Onboarding for client success

SEO client onboarding template

This checklist will guide your SEO agency clients through the onboarding process, helping you to gather the necessary access and information. Makes the onboarding process easy for clients, and automated for you.

Use this template to onboard your clients.

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SEO client onboarding

Welcome to our SEO agency! This checklist will guide you through our onboarding process, helping us gather the necessary access and information to start optimizing your website and driving organic traffic.

No due date

Link tasks to actions, such as completing forms or booking meetings

Initial setup and access

To get started, we need you to sign the necessary paperwork and grant our team access to your website's analytics and backend platforms.

Sign the SEO service agreement

Please review and sign the digital contract sent to your email so we can officially begin our partnership.

Provide Google Analytics and Search Console access

Grant our agency's email address Admin access to your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts. This allows us to track your traffic and monitor search performance.

No due date Complete form

Provide CMS access

Create a new admin user for our team in your Content Management System (e.g., WordPress, Shopify) so we can implement on-page SEO recommendations.

No due date

Verify platform access

Our team will test the provided logins and confirm that we have the correct permissions to begin our audits.

No due date Team member

Tasks can be for the clients being onboarded, or for the team

Business and audience discovery

Help us understand your target audience, main competitors, and overall business goals so we can tailor our SEO strategy.

Complete the discovery questionnaire

Fill out our brief online questionnaire regarding your ideal customers, top-selling products or services, and biggest competitors.

No due date Complete form

Share past SEO audits or reports

If you have worked with an SEO agency before or have internal keyword research, please upload it here to give us a head start.

No due date Upload documents

Review discovery materials

Our team will analyze your questionnaire responses and previous reports to outline our initial strategy.

No due date Team member

Kickoff and strategy phase

With access and information in hand, we will conduct our baseline audits and meet with you to discuss the initial roadmap.

Schedule the kickoff call

Use the provided calendar link to book a 45-minute kickoff call with your dedicated SEO account manager.

Conduct initial technical SEO audit

We will run a comprehensive crawl of your website to identify critical errors, site speed issues, and indexing problems.

No due date Team member

Create baseline keyword ranking report

We will document your current keyword rankings to establish a baseline for measuring future SEO success.

No due date Team member

Present 90-day SEO strategy

During our kickoff call, we will present our findings and outline the specific SEO actions we will take over the next 90 days.

No due date Team member

Click the button below to edit or add tasks, add due dates, and much more...

Free plan No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

How to use this template

Setup once, save time again and again

Step 1

Grab this template


Step 2

Send to clients

Only needs an email address. Or add an open invite link to your existing welcome emails.


Step 3

Clients complete tasks

  • Email reminders keep things moving
  • Ask questions or clarify with comments
  • Summary page shows everything you need to know

Free plan No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Loved by 4,500+ happy users


The perfect way to onboard clients

Your complete onboarding hub for new SEO business

Your brand (even the emails)
Instantly know what's been done
Shows clients what to do
Chases up while you sleep
Everything lives in one place

Free plan No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Sick of the onboarding admin?

Switch to friction-free customer onboarding software

Secure link, no passwords

Accessing a plan (or getting back into it) is as simple as following a link. We're obsessed with useability.

Comment & collaborate

Customers can ask questions right from within a task. They can also invite others in to help them, without bothering you.

HubSpot ready

  • Start new onboarding plans inside HubSpot
  • Adds events to the timeline
  • Updates custom fields
  • Attaches photos and documents

If you don't use HubSpot, no problem. It works great without it too.

White label (including emails)

Every interaction, from invite through to the task page, showcases your brand.

Does the chasing up

Never send a "checking in" email again.
We'll make sure tasks always get done, on time.

Helps you improve

We'll ask clients to rate their onboarding experience.

  • Helps you to constantly improve your processes
  • Make sure your team are delivering exceptional service

Free plan No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Handles complex onboarding too

Calculated due dates

Set due dates calculated on the fly from the start date, a target date, or based off when other tasks are completed.

Sequential tasks

Choose to make tasks sequential, so that tasks need to be completed in order.

Frequently asked questions

How can I use this template?

Just click Customize this template above and we'll take you through a couple of simple steps to create an Onthen account and copy the seo client onboarding template into it.

Once that's done we'll take you straight into the template editor where you can customize it to your exact needs (there's bound to be a few things you'll do differently).

Finally, once it's ready you can use it to create individual checklists (we call them 'plans') for each of your clients. Just type their email address and we'll do the rest. As they move through the tasks, you'll see their progress in the dashboard.


Who is this seo client onboarding onboarding template for?

If you run a team that needs to onboard clients then the seo client onboarding template is a perfect starting point.

You'll first be able to tailor the template to your team's needs, by editing, removing or adding tasks to suit your onboarding process. When it's perfect, onthen has all the tools you need to easily invite clients to it and make sure all the tasks get done, on time.


How do clients use it?

First you'll invite clients to the checklist. You can either send an invite manually, through our HubSpot integration, or by using an invite link that lets anyone with the link create a new checklist.

Your clients won't need to create an account or a password, they'll simply access it with a 6-digit code we'll send to their email.

It's really easy to use and there's nothing to navigate, it's a simple single page onboarding plan that looks pretty much like you see above.

If any task gets forgotten about, we'll send email reminders to nudge your clients to complete everything.

Free plan No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own


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