Technical SEO + AI search · Real estate (US)
From 84% to 100% Site Health, then built for AI search
Two connected projects for a real estate investor in Pennsylvania: a technical SEO cleanup, followed by a monthly program that rebuilt the site's structure and content for Google and AI answer engines.
- 84% → 100%
- Semrush Site Health in 16 days
- 341 → 0
- errors and warnings combined
- 64 → 80
- mobile PageSpeed score (desktop 86 → 98)
- 9.7s → 4.8s
- mobile Largest Contentful Paint
The challenge
The client buys houses for cash across Pennsylvania. Every visitor who leaves before the offer form loads is a lost lead, so speed and crawl health mattered more than usual.
On Jan 31, 2026 the site had a Semrush Site Health of 84%, with 4 errors and 337 warnings. Only 5 of 32 crawled pages were fully healthy. Mobile performance was 64, with the main content taking 9.7 seconds to appear on a typical phone connection.
What I did
Stage 1 · Technical SEO fix
| Issue found by Semrush | Fix |
|---|---|
| 252 internal resources blocked in robots.txt | Rewrote robots.txt rules |
| 21 unminified JavaScript and CSS files | Minified and cached |
| 12 broken external images | Replaced or removed |
| 12 pages missing meta descriptions | Wrote unique descriptions |
| 10 internal links with nofollow | Removed nofollow |
| 7 pages with overlong title tags | Rewrote titles |
| 3 broken internal links · 1 page returning 4XX | Fixed links, 301 redirect |
| 1 page without an H1 heading | Added H1 |
| Sitemap not listed in robots.txt | Added and submitted in Search Console |
Page-level caching was also set up for 12 key pages on desktop and mobile.
Stage 2 · Monthly SEO and AI search (Feb 23 - Mar 28, 2026)
After the technical fix, the client kept me on a monthly plan to turn a small brochure site into one that answers the exact questions motivated sellers ask Google and AI assistants.
- Structure: 7 topic categories built around seller situations (Foreclosure Help, Inherited Property & Probate, Selling "As-Is", Divorce & Real Estate, Financial Hardship & Relocation, Cash Buyers vs. Realtors, Home Buying Tips), with SEO descriptions for each.
- Content plan: blog posts mapped to primary, LSI and voice-search keywords, for example "stop foreclosure PA" and "sell inherited house PA".
- Page rewrites: 4 core pages (Home, How It Works, About and Reviews) rewritten section by section: hero, lead form copy, 3-step process, "any condition" and "no realtor fees".
- AI readiness: 13 FAQ answers added to the core pages in the question-and-answer format AI Overviews and voice assistants pull from, plus an llms.txt file so AI crawlers can find the key pages.
- Content migrated into the new categories, sitemap updated and indexing requested in Search Console. Google Business Profile created and set up (verification in progress at the time of the report).
Results (Feb 16, 2026)
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush Site Health | 84% | 100% |
| Errors / warnings | 4 / 337 | 0 / 0 |
| Healthy pages | 5 | 10 |
| Mobile performance · LCP | 64 · 9.7s | 80 · 4.8s |
| Mobile speed index | 5.3s | 2.6s |
| Desktop performance · LCP | 86 · 2.1s | 98 · 1.1s |
Stage 2 outcome: 7 topic categories matching real seller situations and 13 AI-ready FAQ answers on the core pages.
Why it worked
Fixed causes, not symptoms
Robots.txt blocking, missing redirects and unminified files were fixed at the source, so the same errors did not return on the next crawl.
Speed where leads happen
Mobile load time was the priority because most motivated sellers search on their phones.
Content built on real questions
Every post and FAQ targets a question a seller in a hard situation would actually ask Google or an AI assistant.
One client, two stages
The technical fix earned trust, and the client moved to a monthly plan for content and AI search.
What a very knowledgeable and professional service Sheikh has provided with attention to detail and his quick responsiveness when communicating. I would work with him again and would recommend him to anyone.
What's next
Ranking and traffic changes from the new content take time to show. The next step is tracking Search Console impressions for the new category and blog pages, and checking whether the site is cited in AI Overviews for the target questions.
Questions about this project
How long did the technical SEO fix take?
Semrush Site Health went from 84% on Jan 31, 2026 to 100% on Feb 16, 2026, which is 16 days. Errors and warnings went from 341 combined to 0.
What made the site ready for AI search?
13 FAQ answers were added to the core pages in a question-and-answer format, an llms.txt file was created so AI crawlers can find the key pages, and the content was reorganized into 7 topic categories built around real seller situations.
Why was mobile speed the priority?
Most motivated sellers search on their phones, and every visitor who leaves before the offer form loads is a lost lead. Mobile Largest Contentful Paint dropped from 9.7s to 4.8s.
Client name and domain are withheld for confidentiality. Figures come from Semrush Site Audit and Google PageSpeed Insights reports captured on Jan 31, Feb 2 and Feb 16, 2026. PageSpeed scores vary between tests.
