The 2026 CFP SEO Checklist: Evidence, Ownership, and Validation

Check sitewide HTTPS and current TLS support Evidence required: browser security state, certificate details, redirect behavior, and representative page tests using TLS 1.3 where the environment supports it.

Pass/fail: Pass when public pages load securely without mixed-content warnings and redirects resolve to the intended secure URL. Fail when certificates, redirects, or embedded resources create security or access errors.

Severity: High when users encounter warnings or important public pages fail to load securely. Owner: Developer or technical site owner. Corrective action: Repair certificate, redirect, protocol, or mixed-content configuration without exposing private systems. Validation: Re-test representative templates and confirm canonical public URLs load securely.

Check mobile Core Web Vitals and real interaction quality Evidence required: Search Console or PageSpeed data where available, plus manual testing on representative mobile devices. Pass/fail: Pass when key templates are usable, stable, and responsive enough for readers to navigate, read disclosures, and contact the practice.

Fail when layout shifts, blocking scripts, oversized media, or interaction delays materially obstruct those tasks. Severity: High on service, contact, and high-traffic templates with measurable user friction.

Owner: Developer with design support where layout changes are needed. Corrective action: Reduce unnecessary scripts, optimize media, improve caching and rendering, and retest the affected templates. Validation: Compare before-and-after field or lab evidence and repeat the user tasks manually.

Check robots.txt treatment of private or client-only areas Evidence required: live robots.txt, index coverage, authentication behavior, and an inventory of areas that should not be public. Pass/fail: Pass when crawl directives match the intended public site and sensitive areas rely on proper access control rather than robots.txt as a security barrier.

Fail when private information is publicly reachable or useful public content is unintentionally blocked. Severity: Critical for exposed sensitive content; High for accidental blocking of important public pages.

Owner: Developer and security or platform owner. Corrective action: Apply real authentication and access controls, then use crawl directives only for crawl management. Validation: Test unauthenticated access and inspect search indexing for affected URLs.

Check XML sitemap quality Evidence required: current sitemap files, status codes, canonical targets, indexability, and Search Console submission state. Pass/fail: Pass when the sitemap lists canonical public URLs that return valid responses and are intended for indexing.

Fail when it includes redirects, private pages, duplicates, or broken destinations. Severity: Medium unless the issue affects large portions of the site. Owner: Technical SEO or developer. Corrective action: Regenerate the sitemap from the canonical URL inventory and remove inappropriate entries. Validation: Crawl the submitted sitemap and compare it with the intended indexable set.

Check broken links and missing-page handling Evidence required: a crawl of internal links, server responses, and a manual review of important navigation paths. Pass/fail: Pass when intentional 404 responses are appropriate and internal navigation does not send readers to broken destinations.

Fail when service, author, disclosure, or contact paths contain broken links. Severity: High for critical user journeys; Medium for isolated editorial links. Owner: Content owner for editorial links and developer for template or routing defects.

Corrective action: Repair, replace, or remove broken links and restore intended destinations where appropriate. Validation: Re-crawl the corrected URLs and manually follow the repaired user journeys.

Check advisor and author identity Evidence required: live author pages, visible credentials, firm records, and the authoritative verification source the practice is entitled to reference. Pass/fail: Pass when the person responsible for financial content is clearly identified and credentials shown on the site are current and substantiated.

Fail when authorship is anonymous, misleading, or inconsistent across the site. Severity: High for pages providing financial guidance. Owner: Editorial owner and the responsible professional. Corrective action: Add accurate author identity, role, credentials, and review information where it genuinely applies. Validation: Compare live copy with current firm records and approved professional profiles.

Check disclosures in the context where they are required Evidence required: the firm's approved disclosure requirements, page templates, campaign copy, and live regulated claims. Pass/fail: Pass when required disclosures are present, accurate, readable, and associated with the relevant claim or context.

Fail when disclosures are missing, outdated, or used as a substitute for correcting a misleading claim. Severity: Critical where the omission creates a material compliance issue. Owner: Compliance officer or counsel for requirements; content and development owners for implementation.

Corrective action: Apply the approved disclosure language and remove or revise unsupported claims. Validation: Obtain the responsible review and compare the live page with the approved version.

Check depth against user need, not a word quota Evidence required: the page purpose, target query set, competing information needs, and the questions a suitable prospective client must answer. Pass/fail: Pass when the content is sufficiently complete, accurate, and useful for its purpose.

Fail when important decision information is absent or the page is padded for length. The source's 2,000+ word example is a historical content-length prescription, not a verified ranking threshold. Severity: High for core service and financial guidance pages.

Owner: Content strategist and qualified reviewer. Corrective action: Add missing decision-useful material, remove filler, and verify financial assertions. Validation: Review the final page against the query intent, source evidence, and professional accuracy requirements.

Check reviewer information and structured data for consistency Evidence required: visible reviewer attribution where review actually occurred, the underlying review record, and any structured data on the page.

Pass/fail: Pass when markup, visible text, and internal records describe the same real people and roles. Fail when markup invents review, credentials, or relationships not visible or supportable. Severity: High for false professional or review claims.

Owner: Editorial owner and developer. Corrective action: Correct the visible attribution first, then align structured data only with facts that are true and supported. Validation: Compare rendered page, source markup, and internal approval record.

Check older financial content for current accuracy Evidence required: publication inventory, last review dates, cited authorities where present, and the firm's current approved guidance. Pass/fail: Pass when time-sensitive financial, tax, legal, and regulatory statements have a current evidence basis or are clearly contextualized historically.

Fail when outdated material remains presented as current. Severity: Critical when outdated content can materially mislead a reader. Owner: Qualified financial reviewer with compliance or legal review where appropriate.

Corrective action: Update, qualify, archive, or remove inaccurate material. Validation: Record the review decision and verify the live revision against the current authoritative source used by the firm.

Check Google Business Profile accuracy Evidence required: the live profile, firm contact records, actual office details, business category, hours, and services. Pass/fail: Pass when profile information accurately describes the practice and a genuine location.

Fail when contact details, category, hours, or service information are inaccurate or misleading. Severity: High when incorrect information can misdirect a prospective client. Owner: Local SEO or operations owner.

Corrective action: Correct the profile to match the real practice. Validation: Re-open the live profile and compare every material field with firm records.

Check local service wording for accuracy Evidence required: live profile and site copy, actual service availability, and the genuine locations served. Pass/fail: Pass when location wording helps a reader understand where and how the practice serves clients without implying a false office or unsupported availability.

Fail when city names are inserted only to manufacture local relevance. Severity: High for false or misleading location claims. Owner: Content owner with practice lead approval. Corrective action: Rewrite local descriptions around real offices, service delivery, and useful location-specific information. Validation: Compare the published language with actual operations.

Check the review-request process Evidence required: the firm's outreach procedure, sample request language, suppression rules if any, and compliance approval. Pass/fail: Pass when eligible customers are asked consistently for honest feedback without incentives, review gating, discouraging negative feedback, or selecting only satisfied customers.

Fail when the process filters who may review based on expected sentiment. The source previously suggested 5-10 reviews annually and referenced SEC Rule 206(4)-1; no supporting source URL is embedded here, so that cadence is not a verified target and regulatory interpretation remains subject to responsible review.

Severity: Critical for manipulative or non-compliant testimonial practices. Owner: Compliance owner and customer communications owner. Corrective action: Remove gating or selective solicitation and adopt approved, neutral request language. Validation: Audit outreach records and confirm the current process matches approved policy.

Check directory citations for factual consistency Evidence required: an inventory of legitimate profiles, firm name, address, phone details, and destination URLs. Pass/fail: Pass when relevant listings accurately describe the practice.

Fail when listings contain stale addresses, misleading categories, duplicate entities, or inaccurate contact information. Severity: Medium unless the error materially misdirects users. Owner: Local SEO or operations owner.

Corrective action: Correct or remove inaccurate listings using the directory's supported process. Validation: Recheck the live records after changes propagate.

Check location pages only for genuine locations Evidence required: actual office records, location-specific staff or service information, and unique reader needs for that location. Pass/fail: Pass when each location page represents a real location and contains useful information specific to it.

Fail when nominal service areas are expanded into repetitive pages without genuine local substance. A map embed is optional user information, not a guaranteed ranking mechanism. Severity: High for misleading location claims; Medium for thin duplicate pages.

Owner: Practice lead, content owner, and local SEO owner. Corrective action: Consolidate unsupported pages and strengthen legitimate location pages with accurate local information. Validation: Confirm every retained location page maps to a real practice location and distinct user need.

Check the primary page heading and title against the real service Evidence required: the live H1, title tag, target query set, and the firm's approved service description. Pass/fail: Pass when the heading and title clearly describe the page and real service.

Fail when they are generic, misleading, or overloaded with location terms. The source's heading prescription should be treated as an example, not as the single strongest on-page ranking signal. Severity: High for core service pages.

Owner: SEO and content owner. Corrective action: Rewrite titles and headings around the actual service, audience, and location where relevant. Validation: Review rendered text, metadata, and query intent together.

Check internal links to the /industry/professional/financial-planner page Evidence required: crawl data, source pages, anchor text, and destination relevance. Pass/fail: Pass when contextual links help readers reach the core financial planner service page from relevant content.

Fail when the destination is orphaned or links are inserted where they do not help the reader. Severity: Medium, or High when core service navigation is materially impaired. Owner: Content or SEO owner.

Corrective action: Add or repair descriptive, relevant internal links without forcing a quota. Validation: Re-crawl the site and manually test important paths to the destination.

Check interactive financial tools before publishing them Evidence required: calculator logic, assumptions, disclosures, data handling, mobile behavior, and professional review. Pass/fail: Pass when the tool is accurate for its stated purpose, transparent about assumptions, usable, and reviewed where required.

Fail when it implies personalized advice, hides assumptions, mishandles data, or contains unverified calculations. Severity: Critical for materially misleading financial outputs; High for broken functionality.

Owner: Product or development owner with qualified financial and compliance review. Corrective action: Correct logic, assumptions, privacy handling, disclosures, or remove the tool until it is safe to publish. Validation: Test representative inputs and compare outputs with the approved calculation rules.

Check the primary consultation CTA Evidence required: live page placement, destination, form or calendar behavior, mobile accessibility, and analytics. Pass/fail: Pass when the next step is clear, accurately described, and usable without obscuring disclosures or content.

Fail when the CTA is broken, misleading, inaccessible, or sends users to the wrong destination. Severity: High on high-intent service pages. Owner: Content, design, and web operations owner. Corrective action: Repair the destination, clarify the label, and remove unnecessary interaction friction. Validation: Complete the inquiry path from representative devices and confirm analytics capture the intended event.

Google Business Profile check - High - 30 mins Evidence required: current hours, contact details, categories, and representative photos. Pass/fail: Pass when the visible profile matches firm records.

Owner: Operations or local SEO owner. Corrective action: Correct inaccurate profile information. Validation: Re-open the live profile after the edit.

Credential display check - Medium - 1 hour Evidence required: visible CFP logo or credential references and authorization to display them. Pass/fail: Pass when credential use is accurate, current, and approved.

Owner: Practice and compliance owner. Corrective action: Correct unsupported or outdated credential presentation. Validation: Compare the live site with approved credential records.

Top-page metadata check - High - 5 traffic-driving pages - 2 hours Evidence required: current titles, descriptions, query data, and page purpose. Pass/fail: Pass when metadata accurately describes each page without unsupported claims.

Owner: SEO and content owner. Corrective action: Rewrite unclear or misleading metadata. Validation: Confirm the live source and monitor whether search engines display or rewrite the snippet.

• Evidence required: a review of time-sensitive financial content, including references such as SECURE Act 2.0 changes. Pass/fail: pass when current claims are verified or clearly historical; fail when outdated guidance is presented as current. Owner: qualified reviewer. Corrective action: update, qualify, archive, or remove inaccurate material. Validation: compare the live revision with the authoritative source used for review.
• Evidence required: live imagery and identity information. Pass/fail: pass when images accurately represent the firm or are clearly illustrative; fail when visuals create a misleading impression. Owner: content and brand owner. Corrective action: replace misleading imagery. Validation: review the final page in context.
• Evidence required: the issue list in our /guides/financial-planner-seo-mistakes resource and the live site. Pass/fail: pass when relevant mistakes have been checked rather than assumed. Owner: SEO owner. Corrective action: address verified issues. Validation: document the before-and-after evidence.
• Evidence required: current search-result questions and first-party query data. Pass/fail: pass when content ideas reflect real reader questions and the firm's expertise; fail when questions are copied mechanically. Owner: content strategist. Corrective action: develop original, accurate answers to relevant questions. Validation: verify usefulness, sourcing, and professional review before publication.