Most SEO checklists circulating online were written years ago and never revised. Several of the factors they list stopped working before 2020, and or could really damage your performance.
Key takeaways
- Search intent beats every technical tweak. The single biggest on-page lever is whether your page answers what the searcher actually wanted. A perfectly optimised page aimed at the wrong intent will not rank.
- Keyword density and keyword-in-domain are dead factors. Neither has meaningfully influenced rankings for years, and buying an exact-match domain will not help you. Write naturally and spend the effort elsewhere.
- Title tags and meta descriptions do different jobs, so treat them differently. Titles influence both ranking and clicks. Meta descriptions do not affect ranking at all, but they largely decide whether anyone clicks your result once you have earned the position.
- Core Web Vitals changed in March 2024. INP replaced FID as the responsiveness metric. If your speed reporting still references FID, it is out of date.
- The helpful content system is now part of core ranking. Google folded it in during March 2024, so there is no separate helpful content penalty to recover from. Content quality is simply part of the algorithm.
- For a Christchurch business, your Google Business Profile often moves the needle faster than on-page work. Local pack visibility is a different competition from the standard blue links, and it is usually less contested.
- Fix crawling and indexing before optimising anything. A page Google cannot reach or index cannot rank, no matter how good it is.
What actually affects your SEO ranking in 2026?
Google does not publish its algorithm, but it publishes far more guidance than most people realise. The Google Search Essentials set out the technical requirements, spam policies and best practices, and the SEO Starter Guide covers the fundamentals. Notably, Google itself warns in that guide that practices once considered best practice may no longer be relevant.
Here is what holds up, and what does not.
The DOs
| What to do | Why it matters in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Match search intent | Work out whether the query wants an answer, a comparison, or a purchase, then build the page for that. The most common cause of a good page ranking poorly. |
| Write genuinely helpful content | Now part of core ranking rather than a separate system. Depth and originality, not word count. |
| Demonstrate experience and expertise | Named authors with real credentials, first-hand experience, evidence for claims. This is E-E-A-T and it matters most on advice and money topics. |
| Descriptive titles and headings | Use the words people search, placed in the title and main heading. Still one of the strongest on-page signals. |
| Clean, readable URLs | Lowercase, hyphenated, descriptive. Not a large factor, but it costs nothing to get right. |
| Internal links with meaningful anchor text | Establishes site structure, spreads authority, and helps Google understand what a page is about. |
| Core Web Vitals | LCP for loading, INP for responsiveness, CLS for stability. INP replaced FID in March 2024. |
| Mobile-first | Google indexes the mobile version of your site. If it is worse than your desktop version, that is what gets judged. |
| HTTPS | A baseline expectation now rather than an advantage. |
| Structured data | Helps Google interpret your content and enables rich results. Increasingly important for AI-generated answers. |
| Earned inbound links | Still among the strongest off-page signals, provided they are genuinely earned. |
| Crawlable, indexable pages | Make links crawlable and content textually visible. Google’s guide for developers covers the common failures. |
The DON’Ts
| What to avoid | Why |
|---|---|
| Keyword stuffing and density targets | There is no optimal keyword density. Writing to a percentage makes copy worse and does not help rankings. |
| Buying an exact-match domain for keywords | Keyword in domain is not a meaningful ranking factor and has not been for years. |
| Thin or duplicate content | Pages with little value, or content copied from elsewhere, drag the whole site down. |
| Paid or low-quality links | Buying links breaches Google’s spam policies and risks manual action. |
| Doorway pages | Pages built purely to capture search traffic and funnel users elsewhere. |
| Sneaky redirects | Showing search engines one thing and users another. Ordinary JavaScript redirects are fine; deception is not. |
| Slow, unstable pages | Poor Core Web Vitals compound with every other weakness. |
| Intrusive interstitials | Pop-ups that block content on mobile, particularly on arrival from search. |
| Publishing volume for its own sake | Scaled low-value content is explicitly targeted by Google’s spam policies. |
| Letting content go stale and never revisiting it | Outdated advice and dead statistics erode trust. Genuinely refresh, rather than changing the date stamp. |
A note on the last two. They pull in opposite directions and that is deliberate. A large library of thin content hurts you. A maintained library of substantial content helps you. Volume is not the variable, quality and upkeep are.
Do meta descriptions and alt text still matter for SEO?
This causes more confusion than any other on-page question, partly because the honest answer is different for each element.
| Element | Affects ranking? | Affects clicks? | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title tag | Yes | Yes, heavily | Write deliberately for every page. Front-load the term, keep it under about 60 characters. |
| Meta description | No | Yes, heavily | Not a ranking factor, but it is your advert in the results. Never let it auto-generate from the first paragraph. |
| Alt text | Indirectly | Via image search | Describe the image for someone who cannot see it. Do not use it as a keyword slot. |
| H1 and subheadings | Yes | No | Structure the page properly. Question-form subheadings help you appear in AI answers and featured snippets. |
The practical consequence is that a page can rank perfectly well and still earn almost no traffic if the title and description are weak. If you have positions but no clicks, the problem is in the search result, not on the page.
How is SEO different for a Christchurch business?
The mechanics are identical. The competition is not.
Christchurch is a smaller market than Auckland or Sydney, which cuts both ways. Fewer competitors are actively investing in SEO, so well-executed basics go further here than they would in a larger city. But search volumes are lower, so a first-place ranking for a niche local term may still deliver modest traffic. Judge performance on enquiries, not on positions.
Three things matter more locally than they do nationally:
Your Google Business Profile. For any query with local intent, the map pack sits above the standard results. A complete, active profile with current hours, categories, photos and a steady flow of reviews often produces more enquiries than a month of on-page work.
Local relevance signals. Consistent name, address and phone details across directories, plus genuine local mentions, help Google associate your business with Christchurch.
Service pages that are actually about Christchurch. A page that mentions the city eight times but says nothing local is thin content with a place name attached. Reference local projects, suburbs you serve, and conditions specific to the region.
For the detail, see our guide to local SEO.
Frequently asked questions
How long does SEO take to show results?
Usually several months rather than weeks. Technical fixes such as resolving indexing problems or improving Core Web Vitals can show quickly. Content and authority build slowly and compound. Anyone guaranteeing rankings on a short timeframe is overselling, because no agency controls the algorithm.
Is keyword density still a ranking factor?
No. There is no target percentage to hit, and writing to one produces worse content. Use the words your customers use, naturally, in the title, headings and body. Google’s own guidance is to place terms in prominent locations rather than to repeat them at a set frequency.
Do meta descriptions affect Google rankings?
No. Meta descriptions are not a ranking factor. They do affect click-through rate significantly, because they form the text of your search result. A page with a strong position and a truncated or auto-generated description will underperform its ranking.
What are Core Web Vitals in 2026?
Three metrics: Largest Contentful Paint for loading, Interaction to Next Paint for responsiveness, and Cumulative Layout Shift for visual stability. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024. You can check yours in Google Search Console or PageSpeed Insights.
Should I optimise for AI search as well as Google?
Yes. A growing share of searches are answered directly by AI Overviews and assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, so being cited in the answer matters alongside ranking beneath it. Clear structure, direct answers and demonstrable expertise are what get extracted. See our guide to answer engine optimisation.
Can I do SEO myself?
Up to a point, and it is worth understanding the basics regardless. Most businesses can manage their Google Business Profile, write decent titles and descriptions, and keep content current. Technical SEO, competitive analysis and link earning are where agencies earn their fee, mainly because of the time and tooling involved.
Where to learn more
If you want to go deeper, use primary sources rather than second-hand checklists:
- Google Search Essentials, the technical requirements, spam policies and best practices
- Google’s SEO documentation, covering crawling, indexing, structured data and appearance in search
- Google Search Central blog, where algorithm updates are announced
- web.dev on Core Web Vitals, from the Chrome team who build the metrics
Getting help with SEO in Christchurch
There is a lot to consider, much of it technical, which is why most companies leave it to the experts, like us at Traction. We have spent years helping Christchurch businesses grow through search, including RedSeed, whose marketing conversions grew 800% in six months.
That said, you should not hand over complete control. Understanding the fundamentals makes you a better client and a better judge of the work. If you want a straight assessment of where your site stands, see our SEO services or get in touch.
About the Author: Chris Clarke
