SEO
The SEO basics most small sites still get wrong
Not link building. The unglamorous foundations, most of which are an afternoon of work.
Before anyone builds links, these should be right. On most small business sites, at least half are not — and each one is cheap to fix.
1. Every page has its own title and description
Not the site name repeated. The title is the strongest on-page signal and the thing people click. Around 55–60 characters, the important words first, the brand at the end. The description does not rank you but it decides click-through.
2. One page per thing you sell
A single "Services" page listing eight services will rank for none of them. Eight pages rank for eight things. This is the most common structural mistake and the most valuable to fix.
3. Real internal linking
Link between related pages using descriptive text. "Read more" tells a search engine nothing; "how we price WordPress maintenance" tells it a great deal. Every page should be reachable within three clicks of the homepage.
4. One H1 per page, headings in order
Sounds pedantic; it structures the document for both crawlers and screen readers. Do not use headings for visual size — that is what CSS is for.
5. Images with descriptive names and alt text
oak-desk-lamp-brass.jpg, not IMG_4471.jpg. Free, quick, and it opens image search.
6. A sitemap that is accurate and submitted
Containing only pages you want indexed, with real lastmod dates, submitted in Search Console. A sitemap full of redirects and 404s is worse than none.
7. Search Console set up and looked at
It is free, it is the only source of real data about your search performance, and a great many businesses have never opened it. Check coverage errors monthly.
8. Speed on a real phone
Core Web Vitals are a ranking input and, more importantly, a conversion one. Field data, not lab scores.
9. Content that answers the actual question
Not stuffed with keywords — written for someone who typed a question and needs an answer. If your page does not answer it better than the ones currently ranking, position is not the problem.
10. hreflang if you are multilingual
Reciprocal, complete, with an x-default. Broken hreflang on a bilingual site quietly halves its visibility, and nothing on the page looks wrong.
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