# SEO in Practice | Student workbook (copy and fill in) **How to use:** Follow the ClearFlow case study through Course 2. Lessons 1 and 2 save your work in the lesson itself; this optional workbook provides a reference and space for later lessons. If you later apply it to your own business, use facts you can verify. Leave anything uncertain marked “Need to check.” ## Lesson 1: Business SEO brief For the course case study, use these established facts: ClearFlow serves homeowners in Austin, water heater repair is the owner's priority, and customers can contact the business through its form or phone link. Your SEO goal, in your own words: __________\ Why this goal matters more than simply “more traffic”: __________\ One question to confirm with the owner: __________ Does the goal identify the customer, service, location and useful next step? Have you avoided unsupported promises? Carry your saved goal into Lesson 2. You don't need to re-enter the lesson's completed brief here. ## Lesson 2: Website review SEO goal carried from Lesson 1: ______ Guided findings from the lesson: - The homepage already names the services and Austin, with links to service and Contact pages. - The Water Heater Repair page explains very little about the service. Ask which repair problems the business handles. - Supplied HTML and URL Inspection show an unintended noindex instruction. Confirm the setting and arrange an approved correction; removal doesn't guarantee indexing or rankings. Your Drain Cleaning observations: What does the page already explain? __________\ What information could be clearer? __________\ What would you ask the owner? __________ Your completed lesson review already contains these notes. No finding classifications or repeated entries are needed. ## Lesson 3: Starting measurements The lesson saves the supplied figures automatically with your goal and website review. Report period: 1–30 September 2026. - Google Search Console (Google Search): 5,240 impressions and 142 clicks across six pages. - Google Analytics (organic search): 127 sessions, including unpaid search from other search engines. - Owner-confirmed enquiry record (all sources): 4 enquiries. These cannot all be attributed to SEO and are not booked jobs. The Water Heater Repair page recorded zero in both reports. The unintended noindex instruction was found on 20 October, after the reporting period; its start date is unknown. No verified AI visibility totals are supplied for September. What stands out to you? __________\ What would you investigate next? __________ Keep the figures separate: clicks, sessions and enquiries measure different things. ## Lesson 4: Search opportunities The lesson pre-fills three customer needs, with their evidence and limits: - Find water heater repair in Austin: a homeowner interview example; search volume is unknown. This is the owner’s priority service. - Understand why there is no hot water: the September query sample records 270 appearances of ClearFlow’s result. Check its existing helpful article. - Find drain cleaning in Austin: the query sample records 450 appearances of ClearFlow’s result. Check its existing service page. These impressions are not total market search volumes. Unmeasured demand is unknown, not zero. Emergency service and water heater installation remain unverified, and Dallas is not served. Which search need would you investigate first, and why? __________\ What would you check before deciding what work to do? __________ Your saved shortlist carries forward your goal, website review and starting record. The shortlist is a draft for investigation, not approval to create pages or change the website. ## Lesson 5: Search-to-page map The lesson carries your saved goal and earlier course records forward. Read the two guided page matches, then write one independent Drain Cleaning decision. A page name or URL is enough for the first answer. Which existing page should answer “drain cleaning Austin”? ______ Why does that page fit, and what would you check before improving it? ______ Review your map, then save it as Part 5 of your SEO plan. You can update your own wording and download the branded PDF. Guided examples remain distinct from your decision; no new page or website change is approved by this activity. ## Lesson 6: Page decisions The lesson carries forward your saved SEO goal and Lesson 5 page map. Read the two illustrations, then recommend what should happen to the unpublished Drain Cleaning draft. What would you do with the proposed draft, and why? ______ What would you confirm with the owner before using any claims from it? ______ Review and save your decision log as Part 6 of your SEO plan. The guided page decisions stay separate from your own recommendation. You can update your answers and download the branded PDF. Saving the log does not publish a page, change a URL or approve an unverified claim. ## Lesson 7: Page improvement brief Your saved goal, page map and decision log carry forward. Draft a clearer opening for the existing Water Heater Repair page using only confirmed facts, then ask one useful owner question. Your proposed opening: ______ Your question for the owner: ______ Review and save this as Part 7 of your SEO plan, then download the branded PDF if useful. The brief includes the existing page, confirmed facts, your two answers, separate technical follow-up and an owner approval checkpoint. Saving a proposal does not publish wording or fix noindex. ## Lesson 8: Local information check Your saved SEO goal and confirmed ClearFlow facts carry forward automatically. Compare the existing website with the supplied Google Business Profile extract. Both identify ClearFlow Plumbing and Austin; the partial profile extract does not verify hours, exact listed services or its website link. Unknown information is not automatically wrong. What already agrees between the website and the profile extract? ______ What would you verify with the owner before recommending a change, and why? ______ Review and save this as Part 8 of your SEO plan, then download the branded PDF if useful. The record includes the evidence sources, known facts, your two answers, details still to verify and an owner approval checkpoint. Saving this exercise does not change Google or the website. Investigating noindex is a separate task in Lesson 9. ## Lesson 9: Technical check note Your saved SEO goal and the supplied technical evidence carry forward automatically. ClearFlow’s Water Heater Repair page opens directly, but the prepared URL Inspection example records Excluded by noindex. A separate page check found the instruction on 20 October 2026. The owner confirmed it was unintended; production changes still need approval. What does the evidence tell you, and why does it matter for ClearFlow? ______ What would you recommend next, who approves the change and what would you check afterwards? ______ Review and save this as Part 9 of your SEO plan, then download the branded PDF if useful. The note keeps your two answers beside the dated evidence, approval checkpoint and limitations. We do not know when noindex began, so October’s finding does not establish the cause of September’s zero impressions. Removing it or passing a live test does not guarantee indexing or rankings. Saving this exercise does not change a website. ## Lesson 10: Content and internal-link note Your goal, existing article address and repair-service destination are carried forward. The article already answers a customer question; its Services link leads to the homepage. A direct link to Water Heater Repair would be a proposed improvement, not a published change. What natural sentence would help an Austin reader find ClearFlow’s repair service? ______ What would you check before asking the owner to approve the sentence and link? ______ Review and save this as Part 10 of your SEO plan, then download the branded PDF if useful. The note includes your two answers, proposed destination, saved article decision when available, approval checks and the separate unresolved noindex finding. Adding a link does not remove that instruction or guarantee indexing, rankings or enquiries. The October finding does not prove the cause of September’s results. Saving this exercise does not publish anything. ## Lesson 11: Proposed 30-day SEO action plan The example four-week schedule and earlier saved writing carry forward automatically. The owner can review one copy bundle per week and the developer has one short appointment in Week 2. Preparation can continue in parallel; public changes require specific approval. Every scheduled task starts as planned, not completed. What would you prepare in Week 1 for the Week 2 appointment, and what could continue in parallel? ______ What would you verify at month end, and which outcome could you not promise? ______ Review and save Part 11 as Proposed, pending owner approval, then download the branded plan PDF if useful. It includes the goal, schedule, reasons, people, dependencies, completion evidence, your two answers and saved earlier notes. Saving does not approve, publish or complete a task. The 30-day schedule promises neither indexing nor rankings, AI recommendations or enquiries. ## Lesson 12: Follow-up scorecard and next-cycle questions The supplied follow-up is an imagined continuation reviewed on 24 November 2026. It does not alter your earlier proposed plan or describe work you carried out. An approved noindex correction was applied on 2 November and rechecked on 17 November. Approved wording and the article link were published and checked on 9 November. Google indexing remains unconfirmed; the mobile contact review is carried forward. What can you confidently tell the owner was done, and what is still unconfirmed? ______ What should ClearFlow check or work on next, why, and who should help? ______ Review and save Part 12 as Student draft for discussion and owner review. Compare 1–30 September with 21 October–19 November: Search Console impressions 5,240 to 5,460; clicks 142 to 138; separate Analytics organic sessions 127 to 124. The independent all-source enquiry record stays at four. Updates happened during the later window, so these figures do not isolate their effect. There is no comparable AI follow-up. Download the workbook PDF to keep your actual saved writing from Parts 1–12, the proposed schedule and the follow-up evidence. Unsaved parts are labelled, not invented. Saving Part 12 does not approve a change or complete earlier lessons.