Writing that
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writing worth ranking.
The Index is a plain-spoken blog about SEO and content strategy — what search engines actually reward, what's worth your time, and what to ignore.
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01 / featuredWhy most content calendars are guessing, and how to stop
Most teams plan content around what's easy to write, not what's worth writing. Here's a simpler way to prioritize topics: score them by demand, difficulty, and how well they fit what you already know.
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View the full archiveCrawl budget isn't a myth, it's just misunderstood
What actually eats a site's crawl budget, and the three fixes that matter more than the rest.
Title tags in 2026: shorter isn't always better
A look at what actually moves click-through rate, past the 60-character rule of thumb.
The slow, boring way to earn links that stick
No outreach templates. Just the handful of link sources that hold up two years later.
How to write for a topic you don't fully understand yet
A research process for entering a new subject without producing something shallow.
The three metrics worth checking every week
Everything else is noise until you've got these three numbers moving the right way.
Getting cited in AI answers, without chasing a trend
The structural habits that make a page easy for both people and models to reference.
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