Serves: One small business website
Prep time: 3-6 months
Cooking time: Ongoing
Ingredients
The Base Layer (Foundation)
- 1 technically sound website (no dodgy hosting or broken links)
- 2-3 pages of genuinely useful content (not keyword-stuffed waffle)
- A handful of proper page titles and H1s (descriptive, not “Home” and “Services”)
- One decent site structure (so Google doesn’t get lost trying to find your contact page)
The Flavour (Content)
- Several cups of helpful information (answers actual questions your customers ask)
- A generous dollop of personality (nobody wants bland business speak)
- Fresh keywords, naturally incorporated (force them in and the whole thing tastes wrong)
- Regular blog posts to taste (optional but recommended)
The Seasoning (Technical Bits)
- Mobile-friendliness (non-negotiable)
- Fast loading speeds (nobody’s waiting around for your massive hero image to load)
- Proper headings (H1s, H2s, H3s that actually make sense)
- Image alt text (describe what’s in the picture, don’t just stuff keywords in)
Don’t Add:
- Snake oil from SEO gurus promising overnight results
- Keyword stuffing (makes the whole thing inedible)
- Dodgy backlinks from random websites (they’ll give you food poisoning)
- Content written by drunk robots
Method
Step 1: Prep your base
Sort out the technical foundation first. Make sure your website works properly on phones, loads faster than a sloth on sedatives, and doesn’t have broken bits everywhere. Nobody’s eating a casserole served on a dirty plate, are they?
Step 2: Layer in your content
Start with content that genuinely helps your customers. Write about the questions they actually ask you, not just what you think sounds awesome. Each piece should answer something specific. Don’t just waffle on about how brilliant you are (even if you are).
Free on-page SEO healthcheck
Step 3: Season thoughtfully
Add your keywords naturally throughout. If you’re a website copywriter in Northampton, work that into your content where it makes sense. But if you’re writing “web copywriter Northampton” seventeen times per paragraph, you’ve over-seasoned and ruined the dish.
Step 4: Let it develop
This is often where people get impatient. SEO casserole doesn’t microwave well. It needs time to develop flavour. Keep adding fresh content, keep helping people, keep being genuinely useful. Google will eventually notice.
Step 5: Maintain the temperature
Don’t just whack it in the oven and forget about it. Check your analytics. See what’s working. Update old content that’s gone stale. Add new ingredients as your business grows.
Common SEO Casserole Mistakes
- Burning it with impatience – cranking up the heat (buying dodgy backlinks, keyword stuffing, publishing twenty posts a week of absolute bollocks) will burn your casserole. Low and slow wins this race.
- Using rotten ingredients – copying content from other websites or using AI to churn out generic wank is like using off meat. It might look fine initially, but it’ll make everyone sick eventually.
- Following someone else’s recipe exactly – your mate’s SEO casserole might have worked brilliantly for their carpentry business, but you’re a solicitor. Different ingredients work for different businesses. Stop copying what everyone else is doing.
- Forgetting to taste as you go – check your results regularly. If something’s not working, adjust. If a page is ranking well but nobody’s contacting you, maybe your call-to-action needs work.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your SEO casserole alongside:
- A decent user experience (so people don’t immediately leave)
- Clear calls-to-action (tell people what to do next)
- Fast responses to enquiries (SEO gets them there, you close the deal)
- Good customer service (ranking first means nothing if you’re rubbish at your job)
Storage Instructions
SEO casserole keeps indefinitely if maintained properly. Check it regularly, update when needed, and never let it go completely cold. It’s easier to maintain temperature than restart from scratch.
Chef’s Notes
Stop expecting instant results. Nobody’s making Michelin-star food in ten minutes with a microwave and low-grade ingredients. SEO takes time, effort, and genuine commitment to being helpful.
Also, ignore anyone trying to sell you their secret ingredient that’ll make your casserole the tastiest ever overnight. They’re selling you magic beans, and you’re old enough to know better.
Now get cooking.
