SEO checklist for small businesses

1. Can Google find your pages?

Nothing else matters until this is right. Set up the free Google Search Console and open the page indexing report. Check:

Are your most important pages indexed?
Is robots.txt or a noindex blocking something by accident? After a relaunch this is a classic.
Is there a sitemap, and does it only contain pages you really want in Google?
Do all versions (with and without www, http and https) redirect to one address?

2. Do you know what your customers search for?

Write down the ten questions you hear most often on the phone. They are often the best search terms, and no tool lists them. Then see in Search Console which terms you already appear for but rarely get clicked on. That is the quickest gain.

Also look at the results for your main terms. Are they service providers, comparison portals or guides? That shows what Google considers the right answer. A service page against ten guides has a hard time, and vice versa.

3. Does each service have its own page?

This is the most common big mistake at small businesses: every service sits on one page called “What we offer”. One page can hardly be the best answer to five different searches. Give each important service its own page with its own address.

The opposite also holds: do not create ten almost identical pages for similar terms. Google explicitly calls pages built only for similar searches with little value of their own doorway abuse.

4. Does each page say clearly what it is about?

Title: the service and, where relevant, the location. Unique per page.
Meta description: not a direct ranking factor, but it can decide whether someone clicks.
Heading: one H1 that says what is here.
First paragraph: the answer first, the explanation after.

5. Does your content offer something of its own?

Generic text you can find anywhere achieves little. Your own material has value: real prices or price factors, photos of your work, processes, common mistakes, answers from your daily work. Also say who is writing and why they can judge the topic.

6. Is the site fast and easy to use on mobile?

Check your main pages in PageSpeed Insights. Images are often the biggest brake. Core Web Vitals explained covers what the values mean. A perfect 100 is not the goal: what matters is that real users do not have to wait.

7. If you work locally: is your profile right?

Complete Google Business Profile with the right primary category
The same name, address and phone number everywhere
Actively ask for and respond to reviews

8. Are you measuring the right things?

Rankings alone do not pay the bills. Measure clicks and impressions in Search Console, along with enquiries, calls and sales. Check every few weeks rather than daily, because single days fluctuate heavily. How long does SEO take? covers how long things take to move.

What you can ignore for now

Keyword density, meta keywords, a specific word count and purchased link packages. The first three do little, the last can harm you. If you would rather have someone work through this list for you: SEO with tob-apps.