SEO guide for small businesses: the essentials for showing up on Google

SEO (search engine optimization) is the set of practices that makes your website show up when someone searches for what you offer. For a small business, it isn't about competing for huge terms like "lawyer" or "clothes": the opportunity is in specific, local searches full of intent, like "employment lawyer near me" or "party dress rental downtown".

1. Create and complete your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is what appears on the map and in the side panel when someone searches for your name or for a service in your area. For local businesses, it's often the first impression — before the website itself.

• Choose the most specific category possible.
• Fill in opening hours, phone number, website and service area.
• Add real photos of the space, the team and the work.
• Ask happy customers for reviews and reply to all of them, including the negative ones.

2. Get the technical basics right

Google shows pages people can use without frustration first. A website that's slow, broken on phones or without HTTPS starts at a disadvantage, however good the content is.

• It works well on phones (test it yourself, with your finger, not just by resizing your computer screen).
• It loads fast — check it in PageSpeed Insights.
• It uses HTTPS and redirects the version without the "s" to the secure one.
• Its sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console, which is free and shows which searches you already appear for.

3. One page per service, with a clear title and description

If all your services are in a single paragraph on the homepage, Google has no specific page to show when someone searches for each one. One page per service solves that and helps visitors too.

Page title (what shows on Google)

Start with what people search for and end with the brand name: "Landing Page Design | Your Brand". Keep it to about 60 characters so it isn't cut off.

Description

One or two sentences, up to about 155 characters, stating the benefit and who it's for. It doesn't change your ranking directly, but it strongly influences clicks.

4. Write for your customers' real questions

The questions you answer on WhatsApp every day are ready-made topics. "How long does it take?", "What do you need from me to start?", "What's the difference between X and Y?" — each one can become an FAQ section or an article.

5. Keep your details identical everywhere

Name, phone number, address (or service area) and website should be exactly the same on the website, the Business Profile, social networks and directories. Contradictory information confuses Google and AIs about who you are.

What about AI, like ChatGPT and Google's AI answers?

Today many people ask an AI directly instead of clicking links. The good news: what helps on Google helps there too — clear, specific and truthful content, well-structured pages and a brand that shows up consistently on other websites. That extra care to be understood and cited by AIs has a name: GEO.

What not to do

• Repeating the keyword in a forced way — Google notices, and so do readers.
• Publishing lots of generic, mass-produced text just to "have content".
• Buying links or reviews.
• Copying text from other websites.

On the websites I build, SEO and GEO are done before launch — the site goes live with all of this in place. For my clients, I also handle maintenance and ongoing SEO once the site is live. See also what technical SEO is and why it has to be done before the site goes live.