Most technical SEO advice is written either for developers or by them, which leaves a business owner stuck between not understanding the problem and not being able to ask for the fix. You don't need to write code to brief someone who does — you need to know what the handful of issues that actually matter look like in plain terms, and what a fixed version should do.
Can the site be found at all
Before anything else, a search engine has to be able to reach and read every page you want ranked. The plain-terms version: is there a file blocking search engines from certain pages by accident (this happens more often than it should when a site moves from a staging environment to the live one and a setting doesn't get switched back), and is there a sitemap — a simple list of every page — that's actually submitted and kept current. Ask your developer to confirm both directly rather than assuming they're fine; this is the single most common technical issue that silently keeps otherwise good content from ever being considered.
Does the site load fast enough to keep someone waiting
Page speed is a ranking factor and, more importantly, a factor in whether a visitor stays long enough to convert. You don't need to understand image compression algorithms to ask the right question: how does the site perform on a mid-range phone on an average connection, not a developer's fast office wifi on a new laptop. Ask for the result of a real speed test, not an assurance that it's "fine."
Is there one clear address per page
Duplicate or unclear page addresses — the same content reachable through two different URLs, or a page that changes address without redirecting the old one — confuse search engines about which version to rank and can quietly waste the authority a page has built. The fix a developer implements is technical; the thing to ask for is not. Ask whether every important page has exactly one canonical address, and whether old addresses redirect properly when a page is renamed or moved rather than simply breaking.
Does the page structure make sense without seeing the code
Headings should read like an outline — one main heading, then a logical sequence of subheadings — because that structure helps both readers and search engines understand what the page is actually about. You can check this yourself without any code knowledge: read only the headings on a page, top to bottom, and see if they form a sensible outline of the content. If they don't, the page's structure needs work regardless of how clean the underlying code is.
Is the site secure and mobile-usable
A site without a secure connection (the padlock in the browser address bar) and a site that breaks or requires zooming on a phone screen both create friction that search engines and visitors register the same way — as reasons not to trust or stay on the page. Both are quick to confirm without technical knowledge: check the address bar for the padlock, and open the site on your own phone.
Briefing a developer on this
None of the above requires you to read a line of code — it requires knowing which questions separate a real technical SEO problem from something that just sounds technical. This is the checklist our web development team runs through on every site build, and it's a good starting brief for any developer conversation, whether the work is being done in-house or handed off — a discipline that sits inside the wider approach in our SEO strategy framework.
