by Siobhan

Improve SEO in 60 minutes (5 free steps)

Have you been told that SEO isn’t worth it for your small or local business?

That advice is usually aimed at people who can’t afford to throw thousands at an agency every month.

There are a few simple things you can do today to improve SEO and help your business get seen on Google. These five quick fixes cost nothing, take about an hour, and can improve your SEO significantly.

  1. Claim and optimise your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is a free tool that lets you manage how your local business appears across Google Search and Google Maps.

If someone searches for a business like “Jumbo Caffeine Coffee Shop”, that detailed information box that appears is a Google Business Profile. If they search for something like “4th coffee today near me”, the list of local businesses that appears at the top is also powered by Google Business Profile.

Think of it as your “other” homepage. It’s where customers check your opening hours, read reviews, see photos, ask questions, find directions, and sometimes even buy products or services.

For many businesses it is the first, and sometimes the only, interaction a customer has with your brand.

Go to google.com/business, claim your listing, and fill in every single section. (And yes, I mean everything.)

Optimising your Google Business Profile is one of the fastest ways to improve SEO for a local business. It’s free and it’s often where your first leads will come from.

  1. Sort out your page titles

Open your website and look at what it says in the browser tab at the top.

If your homepage tab says “Home”, and your about page says “About”, you’re missing an opportunity to tell Google what your business does.

Your page titles should tell both Google and humans what the page is about.

Open your website and look at the tabs at the top of your browser.

If it says “Home”, change it to something like: [Your main keyword or business name] | [City] | [Core service].

If it says “About”, change it to: About [Company name] | [What you do].

If it says “Services”, change it to: [Specific service name] in [City] | [Company name].

Clear page titles help Google understand your site and help potential customers quickly understand what you offer, which helps improve SEO over time.

  1. Turn customer questions into content

Think about the questions customers ask you all the time. Those same questions are probably being typed into Google.

You can provide a useful, helpful answer that customers (and Google) love. So be generous with information on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), blogs or service pages. And if they’re not ready to buy yet, being helpful puts your name in mind when they are!

And if you ever feel like you’re running out of ideas for blog posts, social media, or newsletters, here’s the secret: you don’t actually need new ideas. Just turn those same customer questions into content.

  1. Get some reviews

Google reviews are the lifeblood for local SEO, especially for small businesses.

Your review quantity, quality (star rating), and response rate are critical ranking factors. A strong review strategy builds immense trust with both customers and Google.

The easiest way to get reviews? Make it easy to give one.

Send customers a message with a direct link to leave a Google review and add it to places like your invoice, email signature, website, or business card. Make it inescapable (in a nice way).

  1. Check that your website actually works

You’d be surprised how many websites quietly break over time – and how many business website owners never check. Pages slow down, links stop working, and some sites don’t work properly on mobile.

Before worrying about advanced SEO tactics, make sure your website actually works properly. Fixing these basic issues can quietly improve SEO performance without any complicated tools.

Ask yourself a few simple questions. Does it load in a reasonable time? Can people use it on their phone? Can visitors easily find your contact page?

There are a few free tools that can help you check:

Otherwise, you wake up every morning saying a small prayer to the server gods.

SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. Often it’s the simple things that make the biggest difference. Spend an hour going through these five steps, and you’ll already be doing more for your SEO than many businesses ever do.

If you’d rather sit through the Irish/Czechia match 10 times than look at anything related to marketing, feel free to get in touch—I’d be happy to help.

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