SEO for
small business.

For searches with local intent, Google says it ranks on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well you match the search. Distance you can't change. Prominence is how well-known you are, and Google says it draws on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.

That leaves a small business three levers: be clearly relevant (pages that say what you do and where), be prominent (reviews, and other local sites mentioning you), and be easy for Google to read. The Google Business Profile page covers the profile itself. This page is about the website and everything around it.

Most of the work that moves the needle for a small business is writing, not code. You know the questions customers ask on the phone better than any agency does. A page for each service, in the words people use, with what drives the price, the area you cover and your own photos, is the single biggest thing most small sites are missing.

Pick the hours you can honestly give it each month. The plan fills them, most useful task first. The times are my rough guide for an owner doing the writing, not a measurement.

Product businesses get an extra free channel. Through Google Merchant Center, products can appear at no cost on Google Search, Maps, the Shopping tab, Images, Lens, YouTube and Gemini, and in-store stock can show in free local listings if you opt in. A bike shop in Newcastle or a homewares store in Gosford can show the actual product, price and stock to someone nearby.

Google adds that being eligible doesn't guarantee your products will be shown. Treat the feed as something to keep accurate, not a switch you flip once. If you sell hundreds of products online, a shop platform such as Shopify handles the feed, and the SEO work shifts to category pages and product descriptions.

Google's SEO starter guide has a section on things it says you shouldn't focus on. Several of them are still sold to small businesses as if they matter:

• Meta keywords. Google says Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag.
• Word count targets. Google says the length of content alone doesn't matter for ranking.
• A keyword domain. Google says keywords in the domain name alone have hardly any effect, so keep your real business name.
• Repeating the keyword. Stuffing the same words over and over goes against Google's spam policies.
• A page per suburb with only the name changed. Google lists pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page as doorway abuse.
• Anyone promising first place. Google warns that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking. If they promise one, find someone else.

Prominence is the lever most owners ignore. Google says it partly rests on how many websites link to your business, and the links that count for a small business are rarely bought. They're the supplier who lists its stockists, the trade association directory, the junior footy club you sponsor in Wollongong, the local paper covering your new premises.

Aim for one real mention a month. Steer clear of anyone selling links in bulk: Google's spam policies treat buying links for ranking purposes as link spam, and a cheap package can cost you more than it ever earned.

Google says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change helped. So keep it simple: change one thing, note the date, and look again a month later in Search Console, Google's free report on the searches you appear for.

Be wary of the cold email saying your site is 'not ranking'. Google tells site owners to be wary of SEO firms that email you out of the blue. Those emails usually go to every business in a postcode, and the audit attached is the same one everyone gets.