How to Do SEO: Real Steps and Myths to Drop

How to do SEO: the real steps in order

SEO follows a logical order: Google must first be able to see the site, then understand each page, and only then judge it useful for a specific search. Skipping the order is a frequent cause of wasted work. According to Aarón Gómez in his interview with Radar, his first check is always the same: “If there is no indexing, nothing else matters.”

The sequence that keeps showing up in the cases Aarón Gómez reviews, and that matches Google’s SEO Starter Guide, has seven steps:

• Indexing. Google’s guide says that if a search for the domain with the site: operator returns results from the site, it is in the index. Search Console, through its URL inspection tool, shows how Google sees each page.
• One page per service or topic. A single page promising “integrated solutions” answers no specific search. Aarón Gómez names it a very repeated mistake on Panamanian company websites.
• Clear titles and headings. Google explains that a good title is unique to the page, clear, concise and accurately describes its content.
• Useful content. It answers the question that brought the reader, with the answer in the first lines and facts that can be checked.
• Speed and mobile. Google says in its page experience documentation that its ranking systems look to reward content with a good page experience, although there is no single signal, and that good scores do not guarantee the top spot.
• Business profile and reviews, when the business serves customers in a particular area.
• Measuring in Search Console, to see which searches produce impressions and clicks.

Local SEO shifts the priorities a little. Google’s Business Profile help explains that local ranking depends on relevance, distance and prominence, and that positive reviews and helpful replies can help a business stand out. Google also states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Aarón Gómez orders the priorities for a small business like this: a Google profile completed at 100 percent, one page per service with contact details in text, and a check that the site is indexed. The step-by-step for the map is in How to show up on Google Maps with a business in Panama.

On WordPress the process is the same, because SEO depends on what the site contains and how it is presented, not on the platform. The steps above can be done without paying for tools: WordPress allows editing the title of every post and page and creating pages per service, and Search Console is free. An SEO plugin can make titles and sitemaps easier to manage, but it does not replace content or rank a site by itself.

The search “how to do SEO in ChatGPT” leads to the same principle. Google’s documentation on its AI features says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in them and that standard SEO best practices remain relevant. The difference between SEO, GEO and AEO is explained in SEO, GEO and AEO: what each one is and where to start.

Myth: meta keywords make a page rank

Myth: old tutorials and improvised courses circulate the idea that filling in a page’s keywords tag (meta keywords) helps it show up on Google, and some people still charge to have it “configured”.

Reality: Google debunked this years ago. In a blog post dated September 21, 2009, Matt Cutts of the search quality team wrote that Google does not use the meta keywords tag in its web search ranking (Google Search Central, Google does not use the keywords meta tag). The current SEO Starter Guide repeats it in other words: Google Search does not use that tag, and it lists keyword stuffing as a violation of its spam policies. What does count is that the word appears naturally in the title, the headings and the visible text.

Myth: there is an ideal word count and more pages means more SEO

Myth: “2,000 word articles rank better” and “the more pages a site has, the better it ranks”. Both sentences are repeated with a confidence the documentation does not support.

Reality about words: on its page about creating helpful content, Google lists as a warning sign writing to a particular word count because of a belief that Google has a preferred count, and it answers that it does not. Aarón Gómez agrees in his interview on direct answers: there is no magic length, what matters is that the answer is easy to extract and to verify. A text should be as long as it needs to be to answer well. The same goes for headings: according to the starter guide, there is no ideal number per page.

Reality about the number of pages: publishing many pages without value can be costly. Google’s spam policies define scaled content abuse as generating many pages for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings, and give as an example using generative AI tools to produce many pages without adding value for users. One page per service makes sense; a hundred nearly identical pages that only swap the name of a city do not. Radar consulted this source on November 6.

Myth: Google penalizes AI-made content

Myth: “if an AI wrote the text, Google detects it and sinks the site”. The fear leads some to drop the tool altogether and others to hide that they use it.

Reality: Google said on its blog on February 8, 2023 that it focuses on the quality of content, not on how it is produced, and that using AI with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking violates its spam policies (Google Search and AI-generated content). Its guide on using generative AI content confirms it: accuracy, quality and relevance matter, with manual review of what the tool produces, and publishing many pages without value can violate the scaled content abuse policy. The helpful content page adds that the central question is why the content was created: to help people or to attract visits.

The practical takeaway: AI works as a first draft, not as an author. Aarón Gómez sums it up in his interview on applied AI: the AI produces the first draft and a person with judgment checks it and signs it. A text with nothing only the business could know is hardly worth publishing.

Myth: buying links helps

Myth: “bought links make a site climb fast”. Link package offers land in business owners’ inboxes every day.

Reality: Google’s spam policies list, under “Link spam”, buying and selling links for ranking purposes as a spam practice. One exception clarifies the meaning: paid links are acceptable if they carry the rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” attribute, that is, if they are declared as paid. Buying them to rank is exactly what the policy describes as a violation. Radar consulted this source on November 6. Aarón Gómez adds that in local searches the business profile and reviews weigh more than links.

Myth: SEO delivers results in days

Myth: “first page in 30 days”. It is a frequent promise and often gives away someone selling smoke.

Reality: Google’s starter guide says some changes can take effect in a few hours and others several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging their effect. Google offers no guaranteed timeline. A study by Ahrefs on how long it takes a page to rank, covering one million URLs with data from 2023, found that only 1.74 percent of new pages reached the top 10 within a year and that the first result is on average five years old. It describes new pages in general, not local small businesses, and reflects a correlation.

Aarón Gómez gives an honest range for Panama. According to his interview, first signals appear between 2 and 4 months and consolidated results between 6 and 12. A local business with little competition can see movement on the map in 8 to 12 weeks, and a saturated sector in Panama City can take 12 months or more. That is his professional experience, not a Google figure. His warning is direct: “Be wary of anyone who promises the first page in 30 days.”

Practical steps to start this week

Anyone who wants to do SEO on their own can begin with free tools. For a small business with a month of room, Aarón Gómez proposes three priorities in this order: Google profile, page per service and indexing. The detail of how that start is approached is in Aarón Gómez answers: why your website brings no clients and what to do first. A simple sequence:

Related articles

• Web ranking, AI and digital marketing in Panama: the complete guide
• SEO, GEO and AEO: what each one is and where to start
• How to show up on Google Maps with a business in Panama
• SEO agency in Panama: how to choose one and which promises to ignore
• Websites in Panama: what they include and what drives the cost

Sources

Google sources were checked on November 6. Google pages can be updated without notice.

• Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide: indexing, titles, meta keywords, Search Console and timelines.
• Google Search Central, creating helpful content: warning about writing to a word count and the who, how and why questions.
• Google Search Central, spam policies: link spam and scaled content abuse.
• Google Search Central Blog, Google does not use the keywords meta tag, September 21, 2009.
• Google Search Central Blog, Google Search and AI-generated content, February 8, 2023.
• Google Search Central, using generative AI content.
• Google Search Central, page experience.
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website.
• Google Business Profile Help, how to improve your local ranking.
• Ahrefs, how long it takes to rank: study of one million URLs, May 2025.