# SEO tips for websites: a 14-point checklist to help you rank higher

> Practical SEO tips for websites, ordered by impact: indexing first, then titles, content, Core Web Vitals and structured data, each with a way to check it.

- URL: https://computese.com/seo-tips-for-websites-boost-your-online-presence/
- Author: Duong Quan Nguyen, CEO, Computese
- Published: 2025-01-30
- Updated: 2026-09-25
- Topics: SEO, Web development

## In short
- Work in order of impact: a page Google cannot crawl or index cannot rank, so fix robots.txt rules, stray noindex tags and duplicate URLs before rewriting titles or chasing speed scores.
- Give every page a unique, descriptive title, one clear search intent and a meta description that summarizes it. Google builds the title link and snippet from them, and may rewrite a title that does not describe the page.
- Core Web Vitals are the part of page experience Google's ranking systems use: aim for LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP of 200 ms or less and CLS of 0.1 or less at the 75th percentile of real visits.
- Structured data and a Google Business Profile only help when they describe what is really there: markup must match the visible page, and a profile needs a location customers visit or an area you travel to.
- Skip what does not move rankings: meta keywords, word-count targets, llms.txt files for Google, keyword-stuffed anchors and bought links, which break Google's spam policies.

The SEO tips that matter most, in order of impact: set up Google Search Console, remove anything that blocks crawling or indexing, serve each page at one HTTPS address, give every page a unique title and one clear purpose, and claim a Google Business Profile if you serve a local area. Then refine mobile layout, speed, images, links and markup.

Each of the 14 tips below is a concrete fix, with a way to check it and the documentation that explains why it matters. The order is by impact for a typical small business site of a few dozen pages: a page that is not indexed cannot rank, so indexing comes before titles, and titles and content come before speed scores and markup. It is also the practical answer to "how do I rank higher", because Google publishes no shortcut. For what SEO covers as a whole, start with [what SEO is](https://computese.com/what-is-seo/); for how crawling, indexing and ranking fit together, see [how the Google search engine works](https://computese.com/how-google-search-engine-works/); to run these checks as a repeating audit with a baseline and priorities, see [how to improve SEO](https://computese.com/how-to-improve-seo-a-comprehensive-guide/); and if you own a small business and want them scheduled alongside your Business Profile and reviews, see the [90-day small business SEO plan](https://computese.com/mastering-seo-for-small-business-websites/).

## The SEO checklist at a glance

In the usual vocabulary, tips 2 to 4, 9, 10 and 13 are technical SEO, tips 5 to 7, 11, 12 and 14 are on-page SEO, and tip 8 is local SEO. Tip 1 is how you check all of them.

| #   | Fix                                                     | How to check it                                                                                 |
| --- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1   | Verify the site in Google Search Console                | The Page indexing and Performance reports show data for your property                           |
| 2   | Remove anything that blocks crawling or indexing        | No page you want found is listed as "URL blocked by robots.txt" or "URL marked 'noindex'"       |
| 3   | Serve every page over HTTPS                             | `http://` URLs redirect to `https://` in one hop, with no certificate or mixed-content warnings |
| 4   | Give every page one canonical URL                       | URL Inspection shows the Google-selected canonical you intended                                 |
| 5   | Write a unique, descriptive title for every page        | No two pages share a `<title>`, and none is empty or just the brand name                        |
| 6   | Match each page to one search intent                    | A page's top queries in the Performance report are questions it answers                         |
| 7   | Write a meta description for each important page        | Each description summarizes its own page, not the whole site                                    |
| 8   | Claim your Google Business Profile (local businesses)   | The profile is verified, with category, hours and address or service area complete              |
| 9   | Use a responsive layout with the same content on mobile | URL Inspection's rendered screenshot shows all the primary content                              |
| 10  | Pass Core Web Vitals                                    | LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms and CLS ≤ 0.1 at the 75th percentile                                  |
| 11  | Give images alt text and serve modern formats           | Every meaningful `<img>` has a descriptive `alt`; large photos are AVIF or WebP                 |
| 12  | Link related pages with descriptive anchor text         | Every important page has at least one internal link whose text says what it is                  |
| 13  | Submit an XML sitemap                                   | The Sitemaps report shows no processing errors, and the file lists only canonical URLs          |
| 14  | Add structured data that matches the visible page       | The Rich Results Test finds the markup with no errors                                           |

## Make sure Google can find and index your pages

These four fixes decide whether your pages can appear at all. Google's [technical requirements](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/technical) are short: Googlebot is not blocked, the page returns an HTTP 200 status, and it has indexable content. Meeting them makes a page eligible to be indexed, not guaranteed, and Google adds that it costs nothing to be in its results, whatever anyone tells you.

### 1. Set up Google Search Console

Search Console is Google's free view of how it crawls, indexes and serves your site, and most checks in this list use it. When you [add a property](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592), you choose its type:

- **Domain property** (`example.com`): covers every subdomain and both `http` and `https`, and can only be verified with a DNS record at your domain provider.
- **URL-prefix property** (`https://www.example.com/`): covers only URLs under that exact prefix, and can be verified with an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager.

Choose the Domain property if you can edit DNS: it also shows the `http://` and non-`www` duplicates that tip 4 is about. [Verification lasts](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080) only as long as Search Console can still find your token, so leave the DNS record or tag in place, and add a second method in case a template change removes the first.

Google suggests [checking in about once a month](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start) or after you change the site; it emails you when it finds new issues. Start with two reports. **Page indexing** lists the URLs Google tried to index and why some were not. **Performance** shows the queries people used, with [clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and average position](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553). Google's [guide to generative AI search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) adds a Generative AI performance report for how your pages do in features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Bing Webmaster Tools does the same job for Bing, and [Bing's webmaster guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a), which also cover Copilot, ask for the same basics as this list.

**Check:** a `site:example.com` search on Google, which the [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) suggests as a first test, returns your pages, and both reports show data.

### 2. Remove anything that blocks crawling or indexing

Two different controls are easy to confuse:

| Control                                              | What it does                                                          | Use it for                                           |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `robots.txt` `Disallow` rule                         | Asks crawlers not to request the URL                                  | Keeping crawlers off unimportant or endless URLs     |
| `noindex` (robots meta tag or `X-Robots-Tag` header) | Tells Google to drop the page from its results when it next crawls it | Pages that must not appear in search, such as a cart |

Google's [introduction to robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro) is explicit that it is not a way to keep a page out of Google: a disallowed URL can still be indexed from links on other sites and shown without a description. And a [noindex rule](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing) only works if the crawler can fetch the page and read it. A page that is both disallowed and tagged `noindex` can therefore stay in the results, because Google never sees the tag.

![A crawler is stopped by an orange barrier before a web page, so it never reaches the page's no-entry tag, while a link from another site still carries the page's address into the search index.](https://computese.com/images/blog/seo-tips-for-websites-boost-your-online-presence/blocked.7268594d55-1536.webp)

*A robots.txt block hides the noindex tag from Google. To keep a page out of the results, let it be crawled and say noindex.*

Whole sites disappear this way when a staging setup reaches production: a `Disallow: /` rule, a site-wide `noindex`, or a CMS setting that hides the site from search engines. Status codes matter too. A missing page should return 404, a moved one should 301 to its new address, and a "not found" message served with a 200 status is reported as a soft 404.

> [!WARNING]
> Never use robots.txt to remove a page from Google. Remove the `Disallow` rule, add `noindex`, and let Google crawl the page so it sees the rule.

**Check:** in the [Page indexing report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203), look under "Why pages aren't indexed" for pages you want found listed as "URL blocked by robots.txt", "URL marked 'noindex'", "Soft 404" or "Server error (5xx)". For one page, the [URL Inspection tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289) tests live whether crawling and indexing are allowed, and can request indexing once it is fixed. Do not aim for 100% indexed: Google indexes only canonical pages, so duplicates and redirected URLs rightly show as not indexed. How crawlers read robots.txt is covered in [web crawling and indexing explained](https://computese.com/web-crawling-and-indexing-explained/).

### 3. Serve every page over HTTPS

HTTPS protects what visitors send and read, and browsers are about to warn before sites without it. Google [announced in October 2025](https://security.googleblog.com/2025/10/https-by-default.html) that Chrome 154, scheduled for October 2026, will turn on "Always Use Secure Connections" by default, so Chrome asks for the user's permission before it first opens a public site without HTTPS.

For search, HTTPS works through canonicalization. Google [prefers the HTTPS version](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls) of a page as canonical unless something contradicts it: an invalid certificate, insecure dependencies other than images (mixed content), an HTTPS page that redirects to HTTP, or a canonical tag pointing at the HTTP version. Its [page experience guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience), last updated in September 2026, says that apart from Core Web Vitals, page experience aspects such as secure serving do not directly lift rankings. So the point is to switch cleanly, not to collect a bonus:

1. Install a valid certificate that covers every host name you use, including `www`.
2. Redirect every `http://` URL to its `https://` equivalent with a 301, in one hop.
3. Update internal links, canonical tags and the sitemap to the `https://` URLs.
4. Add HSTS once everything works over HTTPS.

**Check:** loading `http://` versions of a few pages lands straight on `https://`, with no certificate or mixed-content warning. To keep an expiring certificate from undoing the fix, see [how to renew an SSL certificate](https://computese.com/ssl-certificate/); our [hosting and maintenance service](https://computese.com/services/hosting-maintenance/) includes certificate, domain and DNS expiry alerts.

### 4. Give every page one canonical URL

The same page often answers at several addresses: `http` and `https`, with and without `www`, with and without a trailing slash, or with tracking parameters such as `?gclid=`. Google picks one, the canonical, to index and show, and [consolidates signals such as links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls) onto it. Duplicate content is [not a spam violation](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) and brings no penalty, but it wastes crawling on URLs you do not care about and can leave Google showing an address you did not choose.

![Four copies of the same web page, each marked with a different small badge, send arrows into one orange page, and only that page goes on into the search index cabinet.](https://computese.com/images/blog/seo-tips-for-websites-boost-your-online-presence/canonical.285ee351ac-1536.webp)

*Duplicates split links and crawling between addresses. Redirect or canonicalize them so every signal lands on one URL.*

Google lists the ways to state your preference, strongest first, and they add up when combined:

1. **Redirects** (strong): 301 every protocol and host variant to the preferred one.
2. **`rel="canonical"`** (strong): an absolute URL to the preferred address on each page, including a self-referencing canonical on the preferred page itself.
3. **Sitemap inclusion** (weak): list only the preferred URLs.

```html
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/services/drain-cleaning/" />
```

Be consistent: link internally to the canonical URL, never declare one URL in the sitemap and another in the tag, and do not use robots.txt or `noindex` to pick a canonical.

**Check:** URL Inspection shows a "User-declared canonical" and a "Google-selected canonical" for any URL, and they should match. "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" in the Page indexing report means Google does not consider your chosen page a duplicate of the one declaring it.

## Tell searchers and Google what each page is about

Google says it [always seeks to show the most relevant content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience), even when page experience is poor. These three fixes make each page's relevance obvious, to Google and to the person reading the result.

### 5. Write a unique, descriptive title for every page

The `<title>` element is the main source of the [title link](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link), the clickable headline of a result, and Google describes that headline as often the primary thing people use to decide which result to click. Google also draws on the page's main visible heading, other headings, `og:title` and anchor text, and it may replace a title that is half-empty, outdated, inaccurate or repeated boilerplate.

- Give every page its own title that describes that page: "Emergency drain cleaning in Ottawa | Example Plumbing", not "Home" or "Services".
- Put the words that identify the page first and the brand at the end, after a separator. Google sets no character limit but truncates title links to fit the device width.
- Do not repeat keywords ("plumber, plumbers, plumbing Ottawa"); Google calls that keyword stuffing, and it can make the result look spammy.
- Make the main visible heading, usually the first `<h1>`, say the same thing as the title.

**Check:** export every title with a site crawler such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Sitebulb and look for duplicates and empty titles, then search `site:example.com` to see the title links Google actually shows. Google has to recrawl a page to notice a new title, which can take a few days to a few weeks.

### 6. Match each page to one search intent, with headings that outline it

A page does well for a query when it satisfies what the searcher wanted: an answer, a price, a service nearby. Give each page one job, and do it near the top.

- **Pick the question from real searches.** For an existing site, the queries in the Performance report are the best record of the words people already use to find you. Cover a question and its phrasings on one page: Google's generative AI guide notes that its AI systems understand synonyms and general meaning, so there is no need to capture every long-tail variation.
- **Answer first.** Bing's guidelines ask for the same thing in their own words: focus each URL on one topic and place essential information near the top.
- **Outline with headings.** One `<h1>` that states the topic, `<h2>` sections for what a reader scans for. Google's [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) says heading order does not matter to Google Search, though a logical order helps screen reader users.
- **Write for people.** Google's [helpful content guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) asks whether a reader leaves having learned enough to reach their goal, and says outright that Google has no preferred word count.

To plan pages around a topic's entities and questions rather than single keywords, see [semantic SEO](https://computese.com/semantic-seo/).

**Check:** in the Performance report, filter by page and read its top queries. Each should be a question the page answers; a page that ranks for queries it does not answer needs a section that answers them, or a different page.

### 7. Write a meta description that summarizes the page

Google builds the snippet under the title link [mostly from the page content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet), and uses the `<meta name="description">` tag when it describes the page more accurately. The description changes what people read before they click.

- Write a unique description for each page. If time is short, Google's own advice is to start with the home page and the most visited pages.
- Summarize that specific page in a sentence or two, with the facts a searcher needs: what, where, when, for whom. There is no length limit; Google truncates the snippet to fit the screen.
- Skip keyword lists. Google says descriptions made of keywords are less likely to be shown.

```html
<meta
  name="description"
  content="Same-day drain cleaning across Ottawa: blocked sinks, toilets and main sewer lines, with the price confirmed before work starts."
/>
```

**Check:** no two important pages share a description. Pages with many impressions and a low CTR are where a better title and description pay off first; [finding untapped SEO opportunities in Search Console](https://computese.com/the-untapped-key-in-seo/) walks through that analysis.

## Show up in local results

### 8. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

When someone searches for a business near them, Google shows local results on Search and Maps, and a verified Business Profile is how your business appears there. Google's [guidelines](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177) allow a profile if your business has a physical location customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are. A virtual office, a rented address you do not work from, is not eligible, and a business that does neither, such as an online-only shop, is outside these guidelines.

1. [Add or claim the profile](https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778), which is free, and complete verification.
2. Use your real-world business name, as it appears on your storefront and website, with no added keywords.
3. Choose the category that fits best, and fill in hours, your address or service area, and photos.
4. Reply to reviews, and keep the details the same as on your website.

Google says [local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091), where prominence reflects how well known the business is, including how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. Google also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Citations, review collection within the rules, location pages and LocalBusiness markup are covered in our [local SEO guide](https://computese.com/local-seo/).

**Check:** search your business name on Google Maps from a phone and confirm the name, category, hours and address or service area are the ones you set.

## Make every page work well on a phone

### 9. Use a responsive layout with the same content on mobile

Google [uses the mobile version of a page](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing), crawled with a smartphone user agent, for indexing and ranking. This is mobile-first indexing, and it makes the phone layout the version that counts, whatever share of your customers use a desktop.

- Use responsive design: the same HTML at the same URL, laid out by screen size. Google recommends it as the easiest pattern to build and maintain.
- Keep the same content, headings, structured data and robots meta tags on mobile and desktop. Accordions and tabs are fine as long as the content is there.
- Do not load primary content only after a tap, swipe or typing; Google does not load content that needs user interaction.

**Check:** run a live test in URL Inspection and look at the screenshot of the rendered page. Google also points to Lighthouse, built into Chrome, for finding mobile usability problems.

### 10. Pass Core Web Vitals

[Core Web Vitals](https://computese.com/core-web-vitals/) measure real visits, and Google says its [ranking systems use them](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience). A page passes when it meets all three "good" targets at the [75th percentile of page loads](https://web.dev/articles/vitals), measured separately on mobile and desktop. The ranges below are the ones the [Core Web Vitals report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9205520) uses:

| Metric                          | What it measures                                         | Good     | Needs improvement | Poor     |
| ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ----------------- | -------- |
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)  | Loading: when the largest image or text block appears    | ≤ 2.5 s  | ≤ 4 s             | > 4 s    |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | Responsiveness to taps, clicks and key presses           | ≤ 200 ms | ≤ 500 ms          | > 500 ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)   | Visual stability: how much the layout moves unexpectedly | ≤ 0.1    | ≤ 0.25            | > 0.25   |

INP [replaced First Input Delay (FID)](https://web.dev/blog/inp-cwv-launch) as a Core Web Vital in March 2024, so guides that still mention FID are out of date. Know which data you are reading. The Core Web Vitals report and the field data in [PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about) come from the Chrome UX Report (CrUX): real Chrome visits over the previous 28 days, so a quiet site may have none. Lighthouse is a lab test on a simulated device, useful for debugging, but it cannot measure INP and uses Total Blocking Time as a stand-in.

The usual fixes, by metric:

- **LCP:** never lazy-load the likely LCP image; put it in the HTML with `fetchpriority="high"`, compress it and serve AVIF or WebP. A slow server response (TTFB), from redirect chains or a server far from visitors, can make 2.5 seconds impossible; a CDN brings content closer. [web.dev's LCP guide](https://web.dev/articles/optimize-lcp) breaks the time into these parts.
- **INP:** ship less JavaScript and [break up long tasks](https://web.dev/articles/inp) so the main thread can respond to input.
- **CLS:** set `width` and `height` (or CSS `aspect-ratio`) on every image and video, and reserve space for embeds and ads, as [web.dev's CLS guide](https://web.dev/articles/optimize-cls) recommends.

![Two phones: on the left a late image pushes the text and button down so a tap lands on empty space; on the right an orange reserved box holds the image's space and the tap hits the button.](https://computese.com/images/blog/seo-tips-for-websites-boost-your-online-presence/shift.d7a26b9441-1536.webp)

*Reserve space for images with width and height, and the page stops moving under the reader's thumb.*

Keep it in proportion. Google says good scores do not guarantee top rankings, and that chasing a perfect score just for SEO reasons may not be the best use of your time. When the fix is a rebuild, our [web design and development](https://computese.com/services/web-design-development/) work keeps performance budgets in the build pipeline, so a change that makes a key template slower fails its checks before it ships.

**Check:** the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console shows your URL groups as Good on both mobile and desktop; for a single URL, PageSpeed Insights shows field and lab data side by side.

### 11. Give images alt text and serve modern formats

Images matter twice: they can rank in Google Images, and an image is often the largest element on screen, the one LCP times. Google's [image guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images) set the rules:

- Use `<img>` elements (inside `<picture>` is fine). Google does not index CSS background images.
- Write `alt` text that describes the image in the context of the page. Google calls it the most important image attribute and reads it, with computer vision, to understand the image; it also acts as anchor text when the image is a link, and it is what screen reader users hear. Do not fill it with keywords.
- Use short, descriptive file names: `drain-camera-inspection.jpg`, not `IMG_0042.jpg`. Google says they give very light clues.
- Google Search supports BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG and AVIF, and web.dev suggests AVIF or WebP to cut an image's load time.

```html
<picture>
  <source srcset="/images/drain-camera-inspection.avif" type="image/avif" />
  <img
    src="/images/drain-camera-inspection.jpg"
    alt="Technician's camera showing tree roots inside a clay sewer pipe"
    width="1200"
    height="800"
  />
</picture>
```

**Check:** a site crawler lists images with an empty or missing `alt`; decorative images should have `alt=""` on purpose, and every meaningful one should describe what it shows.

## Help Google connect and read your pages

### 12. Link related pages with descriptive anchor text

Google uses links [to find new pages and as a signal of relevance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable), and internal links are the ones you fully control.

- Use real `<a href="...">` links. Google cannot reliably follow elements without an `href` or links that exist only as script events.
- Make sure every page you care about has a link from at least one other page on your site: from the home page to each service, from each article to the service it relates to, and between related services.
- Write anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant: "our [drain cleaning service]", not "click here" or "read more". Do not cram keywords into it; that is keyword stuffing.
- Link to the canonical URL, not to a redirecting or parameter version.

**Check:** read only the anchor text of each link, out of context, as Google suggests. If you cannot tell what the linked page is about, rewrite it. A crawler's list of pages with no internal links (orphans) shows what needs linking.

### 13. Submit an XML sitemap

A sitemap lists the URLs you want indexed. It sits this low on the list because Google says [you might not need one](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview) if your site has about 500 pages or fewer, every important page can be reached by links from the home page, and you have few images, videos or news articles you want found. It is still cheap insurance, and WordPress, Wix and Blogger usually generate one for you; on WordPress, make sure only one sitemap is live, as our [WordPress SEO guide](https://computese.com/wordpress-seo/) explains.

If you build or check one, follow Google's [sitemap rules](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap):

- List absolute, canonical URLs only: no redirects, `noindex` pages or 404s.
- Keep each file under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, encoded as UTF-8; larger sites split it into several files.
- Google ignores `<priority>` and `<changefreq>`, and uses `<lastmod>` only if it is consistently accurate, so update it for real content changes, not a new copyright year.
- Submit it in the Search Console Sitemaps report and add a `Sitemap:` line to robots.txt. Submission is a hint, not a guarantee of crawling.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/services/drain-cleaning/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-10</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

In robots.txt, one line points every crawler to it:

```text
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
```

Bing's guidelines ask for the same canonical-only sitemap and add IndexNow, a way to notify Bing the moment a URL is added, updated or removed; [web crawling and indexing explained](https://computese.com/web-crawling-and-indexing-explained/) covers how it works.

**Check:** the Sitemaps report shows when Google last read the file and any processing errors.

### 14. Add structured data that matches the visible page

Structured data describes a page in the schema.org vocabulary so that it can be eligible for rich results. Google recommends [JSON-LD](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data), which sits in its own script block instead of being woven through the visible HTML. The types a small business site usually needs are all in Google's [list of supported features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery): Organization or [LocalBusiness](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business) on the home or contact page, Breadcrumb, Article for posts and Product snippets for products.

```html
<script type="application/ld+json">
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "Plumber",
    "name": "Example Plumbing",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/",
    "telephone": "+1-613-555-0100",
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "streetAddress": "100 Example Street",
      "addressLocality": "Ottawa",
      "addressRegion": "ON",
      "addressCountry": "CA"
    }
  }
</script>
```

Google's [general guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies) come down to honesty and modest expectations. Mark up only what readers can see on the page, never fake reviews or unrelated content. Valid markup does not guarantee a rich result. A structured data manual action removes a page's eligibility for rich results without affecting how it ranks.

> [!NOTE]
> Rich result types come and go. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on [May 7, 2026](https://developers.google.com/search/updates), so FAQPage markup no longer earns an expandable result. Check the list of supported features before building markup for a result you hope to get.

Google's guide to generative AI search adds that structured data is not required for its AI features, and that there is no special schema to add for them.

**Check:** run Google's Rich Results Test on the URL; it should detect the markup with no errors. After launch, Search Console's rich result reports flag errors across the site.

## What not to spend time on

Google's [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) lists things it believes you should not focus on, and its newer guidance adds a few:

- **Meta keywords.** Google Search does not use the keywords meta tag.
- **Word counts.** Content length alone does not matter for ranking; there is no minimum or maximum.
- **Keywords in the domain name or URL.** They have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.
- **Heading order and number.** Useful for accessibility, irrelevant to Google's ranking.
- **E-E-A-T as a ranking factor.** Google says plainly that it is not one. What Google does look at is covered in [how Google judges relevance and authority](https://computese.com/how-google-determines-a-website-authority/).
- **llms.txt files and special "AI" markup.** Google's [generative AI guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) says Google Search does not use them and that optimizing for AI search is still SEO. [AI's impact on SEO](https://computese.com/ais-impact-on-seo-strategies/) covers what the other AI engines read.
- **Bought or traded links.** Paying for links, excessive link exchanges and automated link building are [link spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies). Earn links with pages worth citing, as [the power of quality backlinks](https://computese.com/the-power-of-quality-backlinks-in-seo/) explains.

Work down the list in order and give each change time before you judge it: Google says some changes take effect within hours and others take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks. If you would rather have the list worked through for you, our [SEO service](https://computese.com/services/seo/) starts with a technical SEO audit: a crawl of the whole site and a read of Search Console, with the issues ranked by impact and effort. If your business sells IT services, our guide to [SEO for IT companies and MSPs](https://computese.com/essential-seo-tips-categories-for-your-it-website/) covers the pages, proof and tracking that bring leads.

## Key terms
- **Google Search Console**: Google's free tool for site owners. It shows which pages Google has indexed and why others were not, the queries that bring visitors, and alerts about crawling, security and markup problems.
- **robots.txt**: A text file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which URLs they may request. It controls crawling, not indexing: a blocked URL can still be indexed from links elsewhere.
- **noindex**: A rule, set with a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, that tells search engines to leave a page out of their results. The crawler must be able to fetch the page to see it.
- **Canonical URL**: The one address Google indexes and shows for a set of duplicate or near-duplicate pages. You state a preference with redirects, rel="canonical" and your sitemap; Google makes the final choice.
- **Title link**: The clickable headline of a Google result. Google generates it mainly from the page's <title> element, and also from the main heading, other prominent text and links to the page.
- **Search intent**: What a person wants when they type a query: an answer, a comparison, a service near them or a specific site. A page ranks when it satisfies that intent, not when it repeats the words.
- **Mobile-first indexing**: Google's practice of crawling with a smartphone user agent and using the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. Content missing from the mobile version is missing for Google.
- **Core Web Vitals**: Three measurements of real visits that Google uses as page experience signals: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
- **Structured data**: A machine-readable description of a page in the schema.org vocabulary, usually written as JSON-LD, that can make the page eligible for rich results such as breadcrumbs or business details.
- **Anchor text**: The visible, clickable text of a link. It tells people and search engines what the linked page is about, which is why "click here" wastes it.

## Common questions

### What are the most important SEO tips for a new website?

Verify the site in Google Search Console, make sure the pages you care about return an HTTP 200 status and are not blocked by robots.txt or a noindex tag, and give every page a unique, descriptive title and one clear purpose. If customers visit you or you travel to them, claim your Google Business Profile. Speed, sitemaps and structured data refine a site that is already indexed.

### How can I rank higher on Google quickly?

There is no reliable shortcut, and Google says getting into its results costs nothing whatever anyone tells you. Some changes take effect within hours and others take months, so Google suggests waiting a few weeks before judging one. Indexing and title fixes are among the quickest to show, because they take effect once Google recrawls the page, which for titles Google puts at a few days to a few weeks.

### How long should a title tag and meta description be?

Google sets no character limit for either. It truncates title links and snippets to fit the device width, so put the words that identify the page first, keep titles concise, and write the description as a sentence or two that summarizes that specific page.

### Do I need an XML sitemap for a small website?

Not always. Google says you might not need one if the site has about 500 pages or fewer, every important page can be reached by links from the home page, and you have few images, videos or news pages you want found. Most CMSs generate one anyway, and submitting it in Search Console shows you any processing errors.

### Are Core Web Vitals a ranking factor?

Yes: Google says its ranking systems use Core Web Vitals. It also says good scores do not guarantee top positions, that it still shows the most relevant page when page experience is poor, and that other page experience aspects do not directly lift rankings.

### Do backlinks still matter for SEO?

Links still count: PageRank is one of Google's fundamental algorithms, although Google calls it one ranking signal among many. Earn links with pages others want to cite. Buying links, excessive link exchanges and automated link building are link spam under Google's policies.

## Sources
1. [Google Search technical requirements](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/technical), Google Search Central
2. [Add a website or platform property to Search Console](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592), Search Console Help
3. [Verify your site ownership](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080), Search Console Help
4. [How to use Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start), Google Search Central
5. [Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553), Search Console Help
6. [Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide), Google Search Central
7. [Bing Webmaster Guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a), Microsoft Bing
8. [Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide), Google Search Central
9. [Introduction to robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro), Google Search Central
10. [Block Search indexing with noindex](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing), Google Search Central
11. [Page indexing report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203), Search Console Help
12. [URL Inspection tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289), Search Console Help
13. [HTTPS by default](https://security.googleblog.com/2025/10/https-by-default.html), Google Online Security Blog
14. [How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls), Google Search Central
15. [Understanding page experience in Google Search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience), Google Search Central
16. [Influencing your title links in search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link), Google Search Central
17. [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content), Google Search Central
18. [Control your snippets in search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet), Google Search Central
19. [Guidelines for representing your business on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177), Google Business Profile Help
20. [Add or claim your Business Profile](https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778), Google Business Profile Help
21. [Tips to improve your local ranking on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091), Google Business Profile Help
22. [Mobile site and mobile-first indexing best practices](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing), Google Search Central
23. [Web Vitals](https://web.dev/articles/vitals), web.dev (Google Chrome)
24. [Core Web Vitals report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9205520), Search Console Help
25. [Interaction to Next Paint is officially a Core Web Vital](https://web.dev/blog/inp-cwv-launch), web.dev (Google Chrome)
26. [About PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about), Google for Developers
27. [Optimize Largest Contentful Paint](https://web.dev/articles/optimize-lcp), web.dev (Google Chrome)
28. [Interaction to Next Paint (INP)](https://web.dev/articles/inp), web.dev (Google Chrome)
29. [Optimize Cumulative Layout Shift](https://web.dev/articles/optimize-cls), web.dev (Google Chrome)
30. [Google image SEO best practices](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images), Google Search Central
31. [Link best practices for Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable), Google Search Central
32. [Learn about sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview), Google Search Central
33. [Build and submit a sitemap](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap), Google Search Central
34. [Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data), Google Search Central
35. [Structured data markup that Google Search supports](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery), Google Search Central
36. [Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business), Google Search Central
37. [General structured data guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies), Google Search Central
38. [Latest Google Search documentation updates](https://developers.google.com/search/updates), Google Search Central
39. [Spam policies for Google web search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies), Google Search Central