SEO for small business
Most small businesses get one of two options: an agency built for enterprise budgets, or generic advice that doesn’t survive contact with a real, resource-constrained business. Neither prioritises the two or three things that would actually move the needle first.
What small business SEO involves
Small business SEO is the work of getting a local or specialist business found on Google by people who are ready to buy — without an enterprise budget. For most small businesses it means doing a short list of things properly rather than everything at once. These are the first six:
- 01Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. For a local business it often brings more calls than the website itself.
- 02Keep name, address and phone identical everywhere — website, Google, directories, social profiles.
- 03One page per service you want to be found for, written around the words customers actually use.
- 04Set up Google Search Console. It is free and shows which searches already bring you visitors — the cheapest place to find quick wins.
- 05Make the site fast and easy to use on a phone, with contact details one tap away.
- 06Ask for reviews consistently, and reply to them.
Everything else — content plans, link building, advanced technical work — comes after these, and only if the numbers say it is worth it. More on the local side on the local SEO page.
The challenges specific to small business SEO
- 01A budget that has to work harder — every hour needs to earn its cost, no room for a generic 40-page audit nobody reads
- 02Competing against businesses with bigger marketing budgets — the strategy has to win on technical discipline and content quality, not spend
- 03DIY SEO gone wrong — years of well-meaning but unstructured changes that need untangling before new work can build on them
- 04Local competition — for most small businesses, the realistic first win is ranking well in their own area before chasing national terms
What I offer
- 01A prioritised audit — the 3-5 fixes that matter most first, not a report ranked by what looks impressive
- 02Content strategy built on real local search intent, scoped to what a small team can actually maintain
- 03Structured data (schema markup) matched to the business type
- 04The same technical discipline used to rank a platform with thousands of indexed pages, scaled down to what a small business actually needs
Frequently asked questions
Can I do SEO for my small business myself?
Yes — the six basics above are within reach of an owner with a few hours a month. Outside help pays off in prioritising, knowing which of the hundred possible fixes matter for your site, and in technical problems that are hard to diagnose alone.
Is SEO worth it for a small business?
It is worth it when people search for what you sell in the area you serve — something you can check before spending anything. If almost nobody searches for it, other channels will do more for the same budget, and I will tell you so.
How much does small business SEO cost?
It depends on how much needs fixing and how competitive your market is. My hourly rate for consulting and audits is on the homepage; the first audit is free, and ongoing work is quoted after it.
Do I need a big budget to get a site that actually ranks?
No — the technical foundation matters regardless of budget size. What scales with budget is scope, not whether the fundamentals are done right.
How long before the first results show up?
The first signals typically show up in 3-6 months, faster on local searches than on competitive national terms.
I’ve already tried some SEO myself — is that a problem?
Usually not a blocker, but it does mean the first audit spends time understanding what’s already there before recommending what to change.
Talk about your business’s visibility
A free first audit to work out where to start, no commitment.