SEO is an amazing long-term marketing tool for small business owners. Unlike channels like social media and paid ads that stop working when you stop engaging or paying, search engine optimization continues to build on itself if you do it correctly.
As an SEO consultant, I’ve loved helping hundreds of clients and students get their websites and content on the first page of Google.
But I’m no gatekeeper. As an SEO educator who regularly posts tutorials on my YouTube channel and has taught 20+ workshops (including a DIY SEO course for solopreneurs), I love breaking down SEO basics in a way that feels approachable.
Which is exactly what I’m here to do now. Read on to learn some of the foundational steps any small business owner can take to improve search engine optimization.
I promise it doesn’t have to be as technical or complicated as you might think, and you don’t even have to use fancy or expensive tools.
By the end, I hope SEO feels less daunting and you have some clear steps forward.
What is SEO?
In case you’re starting from zero, SEO stands for search engine optimization, which means tailoring web pages to show up in top results on search engines like Google.
These search engines have little robots (called “spiders”) that crawl the web to find new content and check on old content. When they get to a page on your site, they scan the content to try to get an idea of what the main idea is so they can put it into Google’s Index, which I like to think about as a big filing cabinet filled with literally every website on the internet.
When you search on Google, it’s like Google goes into the filing cabinet and pulls out what it thinks best matches what you searched for, based on the words you used to search (also known as keywords or queries).
The goal of search engine optimization is to look for ways to prove to the search engines that you are the best match for the topics your target audience is searching for so that you can show up on page one of the results.
3 steps to improve your small business SEO
1. Get clear on the right keywords to target
Keywords are what connect your web pages to search results and clue the search engine bots into what each page is about. If you get keywords wrong, you’ll likely be continuously frustrated with SEO.
Getting keywords right is not about deciding what words and phrases you want to show up for — it’s about understanding what your target audience is searching for and how search engines view different keywords.
My favorite example of this is from a public speaking coach I worked with who wanted to show up on page one for the keyword “powerful speaker.” The problem? When we searched that term, the results were all for stereo speakers.
If we had targeted that keyword, she never would have been found by people searching for what she actually offered. We ended up targeting keywords like “become a powerful speaker” and “public speaking coach” instead.
To do your own keyword research:
Talk to your target audience: Send out a survey or have 15-minute conversations with your existing customers to ask what they would type into Google to find you. Look at your competitors’ websites: What terms are they using on their pages? These can give you ideas for keywords to target. Use AI: Go to Gemini or ChatGPT and ask for a list of keywords related to your business.Start Googling: Once you have a few ideas for keywords, type them into Google and see what auto suggestions come up. See what you’re already ranking for: Are there any keywords that Google is already associating with your business? (Google Search Console can help you figure this out.) Trying to rank higher for those keywords can be low-hanging fruit.
Once you have a list of ideas, you’ll want to hone in on the keywords that have people searching for them (search volume) but aren’t too competitive (keyword difficulty). You can get this information with tools like:
Semrush: My hands down favorite tool, free with limited resultsUbersuggest: A great free option for up to three searches a dayKeySearch: A budget-friendly paid option if you need more searches per day
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are free tools that can also help you with this process by helping you understand your SEO data and how users engage with your website. I have a series of free tutorial videos that walk through how to use them to understand your SEO results.
How many keywords should you target? Usually, each page has 1-3 “target keywords” (your main priority) and anywhere from 1-25+ “secondary keywords” (different variations on your main keywords).
For example, if you’re a leadership consultant, the target keywords on your consulting services page might be “leadership consulting” and “leadership consultant,” while your secondary keywords might be:
leadership development consultantleadership development for executivesleadership development consultingexecutive leadership consultingleadership consulting servicesleadership consulting service
The best part about spending time on keyword research is that it can influence so much more than organic search traffic. I do keyword research before I offer a workshop or new service.
I have e-commerce clients who do keyword research as part of product development. It can be used for business development, social media content planning, and competitor analysis.
Once you have data about what people are already searching for, you can target your marketing and content, or even make decisions about what products and services your target audience would be excited for you to offer.
2. Determine how to be the best solution to the problem
With keywords in mind, the next step is identifying how your web pages can be the best solution for someone typing those specific keywords into search engines — and showcasing that to Google. This is the part where a lot of people fall off because they know they’re the best solution for their ideal people, but they forget they have to prove that to the search engines.
Here’s an industry secret on how to do this: Search the keyword you’re trying to rank for, see what’s already ranking highly for that term, and work backward to understand why they’re succeeding and how you can stand out even more.
Say you want to rank highly for “wedding photography packages.” When you Google it, maybe you notice the business map is the top result, indicating that setting up your Google business profile should be a priority.
Then, skip any results marked “Sponsored” (which are paid real estate) and look at the first few organic results. Are they services pages? Blog posts? Pricing pages? Open up those pages and see what information they are sharing and where they are using the keyword.
This isn’t about copying the pages exactly, but rather identifying what’s working, identifying gaps, and brainstorming how you can create an even more all-encompassing solution.
Maybe one page was created by a business that explains their process but another didn’t. Maybe one has testimonials, but another doesn’t. If this is the case, you might want to create a page that includes both your process and testimonials.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, think back to your target user. Remember: You’re not trying to show up on Google so that a robot buys from you — you want humans to buy from you. Give those people enough information to understand what you do, how you do it, and why you’re good at it. That, in turn, will give the search engine bots more content that implies that you’re the best.
3. Multiply the doors through which people can find you
Many people don’t realize that websites don’t show up in search results — web pages do. That means you can create different pages on your website that target different keywords, essentially multiplying the doors through which customers can find you.
For example, creating a different page for each of your different services can work really well (e.g., Wedding photography services, engagement photography services, newborn photography services, family photography services).
While all of these services could be listed on one page, that page won’t be the best solution to any problem because it has too much going on. By separating services into individual pages, you can hit SEO keywords related specifically to each service.
Blog posts are another great way to expand your search engine footprint. They multiply the keywords that your website can rank for and the number of eyeballs that find you. Blog posts can be especially useful for targeting more specific keywords.
For example, a landscape architect may target “local landscape services” with their primary service page but can use blog posts to answer questions customers might have, like “how to create a DIY garden bed,” “how to hire a landscape architect,” or “landscape architect vs. gardener.”
Finally, what’s known as off-page SEO can be a powerful way to create new avenues for people to find you too. Activities like PR and thought leadership can grow your authority in the eyes of your industry and search engines, both of which can help all of your pages rank higher.
Succeeding at SEO isn’t about perfection, and it’s not something you can work on once and then cross off your list. It’s about infusing SEO-friendly habits into the content creation you’re already doing, taking baby steps, and learning from the data.
You’ll probably start to see results with less work than you think — and the impact over time could be significant.
