How to get your website onto the first page of Google and Yandex: SEO basics

“We have a website, but it doesn’t show up on Google” — this is the complaint we hear most. Building a site isn’t enough: a search engine has to find it, understand it, and decide it is more useful than the others. All of that work is called SEO.

What does a search engine look at?

Google and Yandex weigh hundreds of factors, but they boil down to three questions:

1. Is the site technically healthy? Does it load fast, work well on phones, and get indexed correctly?
2. Does the page answer the person’s question? Is the text about exactly what they searched for, and is it complete?
3. Can the site be trusted? Do other sites link to it? Is there company information, an address, contacts?

1. The technical foundation

This is the base of SEO. With technical errors, even the best copy won’t rank.

• the site must load fast on phones — heavy images and unnecessary scripts slow it down;
• every page needs its own title and short description;
• you need a sitemap.xml submitted to Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster;
• the site should run on https, with no broken links or duplicate pages.

2. A separate page for every service

If all your services are listed on one page, Google won’t rank you for any of them. Someone searches “furniture making in Tashkent” — they need a page about furniture specifically.

Create a separate page for each main service: what you do, how, what it costs, examples of your work, and common questions.

3. Write in the words people search with

Customers search for your service in their own words. You write “corporate web resource development”; they search “how much does a website cost”. Use your customers’ language.

In Uzbekistan people search in Uzbek and Russian, in both Latin and Cyrillic script. That is why a multilingual site reaches far more people in search.

4. A blog — a source of free traffic

Useful articles answer the questions customers ask: “how much does a website cost”, “which is better”, “how to choose”. Every good article brings new visitors from search month after month, and some of them become customers.

5. Maps and links from other sites

• add your company to Google Maps and Yandex Maps with the correct address and opening hours;
• ask customers to leave reviews on the maps;
• aim for links from partner sites, directories and the media.

What to avoid

• stuffing text with keywords — Google recognises it and penalises it;
• copying text from other sites;
• believing promises like “#1 in a week”.

When to expect results

SEO isn’t advertising: if you stop, visitors don’t vanish overnight — but results don’t arrive overnight either. The first noticeable changes usually appear after a few months. The stronger the competition, the longer it takes.

Want to know why your site isn’t showing up in search? See our SEO service or message us on Telegram — we’ll look at your site and point out the main problems.

Gulmurod TolipovFounder, Tolipov studio

Building websites and apps for 5 years. 75+ projects, 40+ clients.