You've signed. Here is exactly what happens next.
A visual, month-by-month walkthrough of how Algorithm's Organic offering rolls out. Discovery, then four reusable sprints - Strategy, Technical, Entity, Amplify - plus the optional implementation and content writing workflows that wrap around them. Built for the CMO or marketing manager who has signed off and wants to know what they are paying for, sprint by sprint.
The four-sprint Organic rollout, rendered as a roadmap the team and the client see the same way.
What you signed for
One Foundation. Continuous Growth. Four reusable sprints.
Algorithm's Organic offering is an entity-led SEO and GEO service, productized into reusable sprints and sold in tiers calibrated by the number of priority entities. It is sold as a single channel and is also the organic component of the Full Performance Marketing bundle. GEO is baked into Organic, not split out.
Engagements run in two shapes. Foundation is the project that builds the entity assets - 3-4 months at the Small tier, up to 12 months at Enterprise. Growth is the continuous programme that compounds and protects the work. Both run on the same four sprints, run the same way every time.
The five chips below are the entire system. The rest of this guide is what each one actually involves and what you can expect from us, week by week.
00
Discovery
Kick-off, access, scope confirmation
01
Strategy Sprint
The plan: entities, opportunity, roadmap
02
Technical Sprint
Site health audit, runs in parallel
03
Entity Sprints
Build each priority entity full-funnel
04
Amplify Sprint
Off-site authority, links and digital PR
4
reusable sprints, run the same way every time
1
Foundation, then continuous Growth
30
minutes from kick-off to first sprint locked in
The roadmap
The rollout, as a single picture.
Read it left to right. Discovery in week zero. Strategy and Technical Sprints run in parallel through Month 1. Entity Sprints repeat from Month 2 onward, with how many running concurrently set by your tier. Amplify is continuous through Growth.
Week 0
00
Discovery
Kick-off call, access provisioning, commercials and priorities confirmed. Everything the next two sprints need to start clean.
Month 1
01
Strategy Sprint
The plan. Entity identification, Lighthouse market share and GEO analysis, presentation to leadership, and the signed-off Organic Strategy.
Month 1 (parallel)
02
Technical Sprint
Diagnostic site health audit running alongside Strategy. Indexation, rendering, speed, schema, mobile, security. Findings + recommendations.
Months 2-N
03
Entity Sprints
The engine. One entity built full-funnel in a fixed 4-week sprint. How many run concurrently is set by your tier. Repeats until Foundation is complete.
Ongoing in Growth
04
Amplify Sprint
Off-site authority for live entity pages. Link prospecting, vetting, outreach, digital PR and citations. Volume scales by tier.
Key design choice
Strategy and Technical Sprints run in parallel through Month 1. They have no dependency on each other and they answer different questions - the commercial plan and the diagnostic site health. By the end of Month 1, both are complete and the first Entity Sprint can start clean.
How every sprint runs
One skeleton. Stamped on every sprint.
All four sprints use the same eight-part skeleton. Same gates, same definition of done, same handoff. The differences live inside the run sequence - what is being built, by whom, in what order. This is the standardisation that lets the system run without a dedicated project manager and lets you read every monthly report the same way.
Purpose and trigger
What the sprint is for. What event fires it.
Entry gate
What must be true before the sprint can start.
Roles
One owner plus support. Where Client Impact plugs in.
Duration and cadence
Fixed length. Weekly rhythm. Where it sits in the wider engagement.
Run sequence
Ordered stages. Each step has action, owner, tool, input, output, definition of done.
Quality bar
Points to the canonical SEO Playbook. Does not restate it.
Exit gate
The QA checklist that closes the sprint.
Handoff
What it produces for the next sprint and the monthly report.
Discovery: the week between signing and starting.
Discovery is the short, intense week that sits between contract sign-off and the first sprint going live. It is not a billable sprint in its own right - it is the readiness layer that lets the Strategy and Technical Sprints both start on day one of Month 1.
In a single 60-90 minute working session plus async access provisioning, we lock in three things: what we are solving for (commercial priorities, ambition, current baseline), who we are working with (your team, your stakeholders, who owns what internally), and what we need access to (CMS, Google Search Console, analytics, GMB, any AI visibility tooling already in place).
By Friday of Week 0, you have a confirmed sprint plan for Month 1, a named owner from Algorithm (your Client Impact lead), and the first Lighthouse data already being pulled in the background.
Strategy Sprint: the commercial plan.
The Strategy Sprint answers the question every CMO is actually asking: which entities should we win, in what order, against which competitors, on which surfaces? It produces the signed-off Organic Strategy that every downstream sprint executes against.
It is also where Algorithm's proprietary Lighthouse platform earns its keep. Lighthouse is how we measure your market share against named competitors, your AI citation share across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, and where the opportunity sits in each. The output is a transparent priority order, not a black box.
Line item 01
Discovery
Business goals, commercial priorities, current organic baseline, internal teams and capacity. Sets the parameters for everything that follows.
Line item 02
Entity identification
Map your commercial entities - the products, services, locations or audience verticals that drive revenue. Each becomes a candidate for its own hub-and-spoke cluster.
Line item 03
Lighthouse Market Share analysis
Algorithm's proprietary Lighthouse platform measures your share of voice against the named competitors in each entity. Where you win, where you lose, where the opportunity sits.
Line item 04
Lighthouse GEO analysis
Citation share across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude for the questions your buyers ask. The AI visibility baseline that Google rank tracking does not give you.
Line item 05
Lighthouse presentation
We present the Lighthouse findings to your leadership team. This is the moment the strategy becomes shared knowledge across your marketing, brand and exec stakeholders.
Line item 06
Organic Strategy sign-off
The deliverable. An interactive strategy view inside Lighthouse: thesis, entity priority order, four-sprint plan per entity, 12-month roadmap. This is what every following sprint executes against.
Exit gate
The signed-off Organic Strategy lives inside Lighthouse as an interactive view: thesis, entity priority order, a four-sprint plan per entity, and a 12-month roadmap. It is the spec the Entity Sprint Agent and the team both execute against - and it is the document you can share with your exec without rebuilding it from scratch.
Technical Sprint: the diagnostic.
The Technical Sprint is hardcore site health, diagnostic only. We do not push code in this sprint. We produce findings and a prioritised backlog of recommendations across seven categories - the categories that, when broken, undo every cluster you would build on top of them.
The decision on who implements the fixes is yours, made at Discovery: your dev team, or ours as a separately scoped engagement. Either way, the diagnostic is owned by Algorithm and the implementation work is tracked separately from the Organic retainer so the two never blur.
Category 01
Crawlability and indexation
Robots.txt, XML sitemaps, internal linking integrity, faceted navigation, indexation coverage in Google Search Console.
Category 02
Speed and Core Web Vitals
Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift. Real-user metrics from CrUX, plus lab measurement.
Category 03
Mobile
Mobile usability, viewport configuration, responsive behaviour, touch target sizing. Mobile-first indexing readiness.
Category 04
URLs, redirects and status codes
URL structure consistency, redirect chains, 4xx and 5xx errors, canonical tag accuracy, parameter handling.
Category 05
Link integrity
Internal link graph health, broken links, orphan pages, depth from homepage, sitewide navigation patterns.
Category 06
Security and trust
HTTPS, mixed-content warnings, security headers, expired certificates, malware flagging.
Category 07
Sitewide schema
Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList markup. The structured data foundation that page-level schema sits on top of.
Exit gate
The Technical Sprint exits with a written audit, a prioritised backlog of fixes ranked by impact-versus-effort, and a clear flag for any sitewide blocker that would stall an Entity Sprint from publishing. Re-audit runs bi-annually as part of Growth.
Before Sprint 03 · A definition
What is an entity?
The word matters because the entity is the unit of scope in everything Algorithm sells. Tiers are dialled by entity count. Foundation completes when every priority entity has been built. Growth compounds entity by entity. So it pays to be precise about what one is.
An entity is a commercial unit in your business that earns its own focus. It is a product line, a service category, a geographic location, or an audience vertical that drives revenue and deserves its own dedicated content cluster. It has its own buyers, its own questions, its own competitors, and its own measure of success.
For a private hospital group
For an e-commerce retailer
For a SaaS business
For a multi-location business
Each entity gets its own hub-and-spoke cluster: one canonical hub page that anchors the entity, the conversion pages closest to revenue, the depth content that earns topical authority, and the foundation content that brings new audiences in. Built BoFu-first, so the money pages go live first and value shows early.
Entity Sprint: one entity, built full-funnel, in four weeks.
This is the repeating engine of the entire engagement. One entity, built end-to-end - hub plus BoFu plus MoFu plus ToFu - wired and live, in a fixed 4-week sprint. How many run concurrently is set by your tier. Foundation completes when every priority entity has been through this sprint at least once.
The fixed length is deliberate. It turns "how many entities can we ship" into arithmetic, makes capacity planning honest, and forces money pages to go live by the end of week 2 - the discipline that makes value show early.
Week 1
Research and briefs
- Keyword and SERP research for the entity
- Cluster blueprint: one hub, 2-3 conversion, 2-3 depth, 2-3 ToFu pages
- Build-new vs optimise-existing decision per page
- Content brief per page (keyword, intent, on-page spec, schema spec, internal-link targets)
Gate
Briefs signed off
Week 2
BoFu: hub and conversion pages
- Build or optimise the canonical entity hub page
- Build the 2-3 conversion pages closest to revenue
- On-page SEO and page-level schema built into each page as it is made
- Schema validates, money pages live
Gate
Money pages live
Week 3
MoFu and ToFu content
- Build the 2-3 depth pieces (comparison, decision, problem-solution)
- Build the 2-3 foundation pieces (informational, topical authority)
- On-page and schema built into each page
- Editorial QA against the canonical playbook standard
Gate
All pages drafted and live
Week 4
Linking, QA and sprint report
- Wire the full cluster: hub to and from conversion, depth and ToFu pages
- Link the cluster into the wider site architecture
- Entity QA checklist: indexation, on-page, schema, no orphans
- Sprint report: what was built, what moved, what is next
Gate
Exit gate passed, report handed to Client Impact
Tier dial
Small (1-4 entities) runs ~1 Entity Sprint at a time. Medium ~1-2. Large ~2-3. Enterprise ~3-4. Concurrency is set at kick-off.
Priority order
Set in the Strategy Sprint. Two overlays: commercial value to your business, plus Lighthouse opportunity. Highest commercial intersected with highest opportunity goes first.
Growth mode
After Foundation, a new entity is simply another Entity Sprint. Returning to an existing entity to deepen or defend is also another Entity Sprint. Same engine, same gates.
Amplify Sprint: the off-site authority engine.
Amplify is what makes the entity pages already built compound over time. It runs continuously through Growth, with volume scaled to your tier. Targets are always priority entity pages - hubs and conversion pages first, because that is where link equity and brand mention velocity convert to actual revenue impact.
Amplify also feeds the GEO layer. Brand mentions in the publications AI models train on, and citations in the listings AI models retrieve from, both contribute to your AI citation share. The same activity earns Google ranking equity and AI visibility - which is why we keep them in the same sprint.
01
Link prospecting
Identify high-authority targets in your category and the SA market. Use the priority entity pages as the linkable assets.
02
Outreach and placement
Personalised outreach to editors, journalists and topic owners. Quality over volume. Placements that pass equity to the money pages.
03
Digital PR and mentions
Coverage in the publications your buyers read. Each mention is also a brand entity signal that feeds AI citation systems.
04
Citation and listing audit
Local citations, business listings and unstructured brand mentions. Consistency across the open web feeds the knowledge graph.
05
Amplify report
Placements landed, equity gained, brand mention velocity. Tied back to the entity pages it targeted.
Cadence and reporting
The reporting rhythm.
Reporting is not a sprint of its own. It wraps every sprint. The cadence is the same whether you are in Foundation or Growth, whether you are Small tier or Enterprise.
Sprint stand-up
Internal Algorithm cadence. Each entity sprint owner reports against the week's gate. Client Impact surfaces blockers that need your input.
Sprint report
Written at the end of every sprint. What we built, what moved against baseline, what is next. Feeds the monthly client update.
Client update
Consolidated view: sprint progress, Lighthouse movement, what is being worked on, what is coming. Built for the CMO to share upward without rework.
Strategy and Technical refresh
Strategy Sprint runs again to re-baseline. Technical Sprint re-audits site health. Keeps the plan honest as the market and the site move.
Two workflows that wrap around the sprints
Implementation and content writing. Your team, ours, or a blend.
Two pieces of work are not inside the four-sprint engine but always wrap around it: technical implementation (the dev work that fixes what the Technical Sprint diagnosed) and content drafting (the writing inside every Entity Sprint). For both, the same answer applies: if you have an internal team, we work alongside them. If you do not, we can own it end to end as a scoped extension to the engagement.
Implementation
The Technical Sprint produces findings and recommendations - it does not push code. If your business has internal dev capacity, Algorithm hands the ticketed backlog to your team and works alongside them. If you'd rather we own implementation end to end, we scope it as a separate dev project so the diagnostic and the build do not get tangled in the same retainer.
- We work with your internal dev team if you have one
- We own implementation end to end as a scoped project if you don't
- Either way, it is tracked separately from the Organic retainer
Content writing
Every Entity Sprint produces signed-off content briefs - the spec for what each page needs to do, who it speaks to, the on-page and schema standard. If you have an internal copy team or writers you already trust, they write to brief and we QA. If you'd rather we own drafting, our editorial team writes to the same briefs in your brand voice, with senior editorial review before anything goes live.
- Your team writes to our briefs and we QA editorial against the playbook
- Or our editorial team drafts in your brand voice with senior review
- Money pages always get the heaviest editor attention regardless of who drafts
Why we built it this way
What you get from a sprint system versus tracked hours.
The reason Algorithm runs Organic on sprints rather than retainers-of-hours is that sprints give you four things tracked hours cannot.
You know what you're paying for
Every month maps to a named sprint with a fixed exit gate. No vague "SEO work" line items. No mystery hours.
Money pages live by week 6
By the end of Entity Sprint 1 (week 2 of the sprint), your highest-value conversion pages are built, schema-validated and live.
The system scales with you
More entities, more concurrent sprints. Same playbook, same gates. The model holds whether you're a 4-entity Small tier or a 16-entity Enterprise.
Built to run without heroics
Every sprint has a written run sequence, definition of done, and handoff. Your engagement does not depend on a single key person at Algorithm.
Frequently asked questions
CMO questions about the rollout.
The questions every marketing leader asks Algorithm in the weeks after signing. Answered straight, in the same order they tend to come up.
1. We've signed the contract. When does the Strategy Sprint actually start?
Discovery starts in the same week as sign-off. The Strategy Sprint formally kicks off the following week, once we've provisioned access (CMS, Google Search Console, analytics, Lighthouse) and confirmed the named stakeholders. The Strategy and Technical Sprints then run in parallel through Month 1. Most clients have their first Lighthouse presentation booked within three weeks of signing.
2. Why are Strategy and Technical Sprints run in parallel rather than sequentially?
Because they answer different questions and need different inputs. The Strategy Sprint is the commercial plan - which entities, in what order, against which competitors. The Technical Sprint is the diagnostic - what is broken under the bonnet. They feed into different decisions and have no dependency on each other in Month 1. Running them in parallel means by the end of Month 1 you have both the strategic plan and the technical backlog ready to act on.
3. What is an entity, and why is it the unit of scope?
An entity is a commercial unit in your business that earns its own focus - a product line, service category, geographic location, or audience vertical. For a private hospital group it might be 'Cardiology', 'Maternity' and 'Oncology' as separate entities. For an e-commerce retailer, it might be top-level categories. Each entity gets its own hub-and-spoke cluster: one canonical hub page, conversion pages closest to revenue, depth content, and foundation content. Building entity by entity is the cleanest way to scope Foundation work, prove value page by page, and stack compounding authority over time.
4. How many Entity Sprints will run concurrently for our tier?
Concurrency scales with your tier and retainer. A Small (1-4 entity) engagement typically runs one Entity Sprint at a time, completing Foundation in 3-4 months. A Medium engagement (5-8 entities) usually runs 1-2 concurrently. A Large engagement (9-12 entities) runs 2-3 concurrently. Enterprise (13-18 entities) runs 3-4 concurrently. We confirm the exact concurrency at kick-off based on your priority order and the readiness of your CMS and internal teams.
5. Does Algorithm push the technical fixes to our site, or do we?
Either is fine. The Technical Sprint is diagnostic - we produce the audit, the prioritised backlog and the recommended fixes. If you have an internal dev team, we hand it over with full context and work alongside them on prioritisation and QA. If you'd prefer we own implementation, we scope it as a separate dev engagement so the diagnostic and the build don't get conflated in the same retainer. The decision belongs to you and we make it explicit at Discovery.
6. Who writes the content - your team or ours?
Same answer: either, by design. Every Entity Sprint produces signed-off content briefs - keyword, intent, on-page spec, schema spec, internal-link targets. If you have copywriters you trust, they write to brief and we QA. If you'd rather we own drafting, our editorial team writes in your brand voice with senior editorial review. Money pages get the heaviest review regardless of who drafts. We confirm the writing model at kick-off so it doesn't slow the first Entity Sprint.
7. How do you handle GEO inside this rollout? Is it a separate workflow?
GEO is baked into the Organic offering, not split out. The Strategy Sprint includes a full Lighthouse GEO analysis as standard. The Entity Sprint cluster blueprint is built with AI citation patterns in mind. The Amplify Sprint targets the entity hubs and conversion pages with both link equity and brand mention velocity, which feed both Google ranking and AI citation systems. We do also sell AI Visibility as a standalone offering for clients who only want the GEO layer - but if you have signed for full Organic, GEO is in.
8. What happens after Foundation is complete?
The engagement moves into Growth. Growth is continuous: more Entity Sprints (new entities, or returning to existing entities to deepen and defend), the Amplify Sprint running on the entity pages already live, and a bi-annual Strategy Sprint refresh plus Technical Sprint re-audit. The system does not stop producing value when Foundation is signed off - it compounds.
9. How much of this needs my time as the CMO?
Less than most retainers, by design. Discovery is a 60-90 minute working session. The Lighthouse presentation is a one-hour leadership session. Per Entity Sprint, the heaviest client touchpoint is the brief sign-off at the end of week 1 (typically 30 minutes). The monthly client update is built to be share-ready so you don't redo it for your exec. Client Impact owns all client contact end-to-end, so you have one consistent face from Algorithm, not five.
10. Why is the offering built on sprints rather than tracked hours?
Because outputs are easier to trust than hours, and a sprint either passed its exit gate or it didn't. Working to sprints gives you a clean answer at the end of every month: this is what we built, this is what shifted, this is what's next. Working to tracked hours invites the wrong conversations and pushes the team to optimise for activity rather than impact. The team is incentivised to ship the sprint, not to fill a timesheet.
Ready to talk through this for your business?
See the rollout mapped against your entities and your tier.
Discovery is a single 60-90 minute working session. By the end of it, you will have a sprint plan for Month 1, named owners on both sides, and the first Lighthouse data already in flight. No fluff, no over-selling.