Step 1 - Make sure you can be found at all
Verify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Submit an XML sitemap. Check robots.txt is not blocking anything important, and confirm your key pages return 200 and are not accidentally set to noindex. Nothing else matters until this is clean.
Step 2 - Choose queries you can realistically win
Pick queries where the current top results are comparable to your site in size and authority. A new site should target long-tail, specific phrasings - 'invoicing software for freelance photographers' rather than 'invoicing software'. Volume is worth nothing if you finish on page four.
Step 3 - Build one page per intent
One page, one job. Title tag with the query near the front, a single H1, subheadings that mirror the questions people actually ask, and a direct 40-60 word answer near the top so answer engines can lift it. Add FAQ or Article schema where it genuinely reflects the page.
Step 4 - Fix speed and mobile experience
Core Web Vitals - LCP, INP, CLS - influence ranking at the margin and conversions far more. The usual culprits are unoptimized hero images, render-blocking fonts and third-party scripts. Measure on a real mobile connection, not your laptop.
Step 5 - Interlink and earn citations
Every new page should link to three to five existing pages and receive links back from them, using descriptive anchor text. Then earn external mentions the honest way: original data, tools, and expertise that people have a reason to reference.
Step 6 - Review monthly, not daily
Rankings fluctuate. Review Search Console monthly: which queries gained impressions, which pages lost clicks, which pages are indexed but never shown. Rewrite the underperformers before publishing anything new.