Overview
This article helps you navigate SEO improvement through three clear stages: Establish, Evolve, and Excel. You can work through each stage in order to build strong foundations and progressively improve your website's search performance, or jump directly to the area that matches your current goals and expertise level.
Use this guide as your index to key SEO resources across Access Volcanic's help centre.
Working through the stages
You can approach SEO improvement in three progressive stages, each building on the previous level:
Work through the stages in order to build comprehensive SEO knowledge, or jump to the stage that matches your current needs.
Establish SEO foundations
Establish your website's SEO foundation by setting up metadata, choosing relevant keywords, and optimising content. You can also configure technical SEO settings and control how crawlers index your site.
Use these guides to get started:
Use the SEO console site crawler to identify issues and opportunities on your pages.
Edit metadata on your pages so titles and descriptions accurately reflect your content.
Edit metadata in SEO settings to manage site-level SEO configuration.
Write good metadata for your pages to improve click-through rates from search results.
Learn SEO basics to understand how search engines view your website or career site.
Evolve your SEO strategy
Once your foundations are in place, evolve your SEO strategy by using analytics and ongoing optimisation. Focus on improving rankings, fixing issues, and keeping your site easy for users and search engines to navigate.
Use these guides to continue improving:
Fix broken links to maintain a smooth user journey and protect your search performance.
Explore SEO tools to monitor performance, refine your configuration, and identify further optimisation opportunities.
Excel with advanced SEO and accessibility
Excel at SEO by combining technical optimisation, user experience improvements, and accessibility best practices. This helps you improve page speed, support all users, and protect your visibility in search engines.
Use these guides for advanced optimisation:
Improve accessibility for SEO so your website or career site is easy to use for all visitors and search engines.
Run key accessibility checks for your website to maintain compliance and a positive user experience.
Review traffic drops in Google Analytics 4 to understand changes in performance and take corrective actions.
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Best practices
Review your SEO settings regularly so your website or career site stays aligned with your current content and goals.
Fix broken links and metadata issues as part of your regular site maintenance to protect rankings and user experience.
Use analytics data to guide your decisions rather than making large SEO changes without evidence.
Incorporate accessibility checks into your SEO process, so improvements benefit both search performance and real users.
FAQs
Q1: Should I work through all three stages in order?
Answer: Working through the stages in order helps you build solid foundations before moving to advanced techniques. However, you can jump to any stage that matches your current needs and experience level.
Q2: How long should I spend on each stage?
Answer: Spend enough time on Establish to set up proper metadata and technical configuration before moving forward. Evolve and Excel are ongoing processes you can revisit as your site and goals develop.
Q3: Can I skip the Establish stage if I already have some SEO in place?
Answer: Review the Establish guides even if you have existing SEO work, as they help identify gaps in your current setup and ensure your foundations are solid before progressing.
Q4: Which stage should I focus on if I am new to SEO?
Answer: Start with Establish to set up your SEO foundations properly. This stage covers the essential setup that supports all future optimisation work.
Q5: How often should I revisit these guides?
Answer: Revisit Establish guides when making significant site changes or launching new sections. Review Evolve and Excel guides regularly as part of ongoing optimisation and when monitoring performance metrics.
Q6: Do I need to complete all guides in each stage?
Answer: Complete the guides that are most relevant to your current goals and priorities. You can return to other guides in the stage as your needs develop or your site requirements change.
Q7: Where should I start if I notice a sudden drop in traffic?
Answer: Start with the Evolve stage, particularly the guide on reviewing traffic drops in Google Analytics 4, to understand what changed and identify corrective actions.
Q8: Can I work on accessibility improvements without completing the other stages first?
Answer: Yes, accessibility improvements benefit your site immediately regardless of your current SEO stage. However, combining accessibility with proper metadata and technical setup in Establish provides the best overall results.