SEO has a reputation problem among indie founders: it sounds slow, technical and vaguely obsolete in the age of social feeds. But search is still where people go when they have a problem and want an answer. The difference is that “search” no longer means only Google.

Here is the baseline that actually moves the needle for a small product.

Start with one page per problem

Most indie sites have five pages: home, pricing, about, blog, contact. None of them answer the specific question a potential user types into a search box.

Instead, write one page per problem:

  • “How to track ad spend without a spreadsheet”
  • “Invoice template for freelance developers”
  • “Why is my changelog not getting readers”

Each page should answer the question completely and link to the product as the next step. This is how you build topical relevance without a content team.

The technical baseline

You do not need a perfect Lighthouse score. You do need the basics:

  1. Unique titles and descriptions on every page. The title should say what the page is, not just the brand.
  2. Canonical URLs so duplicates do not compete with each other.
  3. A sitemap listing every indexable page, submitted to search consoles.
  4. A robots.txt that allows the pages you want indexed and blocks the ones you do not.
  5. Structured data for articles, products and organizations, so search engines understand the page.
  6. Reasonable speed on mobile. Compress images and avoid heavy client-side scripts above the fold.
  7. Metadata for sharing — Open Graph and Twitter cards — because links get shared in places that are not search engines.

If you use a framework like Next.js, most of this is configuration, not work. If you use a page builder, check each item manually.

Write for the question, not the keyword

Keyword stuffing is dead in the same way that spelling mistakes are dead: the people who notice are the ones deciding whether to recommend you.

Write the page you wish existed when you had the problem. Use the words your users use — the ones from support tickets and onboarding calls. Those words are the keywords, and they are more accurate than any tool’s suggestion.

Internal links do two things: they help readers continue, and they tell search engines which pages matter.

  • Link from guides to the product page.
  • Link between related guides.
  • Keep anchor text descriptive (“how to set a test budget”, not “click here”).
  • Make sure no important page is orphaned.

A simple rule: every new post should link to two older pages, and every older page should eventually link back.

The surfaces beyond Google

Search happens in more places than a search engine:

  • Marketplaces — app stores, plugin directories, integration galleries. Each has its own ranking rules, and most are less competitive than Google.
  • YouTube — the second-largest search engine. A five-minute demo can outrank a blog post for a “how to” query.
  • Community search — Reddit, Discord and Slack search. People look for answers inside the tools they already use.
  • AI assistants — more people ask a model for a recommendation. Clear, well-structured pages with specific facts are more likely to be cited.
  • Newsletters — a mention in a niche newsletter is search-like discovery for a curated audience.

For an indie product, these surfaces often produce faster results than ranking for a competitive head term.

A 90-day content plan

Keep it small enough to finish:

  • Weeks 1–2: fix titles, descriptions, canonicals, sitemap and robots.
  • Weeks 3–6: publish three problem-first pages.
  • Weeks 7–10: publish one definitive guide, then link everything together.
  • Weeks 11–12: review search console data and update the pages that get impressions but no clicks.

Then repeat the last two steps monthly. SEO is not a launch activity; it is maintenance with compounding returns.

Measure the right thing

Rankings are a symptom. Watch:

  • Impressions and clicks per page.
  • Which queries bring people who sign up.
  • Time to first signup from search traffic.

A page that ranks third for a buying-intent query beats a page that ranks first for a question nobody acts on.

Search is not a channel you finish. It is a library you keep building. Start with the questions your users already ask, and the technical setup will take care of the rest.

If you want to see how we structure a page like this for a product, look at how campaigns work — or join the waitlist for launch updates.