A technical SEO specification is essentially a requirements document that translates SEO best practices into actionable development tasks. It outlines exactly how a site's architecture, code, and server configuration should be structured to maximize crawlability, indexability, and performance from a search perspective. Think of it as the bridge between an SEO strategist and a development team—it removes ambiguity about what needs to be built. A solid spec typically covers site architecture and URL structure, canonical tag implementation, XML sitemap generation rules, robots.txt directives, structured data markup requirements, page speed benchmarks, mobile responsiveness standards, redirect mapping, pagination handling, JavaScript rendering requirements for SPAs, and security protocols like HTTPS. For e-commerce sites, it might detail faceted navigation crawl control or product schema. For news sites, it could specify AMP implementation or article schema requirements. The spec should include acceptance criteria so developers know when they've met the standard. For example, instead of saying "pages must load fast," specify "all pages must achieve LCP under 2.5 seconds on 3G connection as measured by Lighthouse." Instead of "implement schema," list the exact schema types, required properties, and validation tools to use. At Ottawa SEO, we create these specs during website migrations, platform changes, or when onboarding enterprise clients with in-house dev teams. We've seen too many sites launch with fundamental SEO flaws—like accidentally noindexing entire sections or breaking URL structures—because no one documented the requirements upfront. A good spec prevents those disasters. The format matters less than clarity. We typically use Google Docs with a table structure: requirement, rationale, implementation notes, priority level, and acceptance criteria. Some agencies use JIRA tickets or technical wikis. The key is making it specific enough that a developer who knows nothing about SEO can implement it correctly. Vague specs create vague results—and in technical SEO, vague results mean lost rankings and revenue.