New Client Onboarding SOP

The first 30 days of a client relationship set the tone for everything that follows. A structured onboarding process ensures expectations are aligned, access is established, baseline data is captured, and the team can move quickly into strategic execution. This SOP covers every step from signed agreement through the first month's deliverables, creating a consistent experience for every client engagement.

Kickoff Preparation

Internal Setup

Before the client kickoff meeting, the internal team should complete all administrative and technical preparation. This prevents the first weeks from being consumed by logistics rather than strategy.

Complete these tasks within 48 hours of agreement signing:

• Create the client project folder with standardized directory structure
• Set up the client in project management and time tracking systems
• Assign team members and establish the primary point of contact
• Prepare the access request list (analytics, CMS, ad accounts, Search Console)
• Run an initial SiteScore assessment to establish the baseline
• Review the client's competitive landscape and identify 3-5 primary competitors

Access and Credentials

Request all necessary platform access upfront in a single organized communication. Chasing credentials across multiple emails over several weeks is the most common onboarding bottleneck. Provide the client with a structured access request checklist that specifies exactly what is needed, at what permission level, and which email addresses to grant access to.

Standard access requirements include: Google Analytics (Editor), Google Search Console (Full), Google Ads (Standard access), Google Tag Manager (Publish), CMS admin access, and hosting/DNS access for technical SEO work. For hospitality clients, also request OTA platform access (Booking.com Extranet, Expedia Partner Central).

Discovery and Kickoff Meeting

Client Discovery Questions

The kickoff meeting serves two purposes: establishing working relationships and gathering strategic context that data alone cannot provide. Come prepared with discovery questions that uncover business priorities, past marketing efforts, seasonal patterns, competitive concerns, and internal approval processes.

Essential discovery topics:

1. Business goals: Revenue targets, growth priorities, new markets or products
2. Marketing history: What has been tried, what worked, what failed
3. Competitive landscape: Who they consider primary competitors and why
4. Decision-making: Who approves content, who signs off on spend changes
5. Reporting preferences: Frequency, format, metrics they care most about
6. Brand guidelines: Voice, tone, visual standards, and any content restrictions

Setting Expectations

Use the kickoff meeting to set clear timeline expectations. SEO results typically take 3-6 months to materialize; Google Ads can show results within weeks but requires a learning phase. Be specific about what to expect in months one, three, and six. Overpromising early destroys trust later.

Baseline Audit and Assessment

Technical and Content Audit

Within the first two weeks, complete a comprehensive baseline audit using our SEO Audit Playbook. This establishes the starting point against which all future progress will be measured. Document current rankings, traffic, conversion rates, technical health scores, and backlink profile metrics.

The audit should cover:

• Technical SEO: Crawl health, indexation, Core Web Vitals, structured data
• On-page SEO: Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, content quality
• Content inventory: Existing assets, gaps, and refresh opportunities
• Backlink profile: Domain authority, referring domains, toxic links
• Competitive positioning: Keyword overlap, content gaps, authority comparison

Quick Wins Identification

From the audit, identify 3-5 quick wins that can be implemented immediately to build momentum and demonstrate value. Common quick wins include fixing broken links, optimizing title tags for high-impression pages, adding schema markup, improving page speed, and fixing crawl errors. Delivering visible improvements early strengthens the client relationship.

Strategy Development

Based on discovery insights and audit findings, develop a 90-day strategic roadmap that prioritizes actions by expected impact. The strategy should clearly connect each recommended action to a business outcome. Present the strategy as a phased plan — clients respond better to structured progression than to overwhelming lists of everything that needs fixing.

The strategic plan should encompass content creation priorities based on keyword research, technical remediation sequenced by severity, link building targets, and any paid media recommendations. For clients investing in both SEO and Google Ads, outline how the channels complement each other using our triple-channel strategy framework.

Communication Framework

Establish the ongoing communication cadence during onboarding — do not leave it ambiguous. Define the frequency and format of check-in calls, reporting deliverables, and response time expectations for both sides. A typical structure includes weekly or biweekly status calls, monthly performance reports, and quarterly strategy reviews.

Provide the client with a clear escalation path for urgent issues and a designated Slack channel or email alias for day-to-day communication. Responsive, organized communication during onboarding establishes the trust that sustains long-term partnerships.