Fix the foundations before you publish more content
Content and links only work when search engines can crawl, understand and quickly load your pages. This checklist covers the technical basics every small business site should get right.
Crawling and indexing
Make sure you have an XML sitemap submitted in Google Search Console, a robots.txt file that does not block important pages, and one canonical URL for every page. Check the Pages report for 'Excluded' URLs you did not expect.
Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Compress images, serve modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, avoid heavy scripts and use a CDN. Aim for fast loading of the main content, stable layouts and quick response to taps and clicks.
Mobile usability
Most searches happen on phones. Use a responsive layout, readable text without zooming and buttons that are easy to tap.
Titles, descriptions and headings
Each page needs a unique title of roughly 50 to 60 characters, a helpful meta description and a single H1 that matches the page's purpose. Use H2 and H3 headings to structure the content.
Structured data
Schema markup helps search engines understand your business, services and FAQs. Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList are good starting points.
Security and clean URLs
Use HTTPS everywhere, redirect www and non-www to one version, and keep URLs short and descriptive.
Internal links
Link related pages together using descriptive anchor text. This helps visitors and spreads authority to the pages that matter most.