An SEO checklist for a small business website.

Most SEO checklists are long because they are written for people who do SEO all day. A small business website needs a shorter one. This list follows Google’s own documentation and stops where the documentation does. Work through it in order, because the early items decide whether the later ones can have any effect.

Google can find the site and read it

Google lists three technical requirements for a page to be eligible to appear: its crawler is not blocked, the page loads without an error, and there is content on it that can be indexed. Google also says that meeting them does not guarantee a place in the index. They are the minimum.

• Search Google for site:yourdomain.com.au. If pages come back, Google has the site. Google suggests this as the first check.
• Set up Google Search Console. It is free, and it shows whether Google can crawl the site, which pages are indexed and which searches bring people in.
• Submit a sitemap, which is a file listing the pages you care about.
• Make sure every page you want found has a link to it from at least one other page on the site. Google finds most pages by following links.
• Check the site on a phone. Google indexes and ranks from the mobile version, so anything missing there is missing as far as Google is concerned.
• Serve the site over HTTPS.

Each page says what it is about

Google’s short list of best practices includes using the words people would type to find you, and putting them where they are easy to see: the title, the main heading, link text and image descriptions. In practice that comes to five things on each page.

• A title of its own. Google describes a good title as unique to the page, clear and concise, and an accurate description of what is on it. “Home” tells nobody anything.
• A meta description of its own. Short, specific to that page, and covering its main points. Google may use it as the text under your link in results.
• A readable address. Words in the URL are more useful to a person than a string of numbers.
• Alt text on images. A short description of what the image shows and how it relates to the page.
• Link text that describes the destination. “Our pricing for managed IT” tells a reader and Google more than “click here”.

The content answers what people came for

The first item on Google’s best-practice list is helpful, reliable content written for people. For a business site, that usually means a page for each service that explains what it is, who it is for, where you offer it and what happens next. Write in the terms your customers use. A solicitor may say “conveyancing” where a first home buyer searches for “buying a house lawyer”, and Google’s guide recommends writing with those differences in mind.

Google’s guidance on helpful content also asks whether it is evident to visitors who wrote what they are reading. On a business site, that means a real business name, an address or service area, a phone number and the people involved.

Local customers can find the business

For a business that serves a suburb or a city, the map results matter as much as the website. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. It does say what helps:

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile.
• Fill in everything: address or service area, phone number and business type.
• Keep opening hours accurate, including special hours for holidays.
• Reply to reviews.
• Add photos of the premises, the team or the work.

The site is pleasant to use

Google asks site owners to check five things about page experience: good Core Web Vitals, a secure connection, a layout that works on mobile, advertising that does not get in the way of the content, and no intrusive pop-ups. The three speed measures and their targets are covered in our lesson, Core Web Vitals, explained.

What you can leave off the list

Google’s starter guide has a section on things it believes you should not spend time on. It is worth reading before paying for any of them.

• The keywords meta tag. Google Search does not use it.
• A target word count. Google says length alone does not matter for ranking.
• Keywords in the domain name. Google says they have hardly any effect on ranking.
• The number and order of headings. Tidy headings help people using screen readers, but Google says the order makes no difference to Search.
• Worrying about a duplicate content “penalty”. The same content reachable at more than one address is untidy, and Google says it does not break its spam policies.

Keep checking

A site that passes today can fail in six months, after a plugin update or a new page added in a hurry. Look at Search Console once a month for new indexing problems and for the searches that are bringing people in, and go through this list again after any redesign.

Our free website health check tests one page for several of the items above, including the title and description, the sitemap, alt text and anything telling search engines to stay away. If you would like the whole list worked through and kept in order, that is what our SEO service does.