Learning The Fundamentals Of SEO
14 March 2025 - Wayne Swart
One of my mantras in life comes from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who famously said: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." When I recently decided to take the plunge and learn more about SEO, this quote definitely came to mind again.
So, what do I want to achieve during my journey, you might ask? Two things:
- Learn as much about SEO as I possibly can, while journaling all my learnings.
- See if I can actually land a side-hustle project I can focus on in my spare time.
I have been wanting to build a side-hustle SaaS for as long as I can remember, but never really had a solid idea on what to build. So, instead of waiting for that eureka moment in the middle of the night, I decided to rather focus on trying to sell my development skills to anyone out there in the void who might magically stumble across my services instead.
Using AI To Guide The Process
I realise the AI train might be a bit over hyped at this stage, but AI definitely has some massive advantages, one of which is using it as a tutor to learn a new skill.
Knowing how effective it was to help me make the transition from SSR (server-side rendering) to a more modern frontend framework through Vue.js, using ChatGPT to teach me the basics was an absolute no-brainer.
What I love about learning with AI is the fact that I can set the tempo and ask as many questions as I need to feel comfortable on any topic, before moving on to the next. I also enjoy ChatGP's memory feature that enables it to remember details about our previous conversations, ongoing projects, preferences, and context so it can provide more relevant and personalized responses.
Building A Basic Landing Page
One of the first things I decided to tackle was to get a basic landing page up and running with relevant content on the keywords I wanted to rank for, like Custom Web Application Developement, and Affordable Web Application Development in South Africa. Since I am no designer by any means, I had to settle for a simple template and work from there.
Considering Google's strong emphasis on UX (user experience), it was crucial to ensure that my landing page load times were kept to a minimum and features a responsive design.
Another fundamental yet essential task was to ensure that my robots.txt file was configured correctly to allow web crawlers to access and index the site effectively.
I quickly realized that having a robots.txt file without a proper sitemap is like having a car without an engine—essentially useless. A sitemap is a file that provides information about the pages and content of the site, and it is a crucial component of effective SEO.
There are a vast number of useful and popular tools available to help anyone navigate the complexities of quality SEO, such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Pro. As a starting point, I decided to connect my brand new landing page to Google Search Console and Google Analytics to get me going, and to help keep track of progress.
Is Blogging Still A Relevant SEO Strategy?
In the era of SGE (search generative experience), the SEO landscape is evolving so rapidly that even the most knowledgeable experts may find it challenging to stay updated with the latest trends, let alone a beginner like myself.
Since I knew that high-quality content has always been a major factor in SEO success, I naturally asked a few experts in my direct circles whether blogging is still relevant for SEO, and the short answer is "Yes, definitely!"
Even in 2025 blogging remains one of the most powerful SEO strategies because it helps websites rank for a variety of keywords, attract organic traffic, and establish authority in their niche. Regular blog posts signal that a website is active and continuously providing value, which is something search engines embrace.
Since I'm not really a fan of bloated CMSs, such as WordPress, I decided to choose something I can better relate to for blogging and eventually settled on VuePress. VuePress is a powerful Vue.js powered static site generator, that can be used to create static pages. It comes with a large library of useful plugins and other powerful features.
The Journey Continues
This is just the beginning of my SEO journey, and there’s still a lot to learn. As I experiment with different strategies and tools, I’ll continue sharing my experiences, insights, and challenges along the way. Blogging not only helps with SEO but also serves as a great way to document my progress and refine my understanding. So, if you're on a similar path, stay tuned—I'll be posting more as I go!