Willy Evans

If you run a small business, you’ve probably heard that SEO is important, and maybe even that it’s “easy.” And in some ways, it is. You don’t need to hire an agency or spend thousands to start showing up in search results.

But when you’re juggling everything from inventory to invoices, SEO becomes one more thing that’s easy to get wrong. A few simple missteps can mean the difference between getting discovered or getting ignored. This post breaks down what small businesses can do right, and what they often do wrong when it comes to SEO.

What Makes SEO “Easy” for Small Businesses

You don’t have to go head-to-head with national brands on every keyword. In fact, small and local businesses have a real advantage in SEO: relevance. Google cares more about serving up helpful, local results than it does about how big your budget is.

Tools like Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) give you a direct line to local search visibility, and simple content strategies, like building out pages for each of your services and the areas you serve, can make a huge impact without requiring a marketing team.

The key advantage? You know your community. Use that to your benefit. You’re not trying to rank across the country, you’re trying to rank across town.

Where Small Businesses Commonly Slip Up

Even though the fundamentals are simple, it’s easy to overlook them when you’re running a business day-to-day. Some of the most common SEO mistakes I see from small businesses include:

• Not claiming or optimizing their Google Business Profile
• Ignoring mobile performance or letting slow load times drive people away
• Stuffing keywords unnaturally, instead of writing the way real people search
• Forgetting to list all of their services or products, every offering is a discovery point
• Overthinking brand and image when it comes to SEO, this isn’t about being clever, it’s about being clear

Easy Fixes That Make a Big Difference

SEO rewards attention to detail. Here are a few straightforward actions that can make a major difference:

• Keep your business info consistent: name, address, phone number, and hours should match everywhere online
• Use location-based keywords naturally: mention your city or neighborhood where it fits
• Do simple keyword research: Google’s free Keyword Planner is a great starting point
  • Example: I once worked with a contractor who didn’t want to use the keyword “basement waterproofing” because most homes in the area had crawl spaces. But keyword research showed that local homeowners still searched for “basement waterproofing” when looking for foundation repair services. By using the term, even if it wasn’t technically perfect, we helped them connect with how real people actually searched.
• Add internal links—help search engines (and users) navigate between your website’s pages.

The Bottom Line

SEO doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require attention. Get the basics right, keep showing up with consistent updates, and you’ll already be ahead of most of your competition.

And if you need help, don’t be afraid to bring someone in, just make sure they explain things clearly instead of trying to confuse you with jargon.