name: seo-fundamentals
description: Core search-engine optimization guidance spanning the E-E-A-T quality signals, Core Web Vitals, technical foundations like sitemaps and canonicals, on-page content and meta elements, schema markup, and ranking priorities. Use it when optimizing pages for search, writing title and meta tags, strengthening trust signals, or addressing Core Web Vitals.
SEO Fundamentals
Earning search visibility comes down to trustworthy content served on a technically sound site -- and the patience to let it compound.
E-E-A-T: the quality lens
Google's raters judge content through four overlapping qualities:
- Experience -- evidence of first-hand use: real screenshots, original examples, lived detail.
- Expertise -- demonstrated command of the subject and relevant credentials.
- Authoritativeness -- recognition from others: links, citations, mentions in the field.
- Trustworthiness -- HTTPS, honest claims, accurate and verifiable information.
Core Web Vitals
| Metric | Target | What it measures |
|---|
| LCP | under 2.5s | Loading speed of the main content |
| INP | under 200ms | Responsiveness to user input |
| CLS | under 0.1 | Visual stability during load |
Technical foundations
Crawlability and indexing
- XML sitemap -- hands crawlers a map of your pages.
- robots.txt -- declares what bots may and may not fetch.
- Canonical tags -- consolidate duplicate or near-duplicate URLs.
- HTTPS -- a baseline trust and ranking signal.
Delivery
- Fast pages satisfy a Core Web Vital and keep users around.
- Mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor in its own right.
- Clean, readable URLs help both crawlers and people.
On-page content
The key elements
- Title tag -- ~50-60 characters, lead with the primary keyword.
- Meta description -- ~150-160 characters, written to earn the click.
- H1 -- one per page, carrying the main topic.
- H2-H6 -- a logical, nested outline.
- Image alt text -- descriptive and natural, never keyword-stuffed.
What makes content rank
- Depth -- cover the topic thoroughly enough to satisfy intent.
- Freshness -- revisit and update when things change.
- Originality -- add value that isn't already everywhere else.
- Readability -- clear prose beats dense filler.
Schema markup worth knowing
Article -- posts and news.Organization -- company identity.Person -- author profiles.FAQPage -- question-and-answer sections.Product -- store listings.Review -- ratings and reviews.BreadcrumbList -- navigational trails.
Publishing AI-assisted content
Google rewards helpfulness regardless of how text is produced, but raw AI output rarely clears the bar.
- Do -- draft with AI, then edit, fact-check, and add genuine insight; have someone qualified review it; keep it aligned with E-E-A-T.
- Don't -- publish unedited generated text, copy without adding value, skip verification, or pile on keywords.
Ranking factors, roughly in order
- Helpful, relevant content that matches intent.
- Links from authoritative, trusted sites.
- Page experience, including Core Web Vitals.
- Mobile optimization.
- The technical SEO basics done right.
Tracking results
- Rankings -- Search Console, plus tools like Ahrefs.
- Traffic -- your analytics platform.
- Core Web Vitals -- PageSpeed Insights and field data.
- Indexing -- Search Console coverage reports.
- Backlinks -- Ahrefs, Semrush, and similar.
SEO pays off over months, not days. Quality content plus technical care plus consistency is what moves rankings.