Kick Off Your SEO Journey in 2026

I wrote the first version of this guide in 2023. Since then Google has started answering many questions itself with AI, and plenty of people now ask ChatGPT what they used to type into Google. The basics have held up, though. This is the version I send to clients when they ask how SEO actually works, where to put their time and what to expect.

What SEO is

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It means making your website easy for search engines to find, understand and trust, so that when someone searches for what you offer, your page is one of the options they see.

Ads stop the moment you stop paying. SEO is slower to start, but what you build keeps working.

Most of SEO is not technical. It comes down to three questions:

• Can Google find and read your pages?
• Does each page clearly answer what the searcher is looking for?
• Do other people and websites treat you as a real, trustworthy source?

How search works

Crawling: Automated bots, called crawlers, move around the web. They find new pages by following links and by reading sitemaps, which are lists of pages your site hands to Google.

Indexing: Google reads each page, works out what it is about and decides whether to store it in its index, a huge library of pages. Not every page makes it in. Thin pages and near duplicates are often left out.

Ranking: When someone searches, Google picks pages from the index and puts them in order. It looks at how well a page matches the question, how useful and trustworthy it seems, and things like the searcher's location and device.

If a page is not in the index, nothing else in this guide matters for it. That is why Google Search Console, covered below, is the first tool I set up for every client.

AI answers: what changed and what it means for you

For many searches, Google now shows a summary written by AI at the top of the results, called an AI Overview. It answers the question directly and shows a few websites as sources. Google also has AI Mode, a chat style search where you can ask follow-up questions. Assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude search the web too, and often name the sites they used.

This means two things. First, for simple questions, fewer people click through, because the answer is already on the screen. If your page only repeats what every other page says, an AI can summarize it without anyone visiting you.

Second, the pages that AI answers cite tend to be pages that already do well in search and say something clearly. So the way to be cited by AI is mostly the same as the way to rank: be the clearest, most useful page on your topic. Google itself says there are no special requirements for AI Overviews beyond normal SEO good practice. Be careful with anyone selling a separate "AI SEO" package that skips the basics.

How to give AI something to cite

• Answer first: Put the direct answer near the top of the page, then explain.
• Use clear headings: Phrase them the way people ask the question.
• Be specific: Describe your process, who you work with and where you are. Vague marketing copy gives an AI nothing to quote.
• Be consistent and be mentioned: Your name, location and services should match on your site, your Google Business Profile and anywhere else you are listed. Reviews, interviews and partner sites help too, because AI tools lean on what others say about you.

Set realistic expectations

SEO is slow. I tell every client this first, because most people give up right before it starts to work. For a new site or page, this is roughly what I see:

After 3 months: Google has found and indexed your pages. You see impressions in Search Console, but few clicks. It feels like nothing is working.

After 6 months: Some pages climb for specific, longer searches. Your first enquiries from search may come in.

After 12 months: If you kept improving your pages, you get a steady flow of visitors for the topics you cover.

It goes faster for an established site and slower for a brand new domain or a crowded market. Anyone who promises page one within weeks is targeting searches nobody makes, or doing something that will hurt you later.

Keywords: start with people, not tools

A keyword is simply the words someone types or says when they search. Before you open any tool, write down who your best client is and the questions they ask you before they buy. Those questions are your keyword list.

Where to find the questions

Google itself: Type your topic and look at autocomplete, the "People also ask" box and the related searches at the bottom.

Search Console and your inbox: Search Console shows the exact searches people used to find you. Questions from client emails and calls often beat anything a tool suggests.

Keyword tools: Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account and gives rough search volumes. Semrush and Ahrefs are good but paid. You do not need them to start.

Match what the searcher wants

Search a keyword and look at what Google already shows. If the results are all how-to guides, a sales page will struggle there. Make the type of page Google is already showing, and make it better.

If you work locally, mention your city or region on your pages and set up a Google Business Profile. For searches like "web designer near me", that profile often shows up before any website does.

Content: a few strong pages beat many thin ones

In 2023 I told you to publish a blog post every two weeks, because more content meant more chances to be found. I have changed my mind.

AI can now write an average article in seconds, so average articles are everywhere and worth very little. Google has also become better at judging a site as a whole. A pile of thin, similar posts does not add up to authority; it can make the rest of your site look weaker.

I saw this on my own site. When I went through my Search Console data this year, almost all my search traffic came from a single post, and most of the others barely got a click. So I am cleaning up my blog: improving what is worth keeping, merging overlaps and removing the rest.

What makes a page strong

• It answers the question fully: The reader does not need to go back to Google afterwards.
• It shows real experience: Your examples, your work, your opinion, the mistakes you have seen.
• It is clear who wrote it: A name, and a reason to trust that person on this topic.
• It is current: Facts and screenshots are checked and updated.

A structure that works for most small businesses: one strong page per service, plus a handful of articles that answer the questions around it and link back to it. And when you already have a page on a topic, improve it instead of writing a new one. Two pages on the same subject compete, and often neither wins.

Can you use AI to write? Google says it cares whether content is helpful, not how it was made. Mass producing pages just to rank goes against its spam policies. I use AI to research and outline, not to fill a site.

On-page SEO: help Google understand each page

Title tags

The title tag is the clickable headline in search results. Put the main topic first, give every page its own title and keep it to around 60 characters. Google sometimes rewrites titles, especially when they do not match the page.

Meta descriptions

The meta description is the short text under the title. It does not help you rank, but a good one makes people more likely to click. Keep it to roughly 150 characters and say plainly what the reader gets. Google often writes its own snippet instead.

Headings and alt text

Use one H1 for the page title, then H2s for the main sections and H3s inside them. Someone skimming only the headings should understand what the page covers. Give images alt text: a short description that helps Google understand the image and helps people who use screen readers.

Internal links

Link your pages to each other where it helps the reader: from articles to the related service page, and between articles on the same topic. Use link text that says where the link goes, not "click here".

Quick tip: Search Google for site:yourwebsite.com "keyword". It lists every page on your site that mentions that keyword, which makes linking opportunities easy to spot.

Technical SEO: the basics that need to be right

Technical SEO is the part people worry about most, yet on a good platform it usually needs the least work. Webflow handles a lot of it: clean code, SSL, an automatic sitemap and fast hosting. I go into more detail in Is Webflow Good for SEO?

Set up Google Search Console

Search Console is free, and it is where Google tells you directly how it sees your site. Set it up on day one.

1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in with a Google account.
2. Add your website and verify that you own it with the code Google gives you. Here is how to do that in Webflow.
3. Submit your sitemap. In Webflow this is usually yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml.

Check that your pages are indexed

The Pages report shows which pages are in Google's index and, for the ones that are not, why. To check a single page, paste its URL into the inspection bar at the top. If it is not indexed yet, you can request indexing. That puts the page in the queue. It does not guarantee it gets in.

Speed

A slow site frustrates visitors and can cost you rankings. Google measures this with Core Web Vitals: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds when you tap or click, and whether things jump around while it loads. Test a page with PageSpeed Insights, and check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console for the whole site.

Do not chase a perfect score. Fix the big things: oversized images, heavy videos and too many third-party scripts.

Mobile and changed URLs

Google looks at the mobile version of your site when it decides how to rank it. The Mobile-Friendly Test I linked to in 2023 no longer exists, so do the simple check: open your site on your phone and use it like a client would.

When you rename or remove a page, add a 301 redirect from the old address to the most relevant new one. Otherwise visitors and Google hit an error page and the old page's value is lost.

Links: what others say about you

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Google treats it as a recommendation. One link from a respected site in your industry, or from your local newspaper, is worth more than hundreds of links from random directories.

Some links carry a "nofollow" tag, which tells Google not to count them; they can still bring visitors. Scores like Domain Rating and Domain Authority come from SEO tools such as Ahrefs and Moz, not from Google. Google does not use them.

What I no longer recommend

In the 2023 version of this guide I suggested buying cheap guest posts and backlink packages. I should not have. Buying links to improve rankings goes against Google's spam policies, and the sites that sell them cheaply are exactly the links Google learns to ignore, or worse, holds against you.

How to earn links

• People you already work with: Partners, suppliers and clients can link to you from a case study or partner page.
• Local and industry groups: Associations you belong to and local press.
• Guest articles and interviews: On sites your clients really read.
• Something worth linking to: A guide or insights from your own work that nobody else has.

Measuring: how to read Search Console

Open Search Console and go to the Performance report. You see four numbers.

• Clicks: How often someone clicked from Google to your site.
• Impressions: How often a link to your site appeared in the results someone looked at, even if they did not scroll down to it.
• CTR (click-through rate): Clicks divided by impressions. How often people chose you when they saw you.
• Average position: Where you showed up on average, with 1 being the top. It is an average over many different searches, so read it as a trend, not an exact spot.

The Queries tab shows what people searched for, the Pages tab which pages they found. Searches with an AI Overview or in AI Mode are counted in these same numbers, not in a separate report.

How to read the numbers together

• Impressions up, clicks flat: People see you but do not choose you. Improve the title and description, and check whether an AI Overview already answers the question.
• Average position between 8 and 20: You are close to the first page. These pages are the best ones to improve first.
• Impressions for a question you have no real page for: Google already connects you to that topic. Write the page, or expand an existing one.
• Clicks dropping on one page: See which searches dropped. Often the content is outdated or the results page changed.

An example from my own site: my most visited post had a year in its title, and almost every search that found it included that year. When the year changed, the searches moved on and the clicks fell away. A year in a title helps while it is current, but it means updating the page every year.

Once a month is enough: compare the last three months with the three before, or with last year if your business is seasonal. And watch the number that really matters: enquiries. Ask new clients how they found you. "I asked ChatGPT" is a real answer now, and Search Console will not show it.

Where to start

1. Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.
2. Write down the questions your clients ask most often.
3. Make your most important service page the best answer for that service.
4. Check the titles and meta descriptions of your main pages, and link related pages to each other.
5. Ask a partner or happy client for a link or a review.
6. Check the Performance report once a month and improve the pages that are close.

That is most of SEO. Write for people, keep your pages clear and current, and give it time.

If you would rather have someone set this up with you, it is part of how I design and build websites. Have a look at my services or get in touch.