SEO
SEO guide: do the right things in the right order
SEO is not about stuffing keywords. It is about making your site crawlable, understandable and trustworthy, so search engines can rank it.
3core pillars
1checklist
0fluff
What SEO is
SEO is a set of practices that help search engines understand and index your site, so your pages appear and get clicked when people search.
It has three layers: technical (crawl, index, speed), content (intent, structure, depth) and authority (authors, cases, mentions).
Why it still matters
Even when users ask ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews, those systems pull from web pages. If your site is poorly indexed or badly structured, AI cannot extract it.
First-step checklist
| Check | Pass criteria |
|---|---|
| Index coverage | Important pages indexed, no crawling-but-not-indexed backlog |
| robots / sitemap | Sitemap contains 200 pages only; robots does not block CSS/JS |
| Canonical | One canonical per page |
| Speed | Mobile LCP under 2.5s, TTFB under 0.8s |
| Schema | Product, FAQ, Breadcrumb, LocalBusiness implemented without errors |
| Duplication | Facets, pagination, http/https and www resolved |
Three misconceptions
- Keyword density: search engines read meaning, not repetition.
- Buying links: low quality links hurt.
- One-off project: algorithms, competitors and your catalogue change.
FAQ
How long until results?
Index improvements in 2 to 6 weeks; rankings 3 to 6 months.
Can small businesses do SEO?
Yes, and they benefit most from local and long-tail terms.
SEO or GEO first?
SEO first. GEO builds on it.