The problem
Some engagements need more than a quick read before you commit to a plan: a rebuild, a re-platform, taking over everything from another agency. A partial picture produces a plan you later have to walk back.
When to use this playbook
A large new engagement, a site rebuild, or a handover from another agency.
The workflow
- 01
Run the Diagnostic
The ten-pillar baseline and its action items, in the client’s workspace.
- 02
Measure AI visibility and reach
A Citation Scan for how often AI answers cite the client, and a Crawlability Scan for which pages AI agents and crawlers can reach.
- 03
Read the competition
Competitive Reports on the competitors that matter, for your team’s positioning work.
- 04
Work through it with our team
A Strategic Assessment on priorities, and an Infrastructure Audit of the systems the outside view cannot reach.
- 05
Agree one prioritised roadmap
The findings, scans and audit come together as a prioritised list of action items in the workspace, assigned and scheduled.
- 06
Keep it current
Put the client on a scheduled Diagnostic so the baseline keeps being measured, or hand the ongoing work to our team on a Run & Optimise retainer.
What you use
- Diagnostic Ten pillars scored from public evidence in 5–10 minutes, with every finding turned into an action item.
- Citation Scan Sixty AI answers to ten fixed questions about the category, and every domain they cite.
- Crawlability Scan URL by URL, which pages AI agents and crawlers can reach and which they are turned away from.
- Competitive Report How a named competitor positions itself, drafted by our system and reviewed by a person before delivery.
- Strategic Assessment A working session with our team on what the findings mean and what to do first.
- Infrastructure Audit A hands-on review by our team of the systems the outside view cannot see.
What you end up with
A baseline pack: scores, specialist reads, a prioritised roadmap and a dated starting point.
The opportunity
A paid onboarding engagement in its own right, and the plan the first months of work hang from.
What this playbook does not do
- Each specialist read and each service is bought separately. Pick the ones the engagement needs.
What comes next
Verify that a marketing problem was fixed
Mark the work done, have a second person confirm it, and let the next Diagnostic check it independently.
Read the playbook →Prepare for a client review
Pull what was wrong, what was done, what changed and what is still open for one client over any period, from the work already in their workspace.
Read the playbook →