SEO How-To Guide

A comprehensive, copy-paste-ready guide to on-page and technical SEO, built on Google's official documentation. Covers meta tags, structured data, robots.txt, sitemaps, Google Analytics 4, Content Security Policy, llms.txt for AI crawlers, and Core Web Vitals.

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How Search Works

Google discovers, understands, and ranks your pages in three steps, always for people first.

1

Crawling

Google discovers pages through links and sitemaps

2

Indexing

Google analyzes and stores your page content

3

Serving

Google returns relevant results by ranking factors

4

People-first

Create helpful content for users, not crawlers

Meta Tags & HTML Structure

The essential meta tags every page needs: title, description, canonical, Open Graph, Twitter cards, and robots.

Structured Data (Schema.org)

JSON-LD structured data helps search engines understand your content and can unlock rich results.

Dynamic SEO Component (React)

A reusable React component that sets per-page meta tags with react-helmet-async.

robots.txt

Tell search crawlers what to crawl, block dev paths, and point to your sitemap.

sitemap.xml

A sitemap lists your URLs with last-modified dates, change frequency, and priority.

Google Analytics 4

Install the GA4 global tag and add helper functions for page views and events.

CSP for GA4 / GTM

Content Security Policy directives GA4 and Google Tag Manager need. Use wildcard subdomains to stay future-proof.

llms.txt (AI Crawler Guidance)

The AI-era companion to robots.txt: a plain-text file that guides AI/LLM crawlers and gives them clean brand context.

Content Optimization

Page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, and E-A-T content principles.

Indexing & Crawling

Make content crawlable, manage indexing with robots meta, and set canonical URLs correctly.

Performance & Core Web Vitals

Hit the Core Web Vitals thresholds, optimise for mobile, enforce HTTPS, and speed up page loads.

Google Search Console Workflow

Set up the property, submit your sitemap, get new pages indexed, then monitor the reports that matter.

Implementation Checklist

Work through these four groups to verify your SEO implementation is complete.

Technical Setup

  • Install SSL certificate (HTTPS)
  • Create and submit sitemap.xml
  • Configure robots.txt
  • Add llms.txt for AI crawler guidance (optional)
  • Set up Google Search Console
  • Install Google Analytics 4
  • Verify mobile responsiveness

On-Page SEO

  • Unique title tags for all pages
  • Meta descriptions for all pages
  • Proper heading structure (H1-H6)
  • Canonical URLs implemented
  • Structured data markup
  • Optimized images with alt text

Content Quality

  • Original, valuable content
  • Proper keyword research and targeting
  • Internal linking strategy
  • Regular content updates
  • User-focused writing
  • E-A-T principles followed

Performance

  • Page load speed < 3 seconds
  • Core Web Vitals passing
  • Mobile-friendly design
  • Optimized images
  • Minified CSS/JavaScript

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Steer clear of these ten SEO anti-patterns.

  • 1Keyword stuffing: don't overuse keywords unnaturally
  • 2Duplicate content: ensure unique content across pages
  • 3Missing meta descriptions on any page
  • 4Broken links: check and fix them regularly
  • 5Slow loading pages: optimize for speed
  • 6Non-mobile-friendly design
  • 7No HTTPS: always use secure connections
  • 8Ignoring analytics data
  • 9Over-optimization instead of focusing on users
  • 10Neglecting content updates

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