A Technical SEO Checklist for Small Business Websites
Updated: Jun 8
Great content cannot rank if search engines struggle to crawl, load or understand your website. Technical SEO is the foundation, and most small business sites have a few easy wins sitting unfixed. Work through this checklist.
Crawling and indexing
Submit an XML sitemap in Google Search Console
Check the Pages report for URLs that are not indexed and find out why
Make sure important pages are not blocked by a noindex tag
Fix broken links and redirect old URLs to their closest new page
Page titles and headings
Give every page a unique title tag that includes its main topic
Write a clear meta description that earns the click
Use one H1 per page and a logical order of subheadings
Speed and mobile
Most visitors arrive on a phone. Compress large images, avoid heavy sliders and test your key pages on mobile. Google's PageSpeed Insights is a free place to start.
Security and structure
Serve the whole site over HTTPS
Use simple, readable URLs
Link related pages together so visitors and search engines can follow the path
Structured data
Adding schema markup for your business, services and reviews helps search engines understand what each page is about.
Fix the items above first. They are rarely glamorous, but they are often what separates a site that ranks from one that does not.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on this, get in touch with Merx Marketing via the Contact page for a free consultation.
