Google starter guide is deliberately modest about what SEO can do: it helps search engines understand and present content. It does not make mediocre content valuable.
The shortlist
- Make sure Google can find your pages, internal links and a sitemap.
- Write titles and descriptions that describe the page accurately.
- Use headings to show structure.
- Add descriptive alt text to images.
- Use descriptive link text, not “click here”.
- Keep URLs readable.
- Make the site work on a phone.
What the guide explicitly says not to worry about
Meta keywords, keyword density, and the length of content as a number. None of these are used the way folklore suggests.
Alien Road recommends: do the shortlist properly before buying anything. We regularly audit sites paying for tools and links while missing titles and internal links to their own money pages. The unglamorous items on this list are still the highest return per hour on most sites we see.