it against what its row says under Checked afterwards:
- Checked: the finding is gone, or the figure reached its mark. The row says what was found.
- Not passed: it did not, yet. The row says what was found, so you can decide what to do next.
An open audit action whose finding a full audit no longer finds is closed as checked.
Check again at the top of the plan brings it up to date with the latest audit and Search Console figures.
Print or save as PDF
Print or save as PDF opens the plan as a page to print, with the filter you chose. It names the site only, not Rekhu, so you can pass it on to a client as it is. In print, the Who of Rekhu's actions reads Automated, and the client's reads You.
In the monthly report
The SEO report has a Work done section: each action Rekhu did or checked in the period, with its code and result (a finding that went away without a run is not counted as work done), next to the Search Console figures for the same dates. It also says how many actions wait for approval.
The report never claims that a ranking moved because of an action. Rankings and clicks move for many reasons, so the figures stand next to the work, not as its result.
Next
- Site health: the audit the actions come from.
- SEO reports: what the monthly report contains.
- SEO plan: research, topics and one page per search.