What does the task do for the customer?
In the original article, I argued that focusing on what we thought Google wanted could distract us from building a better business. That is still a useful question to put to an SEO plan: what does this work actually improve?
Making a slow page easier to use has a customer benefit. Helping someone find the right product has a customer benefit. Manufacturing activity to fill a report is a different proposition.
Keep search in its proper place
Search matters because it helps people discover your business. It does not see every part of the experience, and a ranking is not a complete measure of business performance.
A customer still has to understand the offer, trust you, buy or enquire, and receive what you promised. Check those steps alongside search visibility. Improving one measure while neglecting the rest can leave you with more visitors and the same commercial problem.
Give the work a clear purpose
Content also helps a prospective customer understand who you are, what you believe and whether your approach suits them. Publish something worth reading, not just words designed to fill a keyword report. Judge the enquiries it attracts against the customers you actually want to serve.
For each proposed task, record the problem, the expected customer benefit and how you will check the result. Separate an observation from an explanation: a change in rankings or sales does not, by itself, prove which action caused it.
Keep the technical foundations sound. Then judge the work against your business goals, not just the size of the SEO report.
See our SEO services and conversion rate optimisation work.