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Skills / SEO basics

SEO basics

Make a small site findable by name. Titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, and Search Console, with expectations set honestly. Use when they ask "how do I get on Google", "why doesn't my site show up", or after a site ships.

Use this skill. Nothing to install.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude prefilled and ready; just hit send
for Gemini, Copilot, or Cursor: paste it, then say "use the seo basics skill"

Don't have an agent?  ·  Raw file: skills/seo-basics.md

Watch the first two minutes

This is how a session goes, expectations set first. Click through it.

(pastes the skill) why doesn't my site show up on Google?
Honest version first: a small personal site can become findable for your name and your project's name within a few weeks. It will never rank for "web developer" or any other competitive phrase, and no tag or trick changes that. Still worth doing?
yes. I mostly want people who search my name to find me
That's exactly the search you can win. Right now Google sees your homepage titled "Home" with no description. We go page by page: a unique title under about 60 characters, front-loaded with what the page is, you choosing the words.
does the meta description make me rank higher
No, and most people get that wrong. It's the ad copy under the headline: it decides whether a human clicks, so we write one or two real sentences for that human. Ranking comes from being the best page for a search only you can be the answer to.
ok. then what
A sitemap.xml written by hand, ten minutes for a site your size, then you add the site to Google Search Console with your own account and submit it. Indexing takes days to weeks, so silence next week is normal. In two or three weeks the console shows which real searches found you.

Scripted example of a real session.

Googled yourself and found nothing?

That is fixable, because a search for your name is a search only you can be the best answer to. This skill does the unglamorous work that makes it happen: real titles on every page, honest descriptions, one h1 that says what each page is about, and your actual words in plain text on the page, since a portfolio that never says "portfolio" or your city cannot show up for either. Then a sitemap and Search Console, so you can watch it start working instead of wondering.

What you end up with

Search results that look intentional, and a console that tells you the truth about what ranks. The before and after for one homepage:

Example
BEFORE
  Home                              1
  username.github.io
  No description written, so the
  search engine improvises one from
  whatever text it finds.

AFTER
  Maya Torres · Portfolio           2
  maya-torres.example.com
  Sites and small apps by a student
  in Austin. Three live projects,   3
  all with code you can read.
  1. "Home" is invisible. Nobody searches for Home, and a missing description hands your first impression to a machine's guess. This is what most first sites ship with.
  2. The title is the headline. Unique per page, under about 60 characters, front-loaded with what the page is. It is the single strongest on-page signal this skill touches.
  3. The description is the ad copy. It doesn't affect ranking; it affects whether the human who sees the result clicks. So it gets written for that human, in your voice, under about 160 characters.

Questions people actually ask

How long until my site shows up?

Days to weeks after the sitemap is submitted and indexing is requested, and the skill tells you that up front so silence next week reads as normal. The two-to-three week Search Console check-in is where you first see real queries.

Can I rank for something like "web developer"?

No, and this skill won't pretend otherwise. Competitive phrases go to sites with years of standing. What a small site wins is searches where it is the only right answer: your name, your project's name, your club's name.

Does any of this cost money?

No. Titles, descriptions, headings, and the sitemap are edits to your own files, and Google Search Console is free. If you did custom-domain, verification is one DNS record; otherwise the free HTML-file method works.

Should I stuff keywords into the page?

No. The keywords meta tag has been ignored by search engines for years, and repeating phrases unnaturally reads badly to both humans and machines. What works is plainer: say what you do, in real sentences, on the page.

Do I need to write a blog for this to work?

No. Being findable by name takes the on-page pass plus Search Console, nothing more. More real content does give search engines more to match, so if you have things to say, the blog-post skill is a natural follow-on rather than a requirement.

Where to go from here

Search Console showing real queries? Follow the thread:

See what visitors did next Your own domain Write something worth finding
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets 
---
name: seo-basics
category: web
description: Make a small site findable by name. Titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, and Search Console, with expectations set honestly. Use when they ask "how do I get on Google", "why doesn't my site show up", or after a site ships.
---

# seo-basics

Make someone's live site legible to search engines. Set
expectations first, honestly: for a small personal site, good SEO
means people who search their name or their project's name find it
within a few weeks. It does not mean ranking for "web developer" or
any competitive phrase, and no tag or trick changes that. What ranks
is being the best page for a search only they can be the answer to.

## The on-page pass

Go page by page through the live site with them choosing the words.

1. `<title>` on every page: unique, under ~60 characters, front-
   loaded with what the page is — "Ada Okafor — Portfolio", not
   "Home". This is the headline Google shows.
2. `<meta name="description">`: one or two real sentences per page,
   under ~160 characters. It does not affect ranking; it is the ad
   copy under the headline, so write it for a human deciding whether
   to click.
3. Headings: exactly one `<h1>` saying what the page is about, then
   `<h2>`s in order. Search engines read the outline the way a
   skimming human does. (This same structure is checked in
   accessibility-pass — do it once, get both.)
4. Real words on the page. A portfolio that never contains the words
   "portfolio" or their city cannot rank for them. Say what they do
   in plain text, on the page, in their voice.

## Sitemap and Search Console

1. Write `sitemap.xml` listing every page's full URL, and a
   `robots.txt` that points to it. For a five-page site this is ten
   minutes by hand; explain each line as you write it.
2. They open Google Search Console with their own account and add the
   site. Verification: DNS TXT record if they did custom-domain,
   otherwise the HTML-file method. You narrate; they click.
3. Submit the sitemap, then use URL inspection to request indexing of
   the homepage. Indexing takes days to weeks — say so now, so
   silence next week reads as normal instead of broken.
4. Set a reminder to look at Search Console in two or three weeks:
   which queries showed their site, and what got clicked. Those
   queries are the truth about what the site ranks for.

## Done

- Every page has a distinct title and description they wrote
- One h1 per page, sensible heading order, plain-text words for the
  searches they care about
- Sitemap submitted, site verified in Search Console, homepage
  indexing requested
- They can say what a search engine can and cannot do for a site
  this size

When Search Console shows real queries, add-analytics shows what
those visitors did next.