F13. SEO Basics for New Founders: How Search Engines Find Your Site
After this lesson you can
- Explain how search engines discover, index and rank pages
- Write accurate titles, meta descriptions, headings, link text and alt text
- Separate documented guidance from myths such as the keywords meta tag
- Recognize spam policies and warning signs in an SEO sales pitch
- Plan a search channel test measured by inquiries against a pre-set threshold
Video coming soon
Videos are planned to publish from December 2026.
An introduction to how search engines discover, crawl, index and rank pages, grounded in the search engines' own documentation as checked in September 2026. It separates supported basics from common myths, explains spam policies including scaled and AI-generated content, and frames search as a slow channel test.
Questions and answers
Questions a learner would ask about this lesson. Think through your own answer before you open each one.
- How do search engines find and rank pages?
Show answer
The lesson describes four steps from Google's SEO Starter Guide: discover (mostly through links from pages already crawled), crawl (software visits the page), index (the page is stored and understood) and rank (pages are ordered for each search). A sitemap lists the pages you want found, but Google says it isn't required, and some changes can take several months to show.
- Can anyone guarantee my site will reach page one?
Show answer
No. As of the lesson's September 2026 check, Google says there are no secrets that will automatically rank a site first, and Bing says SEO does not guarantee rankings or traffic. The lesson treats any promise of page one as a warning sign.
- What basics does the documentation support?
Show answer
Useful content comes first. Beyond that: page titles that are unique, clear and accurate; short meta descriptions unique to each page; headings that say what each section covers, with one clear topic per page; descriptive link text instead of "click here"; and real alt text on images. Using customers' own words from interviews helps match what they search for.
- Is using AI to write web pages against the rules?
Show answer
Not by itself. Google's guidance says appropriate use of AI or automation is not against its guidelines. What violates its spam policies is scaled content abuse: generating many pages mainly to manipulate rankings rather than help users, no matter how they are created.
- How should a founder measure whether search is working?
Show answer
Treat it as a channel test with a hypothesis, a threshold set before the test, and a fixed end date. Decide on inquiries, not page views alone. In the worked example, Founder B ran a three-month test with a threshold of at least three package inquiries from search, knowing that numbers this small give a rough signal, not proof.
Practice quiz
- Question 1According to Google's SEO Starter Guide, as cited in the lesson, what is true of the keywords meta tag?
- Question 2Founder B uses an AI tool to help draft one careful service page, then checks every claim. Under Google's guidance, this is what?
- Question 3Founder B offers services entirely online and never meets clients in person. What is true for a Google Business Profile listing?
- Question 4Which page title best follows the lesson's guidance?
- Question 5Which is listed in the lesson as a technique covered by spam policies?
- Question 6An SEO agency emails Founder B promising "page one of Google in 30 days" for a monthly fee. How does the lesson treat this?
- Question 7What does Google's documentation, as quoted in the lesson, say about word count?
- Question 8Which link text is stronger?
- Question 9What does structured data markup guarantee, according to the lesson?
- Question 10In Founder B's search channel test, what did they decide to measure?
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