How to do SEO yourself: a 30-day checklist for your website

Do SEO yourself with a 30-day checklist: technical basics, keywords and structure, content, then maps, reviews and links. Concrete actions for every week, no agency needed.

You can promote your own website without an agency if you don't try to do everything at once. SEO for a small business isn't a set of secret tricks; it's a handful of basics done carefully and in the right order. Below is a four-week plan with one big topic per week. Tick off each item in a spreadsheet and come back to it in a month.

Before you start: what you'll need

• Access to the site: the admin panel or a developer who can make changes.
• A Google account for Search Console, plus Bing or Yandex accounts if your customers use those search engines.
• A spreadsheet for your keyword map and a list of what's done.
• A list of your main services or product categories and the cities you work in.

Week 1: technical basics

First make sure search engines can see your site and read it. Without this, nothing else works.

• Add the site to Google Search Console (and Bing Webmaster Tools or Yandex Webmaster where relevant) and verify ownership.
• See which pages are indexed, which are excluded and why.
• Open robots.txt: it must not block pages your customers need.
• Find or create a sitemap.xml and submit it in each webmaster panel.
• The site should load over HTTPS and at one address: with and without www, http and https all lead to one version.
• Check speed and the mobile version in PageSpeed Insights and start with what it flags first, such as heavy images.
• Find broken links and 404 pages: fix the links or redirect to the current page.

Week 2: keywords and structure

Now work out which words customers use to search for what you sell, and which page each query belongs to.

• Collect queries: the Queries report in Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, search box suggestions, the questions customers ask you.
• Group them by meaning: “iPhone repair Manchester” and “fix my iPhone in Manchester” are one need and one page.
• Give each page one main query and a few supporting ones. Two pages should never fight over the same query.
• If an important query has no page, add one to the plan: a separate service, area or category.
• Rewrite the title: unique, main query near the start, short enough not to get cut off in search results.
• Rewrite the description: a concrete benefit and a reason to click, without repeating the title.
• Check that each page has one H1 and that it says the same thing as the title.
• Make page addresses readable: /iphone-repair beats /page?id=123.

Week 3: content

Search engines and people want the same thing: a page that answers the question precisely. Start with the pages that make money, not with the blog.

• Fill out service and category pages: what's included, prices or “from” prices, timelines, photos of real work, answers to common questions.
• Write a few articles for informational queries such as “how to choose”, “how much does it cost” and “what to do if”, and link from them to your service pages.
• Build internal links: from the home page to key sections, between related services, from articles to services. Link text should say where it leads, not just “here”.
• Label images: a clear file name and alt text that describes the picture.
• Add trust signals: address, phone, company details, real reviews, photos of the team.
• Don't copy competitors' texts. If you write with AI, check the facts and add your own experience.

Week 4: maps, reviews and links

For a business with an address or a service area, maps are a separate source of customers: people search for what's “near me” right there. Fill out your Google Business Profile, plus Bing Places, Apple Business Connect or, in the CIS, 2GIS and Yandex Maps, wherever your customers look.

• Name, address, phone and opening hours are identical everywhere and match the website.
• The right category, a description of services, photos and a link to the site.
• Ask happy customers for a review and reply to every review, negative ones included. Real reviews only: fake ones aren't worth the risk.
• On the contact page, add a map and organisation markup, using only the details visible on the page.

Links from other sites work like recommendations. Look for them where they're natural: industry directories and associations, partners and suppliers, local media and city websites with a useful story or an expert comment. Don't buy links in bulk or swap links just for the sake of it: search engines treat this as spam and can demote the site.

What's next: how to tell it's working

SEO doesn't pay off in a day: changes in search results can take weeks and sometimes months to show. Once a week, open Search Console and look at three things: whether impressions are growing, which queries people find you by and which pages get clicks.

Queries with impressions but few clicks are the first candidates for a new title and description. Unexpected queries tell you which pages to add. After 30 days, repeat the cycle: a week for technical checks, a week for new pages, a week for updating old ones, a week for maps and links.

How VIT TEAM does it

In the SEO and website content factory, the SEO specialist collects queries, groups them, builds the site structure and writes article briefs, titles and descriptions, and the content maker writes the texts from those briefs. The keyword map lives in the specialist's personal notebook, so new pages don't steal queries from old ones. When fresh data on search results and competitors is needed, the specialist researches the web and brings back facts with links. Each employee checks its work against its own checklist before handing it over.

The package starts at $59 a month, or you can hire the SEO specialist for a shift at $39 or a month at $299. You can try it free for 7 days.