Small Business SEO: The Only 7 Things That Actually Matter

The SEO industry has a jargon problem. "E-E-A-T," "Core Web Vitals," "topical authority," "semantic clustering" — it's enough to make a small business owner's eyes glaze over. Here's what actually moves the needle for local businesses.

1. Claim and Complete Your Google Business Profile

This is the single most impactful thing you can do for local SEO. Your Google Business Profile (the listing that shows up in Maps and the local "3-pack") drives more local traffic than your website for most businesses.

Fill out every field. Every single one. Business hours, services, products, description, photos, attributes. Google rewards completeness. Add 10+ high-quality photos (exterior, interior, team, work examples). Businesses with photos get 42% more direction requests on Google Maps.

Post weekly updates. Answer every question. Respond to every review — positive and negative.

2. Get Your NAP Consistent Everywhere

NAP = Name, Address, Phone Number. Your business name, address, and phone number must be identical everywhere they appear online: your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, industry directories, Chamber of Commerce listings.

"123 Main St" on your website and "123 Main Street" on Google is an inconsistency. It sounds petty, but search engines use NAP consistency to verify your business is real and located where you say it is.

3. Build Service + Location Pages

If you're a plumber in Dallas who also serves Plano, Frisco, and McKinney, you need individual pages for each:

• /plumbing-services-dallas/
• /plumbing-services-plano/
• /plumbing-services-frisco/
• /plumbing-services-mckinney/

Each page should have unique content about serving that area. Not the same text with the city name swapped out — Google catches that. Mention specific neighborhoods, note any area-specific considerations, and include a local phone number if you have one.

4. Get Google Reviews (and Respond to All of Them)

Reviews are a ranking factor. More importantly, they're a conversion factor. A business with 50 reviews and a 4.7-star rating will outperform a business with 3 reviews and a 5.0-star rating every time.

Ask every satisfied customer for a review. Make it easy: send them a direct link to your Google review page. Most people are happy to leave a review — they just need a nudge and a link.

Respond to every review within 24 hours. Thank positive reviewers by name. Address negative reviews professionally and offer to resolve the issue offline.

5. Make Your Website Fast

Google uses page speed as a ranking factor. More importantly, slow websites lose customers. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, visitors leave before they see anything.

The biggest speed killers for small business websites: - Uncompressed images (resize and compress every image before uploading) - Too many plugins/scripts (remove anything you don't actively use) - Cheap shared hosting (upgrade to a quality host — it's $10-20/month) - Heavy sliders and animations (they look nice but destroy performance)

Test at pagespeed.web.dev. Aim for 80+ on mobile.

6. Write Content That Answers Real Questions

You don't need a complex content strategy. You need to answer the questions your customers actually ask. Think about every question you hear on the phone or in person:

• "How much does [your service] cost?"
• "How long does [process] take?"
• "Do I need [service] or [other service]?"
• "What should I look for in a [your profession]?"

Write a blog post or FAQ page answering each one. These are the exact phrases people type into Google. A plumber who writes "How Much Does It Cost to Fix a Leaky Faucet in Dallas?" is targeting the exact search their next customer will make.

7. Build Real Citations and Links

Citations are listings of your business on other websites: Yelp, Yellow Pages, BBB, industry-specific directories (Houzz for contractors, Healthgrades for doctors, Avvo for lawyers). Submit your business to the top 20-30 relevant directories with consistent NAP information.

Local link building comes from community involvement: sponsor a Little League team, participate in a Chamber of Commerce, get mentioned in a local news article, partner with complementary businesses. One link from your local newspaper is worth more than 100 links from random directories.

What You Can Safely Ignore

The SEO industry loves to complicate things. Here's what small businesses can ignore without consequence:

• Keyword density percentages. Write naturally. If your page is about AC repair in Houston, you'll naturally mention those words enough.
• Meta keywords tag. Google has ignored this since 2009. Don't waste time on it.
• Exact match domains. bestplumberindallas.com doesn't give you an advantage over a branded domain.
• Backlink buying. Paid links can get you penalized. Don't risk it.
• SEO tools with monthly subscriptions. You don't need Ahrefs or SEMrush if you're a local plumber. Google Search Console (free) tells you everything you need.

The 80/20 of Local SEO

If you do these 7 things and nothing else, you'll outrank 80% of your local competitors who are doing none of them. SEO isn't magic. It's consistently doing the basics better than everyone else.