Calculators and planners
Where should I start with SEO?
Not sure where to start with SEO? Answer five quick questions about your site and get the three jobs to do first, in order, each with a free tool to do it.
Free · No signup · Runs in your browser
Question 1 of 5
How it works
Answer up to five questions: where your site is at, what kind of business it is, what you want, how much time you have and whether Search Console is set up.
Your answers pick a route through the most common situations: a new site, a traffic drop, a site move, local search, AI answers, or simply wanting more visitors.
You get three jobs in order, a free tool for each, and what Romeo would do instead if you'd rather not do it yourself.
Why start with three jobs, not thirty
Most SEO time is lost doing a good job on the wrong problem. A 200-point audit tells you everything that could be better and nothing about what to do on Monday. A founder with an hour a week needs the one or two things that move the needle for their situation, in the right order.
That's what this plan does. It doesn't try to cover everything. It picks the problem that matters most for a site like yours, puts anything urgent at the top, and leaves the rest for later. When you've done the three jobs, come back and answer again: the plan changes as your site does.
How the plan is chosen
The questions follow the same route an experienced SEO would take on a first call. Urgent beats interesting: if your traffic dropped or something looks broken, the first job is always to rule out an emergency, such as a noindex tag left on after a redesign or a robots.txt rule that blocks Google. Those can sink a site on their own, and no amount of new content fixes them.
If Google Search Console isn't set up, that comes first in almost every plan. It's free, it's Google's own data about your site, and nearly every later job is easier with it. Then the route depends on what you want:
- A new site starts with the searches your buyers make and the pages that sell, before blog posts.
- A site with steady traffic gets the quickest wins: pages that are almost on page one, and titles that are seen but not clicked.
- A site move starts with a snapshot of your key pages and a redirect map, before launch day.
- A local business starts with consistent business details and one page per service.
- Showing up in ChatGPT and AI answers starts with letting AI search crawlers in, then seeing where you're mentioned today.
What the jobs mean in plain English
Search Console: Google's free dashboard for your site. It shows which searches you appear for, how often people click, and which pages Google couldn't index. Indexing: Google storing a page so it can show it in results; a page that isn't indexed can't rank. A sitemap is the file that lists your pages for search engines. A redirect sends visitors and search engines from an old address to a new one, and a 301 redirect says the move is permanent.
None of the jobs need you to write code. Most free tools linked from your plan take an address and tell you what to change and where. Where a fix needs a developer, the tool says what to ask for.
What this can't tell you
It doesn't look at your site, so it can't see a problem you don't know about. If your answers say all is well but traffic is sliding, the free SEO audit is the quickest way to check. It also can't tell you how long results take: that depends on your competition, your site's history and how much you publish, and anyone who promises a date is guessing.
And it won't replace judgement about your business. If a job doesn't fit, skip it and take the next one from a different route. The checklist covers the basics for every site, whatever route you're on.
Questions people ask
Where should a beginner start with SEO?
Make sure Google can find and index your site, set up Search Console, then pick the searches your buyers make and write the pages that answer them. Pages that sell come before blog posts.
Do I need Google Search Console?
Almost always, yes. It's free and it's the only place to see Google's own data about your site: the searches you appear for, your clicks and the pages Google couldn't index.
What should I do first if my traffic dropped?
Rule out a technical cause before anything else: a noindex tag, a robots.txt rule, pages that error or redirect. Then use Search Console to see which pages and searches lost clicks, and compare that with what changed on the site.
How long does SEO take to work?
There's no honest single answer. Fixing a blocking problem can help as soon as Google recrawls the pages; new content usually takes longer, depending on competition and your site's history. Measure it in Search Console rather than trusting a promised timeline.
Is this free, and do you store my answers?
It's free, with no signup, and it runs entirely in your browser. Your answers aren't sent anywhere.
Want it done for you?
Romeo does the first three jobs, and the next thirty
He connects to Search Console, audits your site every day, researches the searches your buyers make and writes the pages, sending every change to you to approve before it goes live.
