Simple answers to common SEO questions
Every page here keeps the question exactly as people ask it and answers it in the first paragraph. The explanation comes after the answer, not before it.
When the answer is a free Google report or a free tool, we say so. When CrawlRaven is the faster way, the exact prompt is on the page and you can copy it.
Diagnose a problem
How Do I Know If My Website Has SEO Problems?
You can find out in about 20 minutes with six free Search Console reports. Here is what to open, what a problem looks like in each one, and the one prompt that checks all six for you.
12 min read
Why Isn't My Website Ranking on Google?
Not ranking at all and ranking low are different problems with different fixes. Two minutes tells you which one you have. Then work down the causes in order.
10 min read
Why Is My Organic Traffic Dropping?
Four shapes a drop can take, the four drops that are not drops, and the diagnosis order that saves a week.
9 min read
How Do I Improve Local SEO for a Small Business?
Local SEO advice usually arrives as twenty items. The order matters more than the list, because the first two carry most of the result.
8 min read
My SEO Is Dialed In. Where Do I Start With GEO?
AI systems retrieve from search indexes, so a well-optimised site has already met most of the requirements. Here is the part that is genuinely new, and the order to do it in.
8 min read
What's the Difference Between Technical SEO and Content SEO?
One makes your site readable by Google. The other makes it worth reading. Knowing which problem you have decides who you hire and what you fix first.
9 min read
Why Are My Competitors Ranking Higher Than Me?
It is rarely a mystery and never magic. Five gaps explain almost every case, and each one has a check you can run this afternoon.
9 min read
Why is my Shopify store not showing up on Google?
"Not showing up" is either not indexed or not ranking, and the fix is different for each. Here are seven checks in the order they usually fail, each with the Search Console report that confirms it, so you fix the one thing that is actually wrong.
10 min read
Run an audit
What's the Easiest Way to Audit My Website for SEO?
You do not need to learn 200 checks. Start with a free 20-minute check in Search Console, then let a tool do the rest. Here are the three ways, from easiest to most thorough.
8 min read
How Do I Audit Content for Search and AI?
A content audit for AI and one for search are the same exercise with different questions. Running them separately produces two spreadsheets and no decisions.
9 min read
What Are the Most Important SEO Fixes for My Site?
An audit hands you 2,000 issues. You will fix maybe twenty this quarter. Here is the order that makes those twenty count.
10 min read
Can I Do an SEO Audit Myself Without Hiring an Agency?
Yes, and most site owners should. The data is free and the checklists exist. Here is what you can genuinely do yourself, and the two things you cannot.
9 min read
What Should I Do With My Google Search Console Data?
Most people open Search Console, look at the line, and close it. The data pays when it changes what you do next month. Here are the five jobs it does.
9 min read
How Do I Fix Technical SEO Issues on My Website?
Finding technical issues is the easy half. This page is about the other half: the fix for each issue class, who makes it, and how to prove it worked.
10 min read
How Often Should I Audit My Website for SEO?
The honest answer is a short calendar plus a rule: sites break when something ships, so the most important audits are the ones tied to changes, not dates.
8 min read
Speed and Core Web Vitals
How Can I Fix My Website's Core Web Vitals?
Open PageSpeed Insights, read the right numbers, and fix one metric at a time. This guide goes through LCP, INP, and CLS, with the exact fixes for each.
11 min read
How Do I Check My Page Speed and Why Does It Matter?
Two free tools tell you everything, and most people read the wrong number in both. Here is where to check, what the numbers mean, and how much speed actually matters.
8 min read
Keywords and rankings
How Do I Use Low Search Volume Keywords?
Low volume is only low value if you target the queries one at a time. The technique is clustering, and your own data is the best input.
8 min read
How Do I Find SEO Opportunities?
Most opportunity hunting starts in a keyword tool, which is the wrong end. Your own data comes with proof attached.
8 min read
Can I See Which Keywords My Website Ranks For?
Yes, and you do not need a paid tool. Google keeps the real list in Search Console. Here is how to read it, filter it, and get around its limits.
9 min read
How Do I Know What Keywords to Target on My Website?
The best targets are rarely the biggest terms. They are the searches you can actually win, and most of them are already in your own data.
10 min read
What Are Anonymous Queries in Google Search Console?
They are the reason your query rows never add up to your totals. Here is what Google hides, why, how to measure your own hidden share, and the one place its combined size is visible.
7 min read
How do I get traffic to a Shopify store?
Every list of 27 traffic sources leaves you to choose. This page sorts them by speed, says which ones compound, and gives the one SEO sequence a new store should run first.
8 min read
What are the types of SEO?
Every list gives you the same four types. None of them tells you that a SaaS site and a Shopify store need them in opposite proportions. Here are the four, the types people actually search by, and the page to read for each.
8 min read
Reporting and clients
Is There a Google Search Console for ChatGPT?
Every AI assistant lets you block it. Almost none will tell you what happened. Here is the one exception, why the rest may never build one, and what to measure in the meantime.
9 min read
How Long Does SEO Take to Work?
Everyone quotes a range and nobody cites a source. Here are the actual studies, what each measured, and why their numbers disagree.
9 min read
Which SEO Metrics Actually Matter?
Search Console exposes dozens of numbers and most reports use that as permission to include all of them. Four carry the signal.
8 min read
How Do I Forecast SEO ROI?
A single number is a hostage. Here is the model, how to source each input honestly, and the four traps that make a forecast worthless.
9 min read
How Do I Connect Google Search Console to Google Analytics 4?
The link takes five minutes in GA4's Admin panel. The steps, the two reports it unlocks, the limits Google does not mention up front, and the easier way to get the same join.
8 min read
How Do I Create SEO Reports for My Clients?
Clients do not read fifteen-page dashboard exports. They read two pages that answer three questions: is it working, why, and what happens next.
10 min read
How Much Should I Charge for Local SEO?
This page is for the agency owner or freelancer writing the quote. It gives the figures that surveys publish, with links, and a method for setting your own fee from scope, hours and number of locations.
9 min read
Choosing tools
What SEO Tool Should I Use Instead of Semrush?
Most people use a tenth of Semrush and pay for all of it. List the jobs you actually do, then pick the cheapest tool that does each one well.
9 min read
How Much Do SEO Tools Cost?
Pricing looks arbitrary until you ask one question of each tool: where does its data come from?
8 min read
How Much Does a Professional SEO Audit Cost?
The same audit job costs $49 or $30,000 depending on who does it. Here is what each price actually buys, and when the expensive version is worth it.
9 min read
What's the Cheapest SEO Tool That Actually Works?
Cheap and worthless look identical on a pricing page. Here is the budget stack that actually works, with every price verified against the vendor, and the traps that only look cheap.
9 min read
Is Shopify good for SEO?
Shopify gets the technical basics right with no setup. The stores that struggle are the ones that never looked at four platform defaults. Here is what each one does, checked against the Dawn theme and live stores, and how to test yours in ten minutes.
9 min read
Does SEO work for dropshipping stores?
Google does not care that you dropship. It cares that your pages are the same as everyone else's. Here are the three problems that cause that, the fix for each, and when to skip SEO entirely.
8 min read
Is Shopify a SaaS?
Shopify is easy to file under ecommerce, which hides what it is technically. The label matters because a store on a SaaS platform rents its URLs and robots.txt while competing for ecommerce demand. Here is the definition, the evidence from Shopify's own pages, and what it changes.
6 min read
How much does ecommerce SEO cost?
Every answer to this question is a range, and most of the ranges are invented. This one quotes only prices that vendors, agencies and surveys publish, sorts them into three layers, and says which layer a store of your size needs.
8 min read
People worth following
Who Are the Top 10 SEO Experts in the World?
We set four tests and picked 10 people who pass them. Each entry says what the person does, what they publish and where to start reading.
11 min read
Who Is John Mueller?
John Mueller answers questions about Google Search on Reddit and Bluesky, and news sites report his replies. Below are his 2026 statements on AI search, each with its date and a link, plus his role and where he posts.
9 min read
Stop exporting. Start shipping.
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