How to do work on SEO

SEO work breaks down into three interconnected phases: technical foundation, content strategy, and link building. Start by auditing your client's site for crawlability issues—fix broken internal links, improve page speed, ensure mobile responsiveness, and create an XML sitemap. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Semrush to identify crawl errors, redirect chains, and duplicate content problems. This technical groundwork is non-negotiable because search engines can't properly rank pages they can't efficiently crawl and index. You'll also want to audit their current rankings for target keywords, competitor positioning, and search intent to understand what opportunities exist.

Next, develop a keyword strategy aligned with actual business goals and customer behavior. Don't just target high-volume keywords—prioritize terms where your client can realistically compete and where intent matches their services. Create content that serves search intent first, then optimize for keywords naturally. This means writing detailed guides for informational queries, comparison pages for commercial intent, and optimized service pages for transactional searches. For each page, optimize title tags (50-60 characters), meta descriptions, header hierarchy (H1, H2s), and ensure keywords appear naturally in the first 100 words and throughout. Internal linking deserves serious attention here—link related content contextually to help search engines understand topic relationships and distribute authority.

Link building requires a systematic approach rather than scattered outreach. Analyze your client's competitors' backlink profiles to understand what types of sites and content formats attract links in their industry. Build a prospect list of relevant publications, industry directories, resource pages, and local citations. Create genuinely valuable content worth linking to—original research, interactive tools, or comprehensive guides perform better than thin content. Pursue a mix of opportunities: local citations for location-based clients, niche directories, guest posting on established publications, and relationship-based outreach to industry contacts. Track rankings and organic traffic monthly to understand what's working. SEO isn't a one-time project—it's iterative work requiring ongoing optimization, content expansion, and competitive monitoring to maintain and improve positions.