Issue 4
Find the question first
A simple four-tool workflow for deciding what your WordPress site needs next — find real demand, check how machines read your site, fix the right thing, and escalate to an audit only when the problem is bigger than one fix.
One practical fix path: find the real question, check how machines see your site, then fix the right thing — not whatever the generic SEO checklist says.
Last issue was about diagnosing before you spend. This one is the workflow I actually run end-to-end.
Most WordPress sites don't need more "SEO tips". They need a clearer next step.
The advice firehose — backlinks, keywords, "post more often" — assumes you already know what's broken. Usually you don't. So you spread effort thin across ten things and move none of them.
Four free tools, one rule: find the real question before you fix anything.
Step 1 — Find the real demand
Before writing a word, check what people in your niche are actually asking. Find The Ask pulls 30 Reddit-sourced questions from your market — no account needed, preview in seconds, full list by email. It's the fastest way to see whether you're answering real questions or the ones you assumed people had.
Step 2 — See how machines read your site
Buyers increasingly ask ChatGPT and Perplexity before they click anything. The AI Visibility Score runs a 5-pillar check in about three minutes and tells you whether your problem is structural (technical debt) or topical (content and authority). That answer changes what you fix next.
Step 3 — Tighten the basics
If the gap is structural, fix the cheap, high-leverage things first: clean structured data and a sober read of your authority numbers. The Schema tool and the DA/PA guide both isolate one thing at a time — which is the point. One issue, one fix, then re-check.
When the problem is bigger than one fix
The free tools are for isolating a single issue. When you've found several and need them ranked fast, that's the job of the Website Audit — human-reviewed, prioritised, delivered within 24 hours. Use it to decide the order of work, not to discover that something's wrong.
The rule holds the whole way down: find the question, check visibility, fix the right thing. Skip the question and you're just guessing more expensively.
This is the kind of issue that should stay useful later, not just on send day — it lives in the archive, organised by topic so you can pull it back when you need it. And if you want to see the packaged side of what I build, the plugins page shows the repeatable workflows alongside the service work.
How we can work together
If you want a second pair of eyes on your WordPress stack, use the archive as a starting point, then take the next step that fits your stage.
Run one tool first, then reply with your result if you want a second opinion.