More findable, layer by layer.
How do you make your website more findable? By tackling five layers in the right order: first the technical foundation, then the on-page basics, then content that answers a real question, then internal links that connect everything, and only after that authority. This beginner's guide walks you through the whole structure, with copyable examples, a checklist and a twelve-week work rhythm.
- Unzip it into
~/.claude/skills/or into.claude/skills/inside your project. - Claude then recognises the skill automatically as soon as you ask for a visibility check.
- You can also invoke it directly with
/vindbaarheids-audit.
- Go to Customize and then Skills.
- Upload the zip there as a skill.
- Or paste the contents of SKILL.md into the project instructions of a Project.
- Paste the contents of SKILL.md into your
AGENTS.md. - Or place SKILL.md as a separate file in your repo and refer to it from
AGENTS.md. - Codex reads that along at every session.
Five layers, one order
reg. V.001Visibility is not a trick but a structure, and a structure has an order. Anyone who starts with backlinks while their site loads slowly and their text does not answer a question is building a roof without walls. The order below is the same one we use at Improve your SEO for every project: first the technical foundation, then the rest. Not because technique is the most important part, but because every layer rests on the one before it.
Technical: first readable, then fast
reg. V.002Search engines need to be able to find your pages, be allowed to read them, and show them quickly. That sounds obvious, but a stray noindex, a robots file that blocks too much, or a sitemap that is half empty happens more often than you would think. So check the points below first, in this order: first whether you are allowed to be read, only then how fast that happens.
On-page: your shop window in the search results
reg. V.003The title and description of your page are a searcher's first impression of you. They decide not just whether you are shown, but above all whether someone clicks. Google states no character limit and truncates by width, so keep the title short enough not to be cut off, with the topic at the front. As a rule of thumb, we use around 60 characters for the title and around 155 for the description; those are the same limits our own scan applies.
yoursite.co.uk › office-chairs › advice
Choosing an office chair for long working days: here's how
What should you look for in an office chair if you sit for eight hours a day? The five adjustment points that really matter, with advice for every budget and sitting posture.
Content: write what someone actually needs
This is where visibility is earned or lost. Every page that wants to be found answers a real question or solves a real problem, and does so better than the pages currently at the top. Better does not mean longer: it means more complete where the competition leaves gaps, shorter where the competition talks around the point, and more concrete where the competition stays vague. Start every page with the short answer at the top. Explanation, examples and evidence follow, and you close with a logical next step. Anyone who reads only the first paragraph should already have the core question answered; anyone who reads on gets the depth.
To do that, recognise the intent behind the keyword
Someone who searches for 'dormer window cost' wants a price with an explanation, not a company history. Someone who searches for 'dormer window installer Leeds' wants a local tradesperson, not a knowledge article. One page per intent works better than one page trying to cover everything at once, because Google picks the page that best matches the query for each search. A useful structure for an article: a three-sentence summary, why the topic matters, the steps or reasons in logical order, an example or mini case study, a checklist, and a next step.
Also build topic clusters instead of standalone articles
For each theme, choose one hub page that carries the overview, surrounded by supporting articles that each answer one sub-question. Every article links back to the hub page and to at least two sibling articles. That way a visitor can go deeper without searching, and a search engine sees that you cover the theme instead of writing about it once and moving on. How you then move from being found to ranking at the top is covered in getting your website to the top of Google. And if you write with the help of AI: that is fine, as long as you check the facts and add something of your own. Why that matters is covered in Google knows your article was written with AI.
Do not have a website yet, or unsure whether your current site is worth building on
Then start with making your own website: the choices you make there decide how much weight the layers above can carry later.
Internal links: the quickest win that nobody takes
reg. V.004Internal links are the layer that gets skipped most often, even though it is the only layer you can fix completely this afternoon. They do two things at once: they lead visitors to their next step, and they tell search engines which pages belong together and which ones matter most. A page that no internal link points to barely exists for Google.
Authority: trust you earn, not buy
The top layer of the structure is authority: other sites linking to you, and signals that there is a real business with real knowledge behind your pages. This is the slowest layer and the only one you do not fully control yourself, and that is exactly why it comes last. External links come from relationships, not from tricks. Three sources that work for almost any business: partners and customers who are allowed to mention your work, trustworthy industry and local directories that add a proper business listing, and work of your own that deserves to be mentioned: a guide that explains something nowhere else explains quite the same way, a free tool, real data.
What you are better off avoiding: bought link packages and lists of empty landing pages
Google treats paid links that influence ranking as link spam, and the damage from a penalty is bigger than the gain from the links ever was. What link building can properly deliver and how to recognise a good link is covered in what is link building NL and in more depth in getting more backlinks NL. If you would rather tackle it structurally or outsource it, take a look at the link building specialist.
Authority also lives on the page itself
Put a real author on your articles, with a face and a reason why that person is qualified to say this. Back up claims or leave them out: a made-up percentage convinces for a moment and damages trust for a long time after. And dare to say what you do not know or do not promise. That does not just read as more honest, it is also exactly the kind of signal search engines and AI systems try to recognise under the heading of experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
Schema, AI answers and llms.txt
With structured data, usually called schema for short, you give your page meaning in a form machines can read directly. Use it where it genuinely fits and leave out what is not relevant. For most sites, three types are enough: organisation with your business name, address details and logo, article with heading, author and date, and frequently asked questions with the matching answer for each question. If you sell products, add product schema with price and availability. Most important rule: the schema must match word for word what is visibly on the page.
That same clarity pays off in AI search experiences
AI Overviews in Google and answer engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity draw their context from clear headings, short answers at the top, lists and frequently asked questions. Whoever writes for people with a clear structure is automatically also writing for AI. How to steer deliberately towards that is covered in getting found in AI Overviews and ChatGPT NL.
You can also add an llms.txt file: a text file in the root directory with a curated table of contents for your site, meant for agents that are pointed towards it themselves. It does not grant access or block anything, that is what robots.txt does, and no major provider has committed to reading it from external sites. It is a young and voluntary little standard, so treat it as tidy signposting rather than a lock on the door. What it actually is and whether it is worth it for you is covered in llms.txt explained; you can put one together yourself with the llms.txt generator.
Getting found locally in your area
If you serve customers in a region, a good part of your visibility happens outside your website: through your Google Business Profile on Maps and the local block above the regular search results. Google documents three factors for those local results: relevance, distance and prominence. You can feed two of those. Relevance with a complete profile: the right category, your services, opening hours, photos of your actual work and answers to questions. Prominence with reviews, mentions and a site that is in good shape.
Also make sure your name, address and phone number are written exactly the same way on your site as in your profile, and reply to reviews: that is visible to every visitor who comes after. The complete work list is in the local SEO checklist, and you can measure how your profile currently stands in a few minutes with our local visibility checker NL. If you then want to tackle your whole profile, from categories to photo policy, read optimising your Google Business Profile.
Measuring and a twelve-week rhythm
You do not need to measure everything. Three numbers are enough to know whether you are heading in the right direction: visitors from search, contact moments such as forms and phone calls, and what you publish yourself each month. Search Console is your most important free tool for this: it shows which search queries you are shown for, where you get clicks and where you stay stuck on page two. Note down briefly each month what you did and what changed, so that after a quarter you can actually draw conclusions instead of guessing.
More important than measuring is rhythm
Visibility does not grow from one big clean-up but from small steps you keep up. Twelve weeks of direction, each week small enough to fit alongside your normal work:
- Week 1: bring the titles and descriptions of your three most important pages within the norms
- Week 2: shrink large images and measure your speed
- Week 3: the hub page of your first topic cluster
- Week 4: an article that fully answers one real customer question
- Week 5: an article with frequently asked questions from your inbox
- Week 6: align your local page and your Google Business Profile
- Week 7: a proof page: case studies, examples or a portfolio
- Week 8: add internal links between everything you have built so far
- Week 9: add schema to your most important pages
- Week 10: ask three partners or directories for a proper listing
- Week 11: publish a guide or resource list that deserves to be shared
- Week 12: go through Search Console, note your conclusions and plan the new quarter
If you would rather not work through all the layers yourself, this is also exactly the work we do: ongoing SEO costs €250 a month and every rate is out in the open on the pricing page NL. But this guide exists precisely so you can do it yourself.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly will my website become more findable?
We do not give a timeframe for that, because it differs per site and per market. Technical improvements are usually the first thing you see reflected in your own data, for example in Search Console. Positions for busy keywords move more slowly, because there you are competing with sites that have been building for years. Google itself says that changes need time to show up in the search results, and deliberately does not name a fixed period.
Do I need to use lots of tools to become findable?
No. Two free tools get you a long way: Search Console to see what you are shown for and clicked on, and a speed test such as PageSpeed Insights for your Core Web Vitals. Our free SEO scan checks 24 basic points in one go. Spend the time you have left on your content, because that is where the real difference is made.
Do I need a blog to be findable?
Not necessarily, but a knowledge base does help. Every real question from customers that you answer with your own page is an extra chance to be found and extra proof that you know your trade. Choose topics that keep coming up in conversations with customers, keep it concrete and link through to the matching service.
What do I do with old pages that no longer do anything?
Merge overlapping pieces into one strong page and redirect the old addresses with a 301. Remove pages nobody visits and that do not answer a question, or redirect them to the best replacement. That way you avoid your own pages competing with each other for the same keyword.
How many words should a page have?
There is no magic number, and Google does not name one either. Write as much as is needed to answer the question fully: the short answer at the top, explanation and examples underneath. A four-hundred-word page that solves the question beats a two-thousand-word page that talks around it.
What if my competitor is much bigger?
Then pick a narrower topic where you can become the best source, and grow from there into neighbouring topics. A large competitor is rarely the best on every sub-topic. Locally, it works the same way: for a place plus a service, a complete profile and a good page regularly beat a large national site.
Start at the bottom, and start small
Making your website more findable is not a one-weekend project, and it is not a mystery either. It is five layers of work in a fixed order: technical, on-page, content, internal links and authority. Start at the bottom, tackle one point each week, and use the skill at the top of this page to have your own pages honestly assessed before you start building. Want to know where you stand first? Let the free scan check the 24 basic points, or let us look at five pages by hand for free. You can always learn more in the knowledge base, and you will find more tools in our free skills NL. Would you rather have someone alongside you? Then we do that in a call, or you can reach us through the contact page.