SEO basics for a small business website, straight from Google

Search engine optimisation attracts a lot of bold promises and very little evidence. It helps to start from what Google itself says. Google’s own starter guide is refreshingly honest, and a small business can follow most of it without paying anyone.

The short version

• Google says there are no secrets that will automatically rank your site first.¹
• Some changes can take effect in hours, and others can take several months.¹
• Useful, reliable content written for people matters more than tricks.²
• There are no special requirements to appear in Google’s AI Overviews beyond normal SEO good practice.³

Set your expectations

The guide says plainly: “There are no secrets here that’ll automatically rank your site first in Google”. It adds that some changes could take effect in a few hours, while others could take several months, and that you will likely want to wait a few weeks to assess whether your work had an effect.¹

Be wary of anyone who guarantees a top position or fast results. Their promises go further than Google’s own advice does.

What to get right

Make it easy to find and understand

Google primarily finds pages through links from pages it has already crawled.¹ So every page should be linked from somewhere sensible, ideally using plain words that describe where the link goes. Short, descriptive web addresses also help, as the guide notes that a URL containing only random identifiers is less helpful for users.¹

Google can process JavaScript, but rendering adds a step, because pages can wait in a queue for it.⁴ Our advice is to make sure your main words are in the page’s HTML from the start, rather than relying on code to add them later.

Write for people

Google describes the content it wants as helpful, reliable and people-first, and offers questions to help you assess your own pages.² For a small business, this usually means answering what customers actually ask:

• What exactly do you do, and what do you not do?
• Where do you work?
• How does it work, and how long does it take?
• Can you show me real examples?
• What will it roughly cost?
• How do I get in touch?

These are also the things that turn a visitor into an enquiry.

Write good titles

The title link is the headline in a search result, and it can help people decide which result to click. Google generates it from a few sources, including the title element and other headings on the page.¹ Write a clear, unique title for each page, using the words a customer would search for. Our rule is to keep it to about 60 characters.

Get local right

If you serve a local area, your website works alongside your Google Business Profile, which matters a great deal for local searches. See our guide to Google Business Profile.

Make it fast

Page experience is part of what Google’s systems look for. Our article on Core Web Vitals covers what to measure.

What about AI answers?

Many people now see AI-generated summaries above search results. Google’s position is that the usual best practices remain relevant, and there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimisations necessary.³ Any service selling you a special AI ranking trick deserves careful questioning. Clear, accurate pages with real substance are what you need for both.

The shortcuts to avoid

Google’s spam policies describe practices that can harm a site in search results:⁵

• Doorway pages. Pages created to rank for specific, similar searches, such as near-identical pages for every town.
• Scaled content abuse. Many pages generated mainly to manipulate rankings rather than help users, with little to no value, no matter how they were created.
• Keyword stuffing. Filling a page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings.

Using AI to write your content

Google says generative AI can be particularly useful for researching a topic and adding structure to original content. However, using AI tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate its policy on scaled content abuse.⁶

So AI can help, but it does not replace real knowledge. Check every fact, add what only you know from doing the work, and do not publish what you would not be willing to stand behind.

A sensible order of work

This is our suggestion for a small business starting out:

1. Set up Google Search Console so you can see how Google views your site.
2. Set up and complete your Google Business Profile.
3. Write one clear page for each service you actually want to sell.
4. Add real proof, such as photographs of your work and honest details.
5. Link your pages together sensibly.
6. Add useful articles that answer real customer questions.
7. Wait a few weeks, look at your data and improve what is getting close.

If you would like this done for you, our website design service builds these basics in from the start. You can also check whether your site meets the UK legal requirements for a website.