Guide · SEO
SEO for small businesses: a practical guide
Most small business SEO problems aren't mysterious. The site isn't indexed, the Google Business Profile is half finished, or several pages are competing for the same search. Fix those and you're ahead of most of your competitors before you write anything new.
This guide puts my SEO posts in the order I'd read them if I were starting from scratch: first make sure Google can find you, then get local search right, then improve what's already on the site, and only then decide how much to invest.
Step 1
Start here: can Google find you?
Nothing else matters until your pages are indexed. If you're not showing up at all, start with the basics.
Why Is My Website Not Showing on Google? 10 Things to Check
Ten checks, in order, from indexing and technical blockers to targeting searches nobody makes.
WebsitesCore Web Vitals in 2026: What Small Businesses Must Fix
The speed metric most small business sites still fail, and the free checks that catch it.
SEOSchema Markup for Small Business: What I Learned Adding It to My Own Site
What structured data does, what it doesn't, and what I learned adding it to this site.
Step 2
Local search
If your customers are nearby, your Google Business Profile and reviews often matter more than your website.
Step 3
Fix what's already there
The fastest gains usually come from improving existing pages, not publishing more of them.
How to Do a Content Audit on Your Small Business Website
Decide which pages to keep, improve, consolidate or remove, with a free tracker template.
SEOKeyword Cannibalisation for Small Business: Spot It, Fix It
How to spot pages competing with each other for the same search, and four ways to fix it.
SEOGoogle's 2026 Changes: What They Mean for Your Digital Marketing Right Now
What Google changed this year and which changes actually affect a small business site.
Step 4
Deciding what to spend
Once the foundations are in place, the question becomes how much to invest and where.
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