Free Cheat sheet · Updated 2026-11

My First-Week SEO Plan

Seven days, about an hour a day. The boring basics I wish someone had handed me in 2018, with a title formula, a question finder and a weekly log.

A day-by-day plan for your first week of SEO, built on the same boring system that took a YouTube channel's website to 100,000 visitors a month in a year. By day 7 Google can find you and read you, and you know exactly what to write next.

For: Founders and beginners starting SEO from zero who keep posting and hearing nothing back.

The 7-day plan · 7
If you only have 15 minutes · 4
Day 4 title formula (copy and fill) · 2
Day 5 question finder (copy-paste prompt) · 1
The mistakes I kept repeating (skip these) · 6
Your SEO log template · 1
Weeks 2 to 4: what to do next · 3
5 lessons I'd teach anyone starting today · 5

How to use it

Do one day per day. Don't skip ahead.
Each day takes about an hour. Stop when the task is done.
Keep one doc or sheet open as your SEO log for the whole week, using the template at the end.

The 7-day plan

I started SEO in 2018 and failed for years because I did advanced things before the basics. This week is only basics.

Day 1: Can Google find you?
Search site:yourdomain.com on Google. Set up Google Search Console (a Domain property, verified with a DNS TXT record) and submit your sitemap. Then go to Bing Webmaster Tools and import your site from Search Console, which takes a couple of minutes. Write today's date and your indexed page count in your log.
Day 2: Is anything blocking you?
Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and make sure it doesn't say 'Disallow: /'. View the source of your homepage and search for 'noindex'. In Search Console, open the Pages report and note the reasons pages are not indexed. 'Crawled, currently not indexed' is common and doesn't always need fixing; a noindex you didn't mean to add does.
Day 3: Pick your 5 money pages
List the five pages that make you money: homepage, main service or product pages, pricing, about, contact. Everything this week is about these five, not new pages.
Day 4: Give each page a clear label
Rewrite the title tag and H1 of each money page to say exactly what it is and who it's for, using the formula below. Each title must be different. No 'Home', no 'Services'.
Day 5: Find the real questions
Write down 20 questions customers ask you on calls, emails and DMs. Search each on Google and note the 'People also ask' questions. Use Google Trends to compare wording (for example 'price' vs 'cost'). These are your first articles and FAQ answers.
Day 6: Answer one question properly
Write one page that answers your best question better than anything on page one. Answer in the first two sentences, then explain. Add something only you have: your real prices, a photo, a mistake you've seen. Link to it from a money page, and from it back to that money page.
Day 7: Check and log
Run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage (mobile). Use URL Inspection in Search Console on your new page and request indexing once. Write in your log what you changed this week. Then don't judge anything for a few weeks: Google says some changes show in hours and others take several months.

If you only have 15 minutes

Search site:yourdomain.com
If nothing shows, Day 1 and Day 2 are the whole job.
Add your site to Search Console
Free, and it's Google's own data on your site.
Fix the homepage title
A title that just says 'Home' is one of the easiest fixes there is.
Write down 5 questions customers asked you this month
That's the start of Day 5, and it costs nothing.

Day 4 title formula (copy and fill)

Title formulas by page

Homepage:  [What you do] in [City/for Who] | [Brand]
Service:   [Service] in [City]: [Price from / Fast / Specific promise] | [Brand]
Product:   [Product name] – [Key spec or use] | [Brand]
Pricing:   [Brand] Pricing: Plans from [Price]
About:     About [Brand]: [Who you are in 5 words]
Contact:   Contact [Brand] – [City] | [Phone or hours]

Illustrative: 'Geyser Repair in Pune: Same-Day Visits | Sharma Plumbing'. Google's title docs ask for descriptive, distinct titles and warn against keyword repetition.

H1 rule

H1 = the title in plain words, without the brand.
Example title: Geyser Repair in Pune: Same-Day Visits | Sharma Plumbing
Example H1: Geyser Repair in Pune, Same Day

Google suggests the main title be clear on the page, for example in the first visible H1.

Day 5 question finder (copy-paste prompt)

Turn customer messages into a question list

Below are real messages from my customers. I run [business] in [city] for [customer type].
1. List every distinct question they ask, in their exact words.
2. Group the questions by topic.
3. For each, label the intent: learn, compare, visit or buy.
4. Mark the 5 questions that are closest to someone paying me.
Do not invent questions that aren't in the messages.

Messages:
[paste emails, DMs, call notes]

Then search those 5 on Google yourself. AI helps you sort; page one tells you what Google expects.

The mistakes I kept repeating (skip these)

Writing about what I wanted, not what people searched.
Nothing ranks if nobody types it. Day 5 fixes this.
Publishing lots of thin posts.
Google's helpful content guide warns against content made mainly to attract search visits. Five strong pages beat fifty weak ones.
Checking rankings every day.
Google says some changes take months to show. Daily checking just makes you change things too early.
Buying tools before having data.
Search Console is free and shows your real searches. Start there.
Looking for a hack.
Google says it doesn't accept payment to rank higher, and its spam policies cover keyword stuffing, link spam and scaled content abuse.
Requesting indexing over and over.
Once is enough. If a page still isn't indexed, the fix is in the page, not the button.

Your SEO log template

Weekly SEO log (copy into a doc or sheet)

Week of: ____
Indexed pages (Search Console > Pages): ____
Clicks last 7 days (Search Console): ____
Impressions last 7 days: ____
Top 3 queries by impressions:
1. 
2. 
3. 
What I changed this week (page + date):
- 
- 
Pages published:
- 
Questions I still need to answer:
- 
Next week's one focus: ____

Fill it every Sunday. After 8 weeks you'll see what actually moved the numbers.

Weeks 2 to 4: what to do next

Week	One focus	Done when
2	Answer 2 more questions from your Day 5 list	Both pages are live and linked from a money page
3	Get 1 real mention: a supplier, partner, local group or directory you actually belong to	A live link or mention exists
4	Read Search Console: which query got impressions but few clicks?	You've rewritten that page's title and noted the date

5 lessons I'd teach anyone starting today

1. Answer real questions. What changed things for me was writing for what people were already asking, not what I wanted to say.

2. Fix pages before adding pages. Your money pages matter more than your blog.

3. Show up every week. The system was boring, and it worked because we didn't stop.

4. Use the free Google data. Search Console tells you what's working. Believe it over any guess. I still check it first on every one of the 30 sites I run.

5. Be patient on purpose. Give every change weeks, not days.

Unlock the full cheat sheet

Everything above, plus the branded PDF to keep.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What should I do first in SEO?

Make sure Google can find and index your site: search site:yourdomain.com, set up Google Search Console and submit a sitemap. Nothing else works until that does.

How long does SEO take to work?

Google's SEO Starter Guide says some changes show in a few hours and others can take several months. New sites usually take longer. Judge changes after weeks, not days.

Can I do SEO myself as a beginner?

Yes. The basics are free: Search Console, clear titles, pages that answer real questions, and links between your pages.

How many blog posts do I need to start?

There's no magic number, and Google says there's no target word count either. Start with one great answer to your customers' most common question.

Do I need Bing Webmaster Tools too?

It's optional but free, and you can import your sites from Search Console. Bing powers Copilot answers, and its AI Performance report (in preview) shows when Copilot cites you.