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Small business website SEO checklist
Good SEO starts with a website that search engines can crawl and customers can use. This checklist covers the foundations we review in every free audit. Work through it from top to bottom and you will catch most of the problems that hold small business sites back.
Technical foundations
- HTTPS everywhere. Your site loads securely, and the www and non-www versions redirect to one preferred address.
- Mobile-friendly design. Text is readable, buttons are easy to tap and nothing scrolls sideways.
- Fast loading. Compress images, use modern formats such as WebP, and cut unused scripts. Aim for good Core Web Vitals: loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
- Crawlable and indexable. Your robots.txt is not blocking important pages, and each page has a canonical tag.
- XML sitemap. Submitted in Google Search Console and listing only pages you want in search.
- A useful 404 page. Broken links send visitors to helpful options rather than a dead end.
On-page basics
- Unique title tags. Each page has its own title with the main service and location near the front.
- Meta descriptions that sell the click. A short, unique summary for every page.
- One H1 per page. Supported by clear H2 and H3 headings.
- Descriptive URLs. Short and readable, such as
/services/blocked-drains/. - Image alt text. Describes what is in the picture for screen readers and search engines.
- Internal links. Pages link to each other using clear, descriptive anchor text.
Content that earns rankings
- A page for each core service. Do not squeeze everything onto one page.
- Pages for areas you serve. Only where you can add real local detail (see our suburb landing pages guide).
- Answers to real customer questions. FAQs and short articles written from what customers ask you.
- Proof. Reviews, case studies and photos of real work.
Local signals
- Name, address and phone consistency. Identical on your site, your Google profile and your directory listings.
- Local business structured data. Marked up so search engines understand your business details.
- A tuned Google Business Profile. Follow our profile checklist.
Conversion and tracking
- Click-to-call and short forms. Make contacting you effortless on a phone.
- A clear call to action on every page.
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Installed and checked, so you can see which searches and pages bring enquiries.
If you would rather have this checked for you, our web design and website support services cover each item above.
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