Log #001: The Start of a Journey – Laying the Foundations

Martijn
24 november 2023

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my first log at Golden SEO Protocol. This week marked the launch of Golden SEO Protocol. The website is now live, and in a way that's pretty standard post-delivery - not at all optimized for SEO.

I've been in the game for nearly a decade, optimizing many websites, and Golden SEO Protocol aligns well with the typical sites I work on. Is that bad? Well, Golden SEO Protocol is solely for research purposes. I'm taking you along on my journey to optimization. 

Registration with Google Search Console 

Domain or URL property? 

Yes, I deliberately haven't done this step yet 'uhum!' Anyway, I first checked the HTTP status of my website (are all domain versions correctly redirected):


When I start optimizing websites technically, this is almost always the first step, a simple check to quickly identify fundamental problems. If this isn't right, all the alarm bells should be ringing. 

Then, when I go to Google Search Console, you have the option to add a website at the domain level or URL level. A website with the aforementioned problems should be added at the URL level to more easily map out problems per domain version.


 In my case, all domain versions redirect correctly, so I'm confident to choose at the domain level. Verify via DNS, by the way! Next step, adding a sitemap and... just... wait...


What... I've... dooooone... 

What I've done since launch:

  • Tag Manager Installation
  • The most basic Analytics setup ever!
  • Structured Data FAQ Script page equipped with an introduction video.
  • Google Ads campaign for Structured Data FAQ Script

Short term to-dos

  • Add meta tags to pages;
  • Adding more Archive articles;
  • Advanced Analytics setup.

For now, I'll leave it at that. This is going to be a lifelong project, and I want to monitor the optimizations and growth at all times, implementing them step by step. I plan to log this. Whether these logs become shorter or longer, detailed or not, I'll see. 

This was fun to do. Oh, and check out the script I wrote for Structured Data FAQ. For the SEO enthusiast, it's a nifty solution for a ton of work... 

Happy SEOing!