You search Google for the name of your own service and find your website. The result title says “Home”, followed by a footer excerpt listing every service at once. Someone looking for bookkeeping support for a Ukrainian sole proprietor (FOP) cannot tell whether the link will take them to an answer. You can fix that without signing an annual promotion contract. But if there is still no page about bookkeeping support on the site, a new title will not save it either.
Website SEO optimisation is work that helps search engines understand your pages and helps people find the answer they need on them. It is also called search engine optimisation. This includes technical accessibility, site structure, page titles, content and internal links. Google describes the goal of SEO in its starter guide. Optimisation can be a one-off stage with a defined list of fixes. Ongoing SEO work usually also involves demand research, new pages, measurement and adjustments.
It is easier to see the difference on one page. The example below is a hypothetical bookkeeping firm. It is a teaching example, not a client case of ours or a promise that changes will earn the firm particular rankings.
1. What are you buying: a foundation fix or ongoing work?
Two proposals with the same word “SEO” can include different work. Here is how I would break them down before signing a contract:
| Question | SEO optimisation as a separate stage | Ongoing SEO work |
|---|---|---|
| What gets done? | Find and fix barriers: indexing, duplicates, structure, pages, titles, content and internal links. | Research new queries, improve and create useful pages, build relevant mentions and links, analyse results and adjust the plan. |
| How often? | A defined scope can be accepted after delivery. Review again after a redesign, migration or major changes. | Work runs in cycles: observe, prioritise, change and check. The scope should match demand and the business’s resources. |
| What do you get? | A list of issues, completed changes, page checks and evidence of the work. | A plan for topics and pages, a change log, an assessment of visibility and enquiry quality, and an explanation of next steps. |
| How do you assess it? | Are important pages accessible? Were the named issues fixed? Does the content answer the query? | Is relevant visibility growing, and are the right people arriving rather than simply more accidental clicks? |
These formats are not always sold separately. Normal monthly SEO work includes optimisation too: pages break, products change and competitors answer new questions. After a one-off fix, a site may also receive search traffic without a monthly fee if it already has useful pages and matching demand. Do not diagnose your needs by the package name. Ask for the URLs, changes and verification method.
Be careful with the promise “one-off SEO forever”. A template change can remove the same page title, and a site move can break old addresses. A monthly fee without visible work is not ongoing SEO just because the invoice calls it that.
2. One page before and after
The hypothetical firm sells “Bookkeeping support for FOPs”. People searching for this service may want to know what is included, what it costs, how the engagement works and how to send documents. We do not know every searcher’s intent in advance, so before editing we should check actual queries, search results and client questions. For this example, suppose the page exists but barely explains the offer.
| Field | Before | After | Why change it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| URL | /services/12/ |
A clear address such as /services/bookkeeping-support-fop/ |
People and the team can recognise the page more easily. If the URL already gets traffic, plan the change with a redirect instead of simply renaming it. |
<title> |
“Home” | “Bookkeeping support for FOPs: services and terms | Firm name” | The title explains the specific page. It is a proposed search-result title, not an instruction that Google must display it verbatim. |
| Meta description | The same company text on every page | “FOP bookkeeping: what support includes, how to send documents and what affects the price. Review the terms of working together.” | Gives a short summary. Google may generate a different snippet for a particular query. |
| H1 | “Our services” | “Bookkeeping support for FOPs” | Visitors can see where they have landed. |
| Opening paragraph | “We are a team of experienced professionals” | “We handle FOP bookkeeping: reporting, deadline tracking and answers to day-to-day accounting questions. We agree on the scope and price after a short description of your situation.” | Names the work and its limits without inventing timelines, experience or guarantees. The firm must confirm the actual service scope. |
| Subheadings | “Benefits”, “Why us” | “What is included”, “How we start”, “What affects the price”, “What we need from the client” | The sections answer questions people have before enquiring. |
| Internal links | The page is buried in the catalogue | A contextual link from the services section and a link to the page about the first consultation | Gives people and search crawlers a route to a related answer. |
| FAQ | Six general questions about “the best service” | Short, verified answers about documents, handover timing and changes in scope | Answers recurring questions without invented promises. |
This table is an editorial example, not ready-to-publish copy for a real accounting firm. Do not add “deadline tracking” or “first consultation” if the service does not include them. A provider can improve the wording, but the service owner has to confirm the facts.
Before replacing fields, save a simple baseline: the URL, date, current title, a page screenshot and that page’s Search Console queries for the period you choose. After the change, check that the new copy appears in the rendered HTML and on a phone, and that the form and links work. Then you will know what the team actually did. It is too soon to compare visibility the next morning: Google needs to crawl the page again, and impressions are also affected by seasonality and competitors.
One more important boundary: Google generates result titles automatically, using more than the <title> field. It also considers the visible heading and other signals. A snippet can come from the page rather than the meta description. An editor is responsible for accurate fields and content, but cannot promise the exact appearance of every search result. A meta description is useful as a short summary for a person; I would not sell it as a button that directly improves rankings.
3. Technical foundations without magic buttons
Before editing the wording, check whether Google can access the important page at all. Crawling is when a search robot finds a URL and reads it. Indexing is when Google decides to store a page in its index. Appearing in results is a separate next step. Google explains these stages and does not guarantee that every page will be indexed.
For our bookkeeping page, start with URL Inspection in Search Console. It can show which address Google knows, whether it is allowed to index it and whether there is a technical issue. If the page was accidentally blocked from indexing, fix that first. A new FAQ will not help a URL that should not appear in search.
If two nearly identical addresses exist, check the canonical: a signal pointing to the preferred main version. For example, a service page may exist with a sorting parameter or as a duplicate after a migration. Google describes canonical as a way to consolidate duplicates, but the search engine may select another version if the signals conflict. Do not set every page’s canonical to the homepage just because it is easier to fill in the field that way.
A sitemap helps Google discover important URLs, but does not guarantee indexing. Internal links should lead to the service page from clear places: the menu, the services page and related material. Check the mobile layout and speed on the actual page, especially the enquiry form. If a banner covers the button or the form does not submit, search visibility will not solve the business problem.
For a fuller self-check, see our separate article on a technical SEO audit before publishing content. The order matters: first make sure the page is accessible and works, then improve its answer to the query.
4. Checklist: 12 checks for one page
Open your most important service page on a phone and record your answers. Two columns, “in place” and “needs fixing”, will give you a small brief:
- Page purpose: Which specific query or question does it answer? Is it different from nearby pages?
- Accessibility: Does the page open without an error, and is it not accidentally blocked from indexing?
- Canonical address: Is it clear which URL is primary, and is there no duplicate competing with it?
- Title: Does it name this service instead of saying “Home” or using the same template for every URL?
- Meta description: Does it explain the content briefly and accurately, without promising something the page does not offer?
- H1: Can visitors see the name of the service they need as soon as the page opens?
- First screen: Is it clear who the service suits and what the person will get?
- Scope and limits: Does the page say what is included, what is not and what the client needs to provide?
- Price and terms: Is there a price, an honest explanation of how it is calculated and a clear next step?
- Evidence: Are there verified examples, team details or a process, without invented figures or testimonials?
- Links: Do relevant internal links lead to the page, and do links from it work?
- Mobile path: Can someone read the terms and send an enquiry on a phone without obstacles?
This is not a Google scorecard. It is a way to see whether the page has an answer and whether someone can use it. If “scope and limits” and “mobile path” fail out of twelve checks, I would start there rather than changing a word in the title for the third time this month.
5. What to do after the fixes
Once the bookkeeping page is clear, look at the other questions clients ask. Perhaps an FOP separately searches for “what to send an accountant when changing tax systems”. If the answer is extensive and does not fit on the service page, create a separate resource and link back to it. If it is a short answer, an FAQ on the service page is enough. Create pages for distinct tasks, not to meet a quota of “four articles a month”.
Ongoing work can also include reputation and links from other sites, but buying a hundred random links is not the same as earning recommendations where your audience is. Ask the provider which pages they are promoting, what mentions they plan to earn, why those would help people and how they assess risk. For local businesses, some search activity happens in maps and business profiles; we covered that as a separate Google Maps task.
After changes, use Search Console to check which queries and pages are getting impressions and clicks. Do not combine all language versions and branded queries into one chart if you want to understand new visibility specifically. Then check whether the enquiries match the service. Our guide to website content helps you identify which answers buyers still need. If you need a team for an audit, fixes and later cycles, see how we run SEO projects.
The first changes can appear in search at different times. Google says some updates may show within hours while others take months; not every change will make a visible difference. Your agreement should therefore include acceptance of completed work and review points, not a promise of a particular search position by a certain date.
6. What to ask a provider before paying
Ask to see three documents or examples you can review: a prioritised list of URLs and issues, a list of changes with owners, and a method for checking the result in Search Console and actual enquiries. For one-off optimisation, agree on which fields, templates and technical barriers will be fixed and what counts as acceptance evidence. For monthly SEO work, ask which topics come next, why buyers need them and what the team will change if the assumption proves wrong.
If the proposal says “optimise all pages”, ask how many pages that means. If it promises “top rankings in 30 days”, ask how that can be guaranteed when search and competition change. If the report has lots of keywords but no pages, completed work or enquiries, bring the conversation back from the spreadsheet to the business task.