One intent per page
Before writing anything, decide the single search intent each page owns. Two pages chasing the same phrase split their own signals and neither wins. Map it out on paper first.
Titles and descriptions
Every page needs a unique title under about 60 characters with its primary term near the front, and a meta description under about 160 characters that gives someone a reason to click. Duplicated titles across pages are the single most common launch mistake.
Headings and content structure
Structure is how a crawler — and an AI answer engine — reads your page:
- Exactly one H1 per page, describing the page's subject
- H2s for major sections, H3s beneath them, never skipping levels
- Real questions as headings, answered directly underneath
- Descriptive internal links ('landing page design', not 'click here')
Technical basics
Non-negotiable at launch:
- HTTPS everywhere, with one canonical version of each URL
- A sitemap.xml listing every indexable page
- A robots.txt that doesn't block your own site
- Canonical tags pointing at each page itself
- Compressed, correctly sized images with descriptive alt text
- A custom 404 page that helps people back to something useful
Structured data worth adding
Organization or ProfessionalService sitewide, Service on service pages, FAQPage where you genuinely answer questions, BreadcrumbList on nested pages, and Article on posts. Schema doesn't rank you by itself, but it helps engines describe you accurately.
Local signals
Consistent business name, phone number, and service area across the site and your Google Business Profile. State plainly where you're based and whether you serve clients elsewhere — vagueness costs local visibility.
Measurement
Connect Google Search Console, Analytics 4, and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the sitemap, and set conversion events on form submissions and calls. Without this you're guessing about everything that happens next.
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