Search Engine Optimization
Earn visibility through crawl, index, and rank
SEO has three gates: search engines must crawl a URL, index it, and then choose it for a query. Technical foundations come first - clean architecture, XML sitemaps, robots directives, canonical tags, redirects, structured data, mobile usability, and Core Web Vitals. Then comes intent-led keyword research: classify queries as informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional, and map each to one primary page. Avoid cannibalization by assigning a single primary intent per URL.
On-page work covers title tags, headings, descriptive URLs, internal links, image alt text, and content depth that satisfies the query better than competitors. Off-page authority still matters: earned links and brand mentions are evidence of trust. E-E-A-T - experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness - guides quality assessment, especially for money and health topics. Local SEO depends on accurate business profiles, consistent citations, and reviews. Track rankings alongside impressions, CTR, and conversions in search console data, because a ranking without qualified traffic is not a win.
Traps candidates fall for
- Chasing keyword density instead of topical coverage and intent.
- Believing meta keywords still influence rankings.
- Confusing noindex with nofollow, or canonicals with redirects.
- Treating a third-party authority score as a ranking factor.
- Judging SEO only by average position while ignoring clicks and conversions.
Worked rule of thumb
Write one page for one primary intent, supported by related subtopics. Example: a page targeting project management software for agencies should answer pricing, integrations, onboarding, and comparisons, and link to supporting cluster pages. Measure success by non-brand organic conversions, not by ranking alone.