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Two gates keep an account honest. The outcome gate proves the engine is working: are enough pages actually showing up on the search surfaces yet? The per-batch must-pass gate keeps each batch of content at standard before it publishes. The first is about ranking, the second about the content itself (the full checklist is the Definition of Done).

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The outcome gate

STRICT: by the Month-1 quality-gate point, if we don’t have more than 5 pages ranking on Google and/or ChatGPT, escalate to Raymond immediately (high priority).
  • A win = 5–10 pages ranking on page 1, positions 1–5.
  • This is achievable even on a brand-new domain. See Part 1 §1.7 Speed-to-rank.
  • Check both surfaces: Google search (try keyword variants) and ChatGPT (capture every response that features a client page). See Part 1 §1.2 Two search surfaces.

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If the gate passes (more than 5 pages ranking)

  • Screenshot and highlight the ranked pages.
  • Share in the client Slack to celebrate the early win.

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If the gate fails (fewer than 5 pages ranking)

Run diagnostics and save them to Notion, then escalate:
  • Log domain DR.
  • Log GSC indexing status of every published page.
  • Run site:<url> for each page.
  • Log Bing Webmaster index status.
  • Share findings with Raymond (raise priority as the gate date approaches; high priority at the gate itself).
Recovery actions to evaluate with Raymond: footer internal links to the hub and specific landing pages, an announcement or listicle post, a press release, a Medium post, or other link-building. See 3.9 Link-building and 3.10 Press release.

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The per-batch must-pass gate

Every batch of new content clears the 15-item must-pass gate from the Definition of Done before it counts as shipped. This is the standing content-quality bar, applied to every new client pipeline and to each cycle’s first batch. Review cadence is monthly. If the gate fails:
  • A must-pass failure means the pipeline is not done. Fix the failing item and re-verify, and don’t publish more posts until the gate passes.
  • A nice-to-have failure gets logged as a Linear ticket, tagged quality-gate-debt, and scheduled for the next batch.
  • If the same must-pass item fails twice, escalate to Raymond (internal chat, medium priority) and document the root cause on the client’s Notion page.
  • An indexing failure follows the Month-1 diagnostics ladder above.

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Is there a separate gate for ongoing cycles?

No separate doc, and no different number. Beyond Month 1 the standing bar is this per-batch must-pass gate plus the monthly review, which re-checks ranking, traffic, and conversion each cycle. The “more than 5 pages” figure is the Month-1 outcome target; after that, the monthly review is where ranking outcomes get re-examined against the cycle’s plan.