SEO that assumes you have no budget
Everything here was worked out on a real site with real traffic, using the same free tools the software uses. No theory, no “it depends”.
Why did my Google rankings drop? A 30-minute checklist
Traffic falls and the first instinct is to blame an update. Nine times out of ten it is something narrower and fixable. Here is the order to check things in, so you find the cause before you start rewriting anything.
Striking distance keywords: the traffic you already own
Positions 4 to 20 are where most small sites are quietly sitting on their next 40% of traffic. Here is how to find those keywords in a free Search Console export, work out which ones are worth the afternoon, and move them.
How to update old blog posts (a refresh checklist that works)
Refreshing a post that already ranks beats writing a new one almost every time. The catch is that most "refreshes" are date changes with a paragraph bolted on. Here is how to pick the right posts and what to actually change.
Keyword research without Ahrefs or Semrush
Paid keyword tools sell you two things: a volume number and a difficulty score. Both are estimates. Here is how to get better answers for free, using sources that are closer to the truth than either.
Turn your Search Console export into an action plan
Everyone exports the CSV. Almost nobody does anything with it. Here are the six things to pull out of that file, in order, and what each one tells you to do this week.
A free SEO audit checklist you can run in one afternoon
Paid audits hand you 600 issues sorted by a severity score somebody else invented. This one has 24 checks, in the order that actually affects traffic, and every tool it uses is free.
Should you self-host your SEO tools? An honest answer
Running your own SEO tooling on cheap hosting sounds like the frugal, principled choice. I built one and ran it for months. Here is what it actually gains you, what it costs you, and why I moved mine to a server I maintain.
Internal linking on a small site: the 2-hour version
Internal links are the one ranking factor you control completely — no outreach, no waiting, no budget. Most small sites get them badly wrong in the same four ways. Here is how to fix all four in an afternoon.
Better titles: the traffic you can win without ranking higher
If a page ranks fifth and gets a 1% click-through rate, you do not have a ranking problem. You have a headline problem, and it is the cheapest fix in SEO. Here is how to find those pages and what to write instead.
Google Site Kit: what it is actually good for (and what it is not)
Site Kit connects Search Console, Analytics and AdSense to WordPress with one sign-in. That is genuinely useful. The dashboard it puts in your admin is mostly not. Here is how to set it up and what to ignore.