The SEO Playbook
A practical starting point for useful content, crawlable structure, accurate metadata, and measurable page quality—without ranking guarantees.
How to use this playbook
Start with the page's purpose and evidence. Then make the page easy to find, crawl, understand, and use. Google's documentation explicitly says there is no magical minimum or maximum word count, and repeating keywords excessively can violate its spam policies.
- Define one primary visitor task and the questions required to complete it.
- Use first-party documentation or original research for factual claims.
- Create a descriptive title, a clear heading hierarchy, and a readable URL.
- Add contextual internal links from pages that readers already visit.
- Validate mobile rendering, indexing controls, structured data, and real-user performance.
- Measure impressions, clicks, conversions, and user feedback; revise based on evidence.
Useful Topic Coverage
Answer the reader's actual task with accurate explanations, original examples, and clear terminology. Do not pad a page to reach a target word count.
Core Web Vitals
Measure LCP, INP, and CLS with field data where available. Treat performance as one part of page experience, not a standalone ranking promise.
Site Structure & Links
Organize related pages logically and connect them with descriptive, crawlable links when the destination genuinely helps the reader.
Intent Mapping
Identify what a visitor needs to accomplish, then choose the page format and level of detail that satisfies that need.
Schema Architecture
Use accurate JSON-LD only for supported features that match visible page content. Valid markup makes a page eligible; it does not guarantee a rich result.
Evidence & Accountability
Name the responsible author or organization, cite primary sources, disclose commercial interests, and explain any original testing methodology.
Helpful Snippets
Write concise summaries, tables, or lists when they help users scan the answer. Search engines choose snippets; formatting cannot guarantee one.
Mobile Content Parity
Make primary content, links, metadata, images, and structured data available on mobile, with controls that remain usable on small screens.
What to avoid
- Keyword-density targets, hidden text, or repetitive phrasing written for crawlers.
- Large batches of near-duplicate pages with little original value.
- Structured data that describes content users cannot see.
- Unsourced statistics, invented reviews, or claims that a tactic guarantees rankings.