Follow these 10 steps in order. Inside each project, the "What to do next" tab tracks them for your website automatically.
Add your site and run the audit. Note the health score and the number of errors.
Broken pages and links, server errors, redirects, robots.txt, sitemap, HTTPS and mobile.
Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager. Submit your sitemap.
One primary keyword + 2–3 secondary keywords per important page. Check volume in Keyword Planner.
Title, description, H1, H2s, content, images, internal links and schema.
Complete Google Business Profile, same NAP everywhere, LocalBusiness schema, reviews and area pages.
Apple, Bing, directories, guest posts, local news and partners. Quality over quantity.
Answer real customer questions in blogs and link them to your service pages.
Allow AI crawlers, add FAQs and answer-first summaries, add llms.txt.
Check Search Console clicks and positions, re-audit monthly and keep improving.
| SEO | Search Engine Optimisation — improving your website so it shows higher in Google for searches your customers make. |
| Crawl | When Google's bot visits your pages. This tool crawls your site the same way to find problems. |
| Index | Google's database of pages. A page must be indexed to appear in search results. |
| Meta title | The blue clickable line in Google results. 50–60 characters, keyword first, brand last. |
| Meta description | The grey text under the title. 140–155 characters with a benefit and call to action. |
| H1 | The main heading on the page. Use one per page with the primary keyword. |
| Alt text | A short description of an image for Google and screen readers. |
| Canonical | A tag that tells Google which URL is the main version of a page. |
| robots.txt | A file that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may visit. |
| XML sitemap | A list of all your important URLs for search engines. |
| 3XX / 4XX / 5XX | Status codes: 3XX = redirect, 4XX = page not found / broken, 5XX = server error. 200 = OK. |
| Schema | Code (JSON-LD) that describes your business or page to Google. Can create rich results. |
| NAP | Name, Address, Phone. Must be identical everywhere for local SEO. |
| GBP | Google Business Profile — your listing on Google Maps and the local 3-pack. |
| Backlink | A link from another website to yours. Quality links build authority. |
| Anchor text | The clickable words of a link. |
| Keyword intent | Why someone searches: informational (learn), commercial (compare), transactional (buy/hire), navigational (find a brand). |
| Keyword cannibalisation | Two of your pages competing for the same keyword. Give each page its own primary keyword. |
| Core Web Vitals | Google's speed and stability metrics: LCP (loading), CLS (layout shift), INP (responsiveness). |
| AEO | Answer Engine Optimisation — being the direct answer in snippets, voice search and AI Overviews. |
| GEO | Generative Engine Optimisation — being mentioned and cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI tools. |
| llms.txt | An optional text file in your website root that gives AI tools a clean summary of your important pages. |