what's your process for getting on google first page for free?

Free is fine, it just costs time. My order: 1. search console set up, sitemap submitted 2. find queries where you're already sitting position 8-20 (performance report, sort by position) 3. improve those pages first - better answer, better title, a few internal links pointing at them 4. only then write new stuff page two to page one is way easier than nothing to page one.