A Startup Website SEO Checklist: Technical Setup, Keywords, Content and City-Level Search in Pakistan

Search engine optimisation sounds technical, but most of it is common sense backed by a few checks. This guide walks you through six steps based on Google’s own documentation. You will make your site findable and fast, learn your customers’ words, write pages for people, appear in local results and measure what changes. You can do most of it in a weekend.

Step 1: make sure Google can find and read your site

• Check whether you are indexed. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says that if you see results pointing to your site, you are in the index.
• Verify your site in Search Console. It is free. Once verified, check the indexing report for errors, and use URL Inspection to see how Google sees a page and to request a crawl.
• Submit a sitemap. Google says sitemaps are optional, but they can speed up discovery. Most website builders and SEO plugins create one for you.
• Link your pages together. Google mainly finds pages through links from pages it already knows. Every important page should be linked from your menu or from other pages.
• Keep one version of each page. Redirect duplicate versions, such as http to https, to your preferred URL. Where you cannot redirect, use a canonical link.
• Use readable URLs. A path like /services/bookkeeping-karachi tells people and Google more than /page?id=123.
• Check for accidental blocks. After a redesign or move from a staging site, make sure important pages are not blocked by robots.txt, a noindex tag or a login wall.

Step 2: make it fast on a phone

Many of your visitors may arrive on phones using mobile data, so test in those conditions. Google’s Core Web Vitals measure the experience:

Metric	What it measures	Good score
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)	Loading	Within 2.5 seconds
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)	Responsiveness	Under 200 milliseconds
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)	Visual stability	Below 0.1

Google says it highly recommends that site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals, and that they align with what its core ranking systems seek to reward. Check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console. Common fixes include compressing images, removing heavy sliders and unused plugins, and choosing reliable hosting.

Step 3: find the words your customers use

• Start with real questions. Read your WhatsApp chats, emails and call notes. Write down the exact words customers use.
• Use Search Console. The performance report shows the queries that already bring clicks and impressions, by page and by country.
• Use Google Trends. You can compare up to eight groups of terms, set the country to Pakistan and look at interest by subregion to see provincial differences.
• Use Keyword Planner. It sits inside Google Ads and estimates monthly searches. Google’s help page says you need to complete your account setup, including billing information, to use its basic features.

Check English, Urdu and Roman Urdu versions of your terms. People often search in all three, and Trends will show you which wording is more common. Then give each important topic its own page, rather than trying to rank one page for everything.

Step 4: write titles, descriptions and pages for people

Google’s guidance on each element is short and practical:

• Titles: unique to the page, clear and concise, and an accurate description of the content.
• Meta descriptions: short, unique to one page and covering its most relevant points.
• Headings: use them in a logical order so the page is easy to scan.
• Images: add descriptive alt text that explains how the image relates to the content.
• Links: use descriptive anchor text, not “click here”.

Google also lists things not to worry about. It does not use the meta keywords tag. Keyword stuffing breaks its spam policies. Keywords in your domain name have little effect. There is no ideal word count.

For content, Google’s guidance on helpful content asks whether a page offers original information or analysis and whether it is the sort of page someone would bookmark or share. Write from your real experience: your prices, your process, your delivery areas and the questions customers actually ask. Google does not ban AI-assisted writing, but it says using automation mainly to manipulate search rankings breaks its spam policies.

At minimum, a startup site needs a clear home page, one page per product or service, an about page with real people, a contact page with a phone or WhatsApp number, and an FAQ.

Step 5: show up in your city

Google Business Profile

If customers visit you, or you serve a defined area, claim and verify your Business Profile. Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Its advice:

• Complete every field: address if customers visit, hours, category and attributes.
• Add special hours for Eid and other public holidays.
• Add real photos of your premises, team and products.
• Reply to reviews. Google notes that more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking.

Google is clear that “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Be wary of anyone who promises otherwise.

City pages

If you serve several cities, such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, create a page per city only where you have something specific to say. Good examples are local delivery times, a local phone number, the area your team covers or local customer stories. Copying the same page and swapping the city name helps nobody.

Structured data

Add LocalBusiness structured data to your contact or location page. Google requires the business name and address and recommends a phone number with country code (+92), the page URL, map coordinates and opening hours. Test your markup with the Rich Results Test. Organization markup can also tell Google which logo to show.

Keep your business name, address and phone number the same on your website, your Business Profile, your social accounts and directory listings such as Startup Network.

Step 6: measure monthly

Google says you do not need to check Search Console daily, because it emails you about new issues. Review it once a month and after big changes. Its SEO guide notes that some changes show up within hours and others take months, so wait a few weeks before judging whether something worked.

Your SEO checklist

• Verify your site in Search Console and check indexing.
• Fix duplicate URLs, broken links and accidental noindex tags.
• Test Core Web Vitals on a phone and fix the slowest pages.
• Build a keyword list from customer chats, Search Console, Trends and Keyword Planner.
• Write a unique title and meta description for every page.
• Claim and complete your Google Business Profile, including holiday hours.
• Create city pages only where you have real local details.
• Add LocalBusiness and Organization structured data and test it.
• Review Search Console every month.

Sources and further reading

• SEO Starter Guide (Google Search Central)
• Get started with Search Console (Google Search Central)
• Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results (Google Search Central)
• Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (Google Search Central)
• How to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help)
• Local business structured data (Google Search Central)
• Establish your business details with Google (Google Search Central)
• Use Keyword Planner (Google Ads Help)
• Compare Trends search terms (Google Trends Help)