SEO basics: what actually helps a small business get found
Search engine optimisation in plain English — the handful of things that move the needle when you have one website and no marketing team.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It simply means making it easy for Google to understand what you do, who you do it for and where you do it — so it can show your website to the right people.
You do not need to do everything. A small business usually gets most of the benefit from five things.
The five that matter most
- A page title that names your service and your city, for example 'Wedding photographer in Boise, Idaho'.
- A description under 160 characters that reads like a sentence you would say out loud.
- One clear main heading per page, describing that page only.
- Real words on the page. Images of text and slideshow-only pages give Google nothing to read.
- A Google Business Profile that is claimed, complete and collecting reviews.
What to ignore for now
Keyword density, meta keywords tags and buying backlinks are either outdated or risky. Fix your titles, your words and your Google profile first — they are the foundation everything else sits on.
How to tell it is working
Watch two numbers month over month: how many people find you through Google search, and how many reviews you have. Both move slowly and steadily. A month-to-month comparison tells you far more than any single day.
Want this done for your site, one fix at a time?
Bloom checks your website, Google profile and social bios, then walks you through the fixes in plain English.
See how Bloom works