Fast, mobile, secure
Speed, a mobile-friendly layout and https are ranking factors and conversion factors. Fix these before chasing anything fancy.
Crawlable & indexed
Make sure Google can find your pages: a sitemap, sensible URLs, and no accidental “noindex”. Submit your site in Google Search Console.
Search Console is free gold
Search Console shows what you rank for, what's broken and what Google sees. Set it up and check it monthly.
Search Console is free and shows exactly what Google sees — set it up before spending a cent on SEO tools.