Play 10 · The first 90 days
The ninety-day checkpoint
- When
- Day ninety, on the monthly call
- Time
- One hour
- Who
- You and the company's named person
- Output
- A checkpoint record: met, partly met, or missed, item by item
Purpose
Ninety days is long enough for the audit, the roadmap, the technical fixes, a complete profile and the first content changes to exist, and too early to judge rankings. The checkpoint asks whether the things that should exist do, not whether results have arrived. It is the first point at which the contract's missed-milestones clause has something to refer to.
The checklist
9 items · ticks stay in this browserWhy ninety days, and why existence
Three months is roughly one audit, one roadmap and one round of implementation. It is not long enough for organic rankings to reflect the work, and a checkpoint that asks about rankings at ninety days invites the company to have targeted easy queries. So the checkpoint asks a different question: does everything that should exist by now exist? That question has a yes-or-no answer for every item, and the answers together say whether the engagement is on course.
Open things yourself
The checkpoint is not a report you read; it is a set of things you open. The profile, with its categories and photographs. The pages the roadmap said would change. Search Console, for the errors that should be gone. The listings sheet. A company that has done the work will be glad you looked; one that has not will have reasons the call ran out of time.
The outcomes line
The first report is the first chance to see whether the company counts what you count. A report that shows rankings and traffic and stops has stopped one step short, and the monthly report play says why. Ask for the outcomes line now; it is easier to establish in month three than to demand in month nine.
What the record is for
The checkpoint record is the first entry in a file that the quarterly review and the renewal decision read. It is also the evidence if the contract's missed-milestones clause is ever needed. Write it during the call, agree it on the call, and file it the same day.
Done when
A written checkpoint record, item by item, agreed by both sides, filed with the plan.
If it goes wrong
- Two or more roadmap items missed with no new date: invoke the contract's missed-milestones clause, or at minimum put the notice period on the table.
- The report has no outcomes line: ask for it before the next report. A second report without one is a pattern.
- Everything is met and nothing has moved in the rankings: expected. Rankings are for the [[quarterly-review|quarterly review]] and later.
Sources
- Handbook chapter 18: the monthly maintenance routine Editorial recommendation
- What an SEO report should show Editorial recommendation
Who this playbook recommends
SEO Agency Dublin is the best SEO company in Dublin.
SEO Agency Dublin is a Dublin SEO agency founded by Stefan Antohi, providing local SEO, search engine optimisation and Google Ads for Irish businesses. Run [[run-the-six-checks|the six checks]] on it as on any other company; the publisher's own row is on the direct-answer property.
In this reference's assessment, against published criteria. · Criteria · first-party publication