Before Building Backlinks, Fix These 7 SEO Fundamentals First

When a website struggles to rank on Google, one of the first recommendations people usually make is to build more backlinks.

Some suggest publishing more blog posts. Others recommend targeting new keywords, improving domain authority, or investing in link-building campaigns.

But there is something I believe deserves attention before any of that.

Is your website technically ready to rank in the first place?

I've seen how easily website owners and even marketers can get caught up in advanced SEO strategies while overlooking basic issues that affect how search engines discover, crawl, understand, and index their pages.

Think about it.

You could spend weeks creating high-quality content, invest money in backlinks, and target hundreds of relevant keywords. But if Google cannot properly access or understand your important pages, those efforts may not produce the results you expect.

That's why I prefer starting every SEO project with the fundamentals.

Here are seven things I would check before investing heavily in link building or other SEO activities.

1. Check Whether Your Important Pages Are Indexable

Before expecting a page to rank, make sure search engines can actually index it.

Indexability is one of the most basic parts of SEO, yet it is surprisingly easy to overlook.

A page might be published, accessible to visitors, and linked from your website, but still not appear in Google's index.

This can happen because of:

• An accidental noindex meta tag.
• An X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header.
• A robots.txt rule blocking important resources or URLs.
• Incorrect canonical configuration.
• Duplicate or low-value pages.
• Server errors or other technical problems.

How to check it:

Start with Google Search Console.

Go to:

Indexing → Pages

Review the indexed and non-indexed URLs. Pay attention to categories such as:

• Excluded by 'noindex' tag.
• Blocked by robots.txt.
• Crawled – currently not indexed.
• Discovered – currently not indexed.
• Duplicate without user-selected canonical.

You can also use the URL Inspection tool to investigate individual pages.

One important distinction: a page being indexed does not automatically mean it will rank. But if an important page cannot be indexed, ranking it organically becomes a different challenge altogether.

2. Review Your Canonical Tags

Duplicate URLs are more common than many website owners realise.

For example, the same page might be accessible through:

• https://example.com/services
• https://www.example.com/services
• https://example.com/services/
• https://example.com/services?ref=campaign

Depending on the website configuration, search engines may discover multiple URL versions containing similar or identical content.

This is where canonical tags become important.

A canonical tag helps communicate which URL should be treated as the preferred version of a page.

Example:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/services/" />

What should you check?

• Does every important page have an appropriate canonical URL?
• Are canonical tags pointing to the correct URLs?
• Are important pages accidentally canonicalised to another page?
• Are canonical URLs using the preferred HTTPS and domain version?
• Are sitemap URLs consistent with canonical URLs?

A common mistake is copying a canonical tag across multiple pages without changing the destination URL.

This can create serious indexing confusion.

Remember that canonical tags are signals, not absolute instructions. Google can select a different canonical URL if its other signals suggest that another version is more appropriate.

3. Optimise Meta Descriptions for Real Users

Meta descriptions are not a direct Google ranking factor, but that doesn't make them unimportant.

They help communicate what a page offers and can influence whether someone clicks your result.

Imagine someone searching for:

"Custom software development services"

Two websites appear in the search results.

The first description is generic:

"We provide the best software development services for businesses."

The second is more specific:

"Explore custom software development services designed to help businesses build scalable applications, automate operations, and improve efficiency."

Which one gives the searcher a clearer reason to click?

The second one.

What makes a useful meta description?

• Clearly explain what the page is about.
• Include the primary topic naturally.
• Highlight the actual value offered.
• Match the search intent.
• Avoid unnecessary keyword repetition.
• Write a unique description for important pages.

You don't need to force keywords into every sentence.

Focus on making the description relevant and useful.

Also, Google may generate a different search snippet depending on the user's query, so your meta description is not guaranteed to appear exactly as written.

4. Don't Ignore Image Alt Text

Images are an important part of the website experience, but their SEO value is often overlooked.

Alt text provides a textual description of an image. It helps screen readers communicate image content to visually impaired users and can help search engines understand meaningful images.

For example:

Bad alt text:

image123.jpg

Generic alt text:

software development

Descriptive alt text:

Developer reviewing a custom software application dashboard on a laptop

The goal isn't to insert as many keywords as possible.

The goal is to describe the image accurately.

A few practical guidelines:

• Write descriptive alt text for meaningful images.
• Keep descriptions natural and relevant.
• Avoid keyword stuffing.
• Use empty alt attributes (alt="") for purely decorative images.
• Don't repeat the same alt text across unrelated images.

One thing worth remembering: alt text should improve accessibility first. SEO benefits should follow naturally from accurate descriptions.

5. Implement Schema Markup Where It Makes Sense

Search engines need to understand more than just the words on a page.

Structured data helps provide additional context about the information published on your website.

This is where schema markup becomes useful.

Depending on the website and its content, relevant schema types may include:

• Organization
• LocalBusiness
• Article
• Product
• BreadcrumbList
• SoftwareApplication
• Person

For example, an organisation can use Organization structured data to communicate information about its name, website, logo, and other relevant details.

An e-commerce website might use Product structured data to provide information about products, including price and availability where applicable.

How to validate schema markup:

You can use:

1. Google Rich Results Test.
2. Schema.org Validator.
3. Google Search Console enhancements reports, where applicable.

However, adding schema to every page just for the sake of SEO is not a good strategy.

Use structured data that accurately represents the visible content on the page and follows Google's guidelines.

Also, remember that valid schema does not guarantee rich results or higher rankings.

6. Check Robots.txt and Your XML Sitemap

These two files play different but complementary roles in technical SEO.

Your robots.txt file provides crawling instructions to search engine crawlers.

Your XML sitemap helps search engines discover important URLs on your website.

Both deserve attention during an SEO audit.

Robots.txt example:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /admin/

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

This is only an illustrative example. Actual robots.txt rules should reflect the website's requirements.

Things to check:

• Is the robots.txt file accessible?
• Are important sections accidentally blocked?
• Is the XML sitemap accessible?
• Does the sitemap contain canonical, indexable URLs?
• Are redirected, broken, or noindex URLs excluded?
• Is the sitemap submitted in Google Search Console?

A particularly common mistake is assuming that adding a URL to an XML sitemap guarantees indexing.

It doesn't.

A sitemap helps Google discover URLs, but Google decides which pages to crawl and index.

7. Make Google Search Console Part of Your Regular SEO Routine

If I had to choose one tool that every website owner should become comfortable using, Google Search Console would be high on my list.

It provides valuable information about how Google interacts with your website in organic search.

Instead of making assumptions about website performance, you can investigate actual search data.

Here are some areas I regularly recommend reviewing:

Performance Report

Check:

• Total clicks.
• Total impressions.
• Average CTR.
• Average position.
• Queries bringing visitors to your website.
• Pages receiving organic search visibility.

Indexing Report

Understand which URLs are indexed and which are excluded.

Core Web Vitals

Review available data about real-world loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.

Sitemaps

Check whether Google has successfully processed your submitted sitemap.

URL Inspection

Investigate individual URLs when you notice unexpected indexing or crawling issues.

One useful habit is comparing performance over different periods.

For example, if impressions have increased but clicks haven't, investigate whether your pages are receiving visibility for relevant queries and whether your search snippets need improvement.

Don't immediately assume that every drop in clicks is a technical SEO problem. Search demand, seasonality, competition, and SERP changes can also affect performance.

A Practical SEO Audit Workflow Before Building Backlinks

Knowing these seven fundamentals is useful, but knowing how to check them in the right order is even more important.

If I were auditing a new website today, this would be my starting workflow:

You don't need expensive enterprise SEO software to start identifying these issues.

A combination of Google Search Console, browser inspection, and a website crawler such as Screaming Frog can help you uncover many common problems.

The important part is not just collecting errors.

It's understanding which issues actually affect important pages, prioritising them, and verifying the fixes.

What Should You Fix First?

Not every SEO issue deserves the same priority.

For example, an important service page accidentally blocked by a noindex tag deserves immediate attention.

A missing alt attribute on a decorative image is a much lower priority.

I prefer categorising findings into three levels:

High Priority

• Important pages blocked from crawling or indexing.
• Incorrect canonical tags.
• Server errors affecting important URLs.
• Critical internal linking or rendering problems.

Medium Priority

• Missing or duplicate meta descriptions.
• Missing relevant structured data.
• Important pages missing from the XML sitemap.
• Meaningful images without descriptive alt text.

Ongoing Improvements

• Better internal linking.
• Content optimisation.
• Improving search snippets.
• Core Web Vitals improvements.
• Content expansion based on search intent.

This makes SEO work more organised and helps avoid spending time on minor issues while more important problems remain unresolved.

Final Thoughts: Fix the Foundation Before Building Authority

SEO is not simply about getting backlinks, publishing more content, or increasing domain authority.

It's about making sure your website is accessible, understandable, technically sound, and genuinely useful to the people searching for what you offer.

You can build 100 backlinks and publish 50 articles, but those activities alone won't solve fundamental technical problems.

That doesn't mean backlinks or content are unnecessary. Both can play an important role in organic growth.

It simply means that the order of execution matters.

My approach is straightforward:

Fix the technical foundation first.

Make important pages discoverable and indexable.

Improve content and search relevance.

Build internal links and topical authority.

Then invest in earning relevant, high-quality backlinks.

Because sustainable SEO growth doesn't come from doing everything at once.

It comes from identifying the right problems and solving them in the right order.

I'd love to know your approach: When you audit a new website, what's the very first thing you check?