DIY SEO checklist: what a small business can do before hiring anyone

Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

For any business with a physical location or service area, Google Business Profile is the single highest-leverage thing you control. It drives the map results that most local searches show first.

1. 01 Claim or verify the profile using a company email address you control, not a personal or agency account.
2. 02 Choose the most specific primary category and add relevant secondary categories.
3. 03 Fill every field: hours, phone, website, services, attributes, service area.
4. 04 Add real photos of the exterior, interior, team, and work. Update them periodically.
5. 05 Write a plain description of what you do and where.
6. 06 Post updates occasionally and answer questions people leave.

Get the on-page basics right

Search engines need to understand what each page is about. For a small site, this means a handful of edits per page rather than anything technical.

• Give each page a unique title that names the service and the place, such as "Residential Electrician in Berkeley."
• Write a one or two sentence meta description that says what the page offers.
• Use one main heading per page that matches the title's intent.
• Create a separate page for each core service and, if you serve several cities, for each major location, with genuinely different content.
• Put your name, address, and phone number in the footer of every page, matching your Google Business Profile exactly.
• Link between related pages with descriptive link text.

Make the site reasonably fast and mobile friendly

Most local searches happen on phones. Your site does not need to be perfect, but it needs to load quickly and be usable on a small screen. Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool will tell you what is slow.

• Compress and resize images before uploading; oversized photos are the most common cause of slow pages.
• Remove plugins, scripts, or widgets you do not use.
• Check that phone numbers are tappable and forms work on mobile.
• Make sure the site uses HTTPS.

Build consistent local citations

Citations are listings of your business name, address, and phone on other sites: Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, industry directories, the local chamber of commerce. Consistency matters more than volume. Inconsistent addresses or old phone numbers confuse both search engines and customers.

1. 01 Decide the exact format of your name, address, and phone number and use it everywhere.
2. 02 Claim the major listings: Yelp, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Facebook.
3. 03 Add relevant industry and local directories, a few at a time.
4. 04 Search for old listings with outdated details and correct them.

Collect and respond to reviews

Reviews influence both rankings in local results and whether people choose you. Ask satisfied customers for a review, make it easy with a direct link, and respond to every review, including negative ones, calmly and briefly. Never buy or fabricate reviews; the platforms detect it and the damage is lasting.

Publish simple, useful content

You do not need a blog with weekly posts. You need pages that answer the questions your customers actually ask. A contractor might write a page on permit requirements in their city; a clinic might explain what to expect at a first visit; a restaurant might describe private dining options. Write plainly, in your own voice, and answer the question fully.

One useful page a month is more valuable than four thin ones. Look at the questions people ask you by phone or email; that is your content list.

Measure with Search Console and GA4

Set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 yourself, under an account you own. Search Console shows which searches bring people to your site and any technical problems. GA4 shows what visitors do once they arrive. Check both monthly. You do not need to understand everything; watching organic clicks and conversions over time is enough to know whether things are improving.