Business SEO: What to Fix First to Get Found

It’s a familiar and frustrating feeling. You’ve invested in a professional website for your business, but the only people who visit are you and your mum. When you have a brilliant service to offer, being invisible online feels like shouting into the void.

Read the full guide: Podcast Management Services (UK) — the complete plain-English walkthrough for UK small business owners.

Before you consider spending a fortune on advertising, it’s worth checking your foundations. Very often, a few strategic fixes to your business SEO are all it takes to get the right people finding you on Google. Here is what we’ve seen work, and what we recommend fixing first.

Stop guessing what people search for

Many small business owners make the mistake of optimising their website for the wrong words. They use industry jargon or describe their services in a way that makes sense to them, but not to a potential client who is just starting to look for a solution.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) starts with understanding the exact words and phrases your ideal clients type into Google. This isn't about 'stuffing keywords'. It's about empathy and matching the language your audience uses.

Think about intent

Someone searching for “how to get more coaching clients” is in a different frame of mind to someone searching for “business coach for therapists”. The first person is looking for information and ideas. The second is looking to hire someone specific. You need content on your site that serves both, but your main service pages should target the people who are ready to buy.

Where to find these phrases

You don’t need expensive tools to get started. Begin by thinking like your client.

• Brainstorm problems: List the top 5 problems your clients have before they work with you. How would they describe them in their own words?
• Use Google: Start typing these problems into Google and see what it suggests in the autocomplete dropdown. This is a goldmine of what real people are searching for.
• Look at the search results page: When you search, scroll down. Look at the “People also ask” box and the “Related searches” at the very bottom. These are all clues about what people want to know.

Your goal is to build a simple list of phrases that real people use. For coaches, this might be SEO for coaches or “executive coach near me”. For therapists, it could be SEO for therapists or “anxiety therapy online”. This simple research gives you a map for everything that follows.

Make your website actually answer the question

Once you know what people are searching for, you need to make sure your website pages directly address those needs. Google’s job is to provide its users with the most relevant and useful result for their search. Your job is to make it obvious that your page is that result.

This is often called ‘on-page SEO’ and there are three critical places to get right for every important page on your site.

1. Page Title (or Title Tag): This is the blue link that appears in Google search results. It should be clear, compelling, and contain your main target phrase. Keep it under 60 characters. Instead of a title like “Services”, a better title would be “Business Coaching for Creative Founders | Your Company Name”.
2. Meta Description: This is the short paragraph of text under the blue link in search results. It doesn’t directly influence rankings, but it heavily influences whether someone clicks. It’s your 155-character advert. Summarise what the page is about and why they should visit.
3. H1 Heading: This is the main headline on the page itself. There should only be one H1 on each page, and it should clearly tell the visitor (and Google) what the page is about. It should align with your Page Title but doesn't have to be identical.

Beyond these key elements, the text on the page needs to be well-written, helpful, and naturally use the language of your clients. A website that converts for a small business is one that speaks directly to a visitor's problems and presents a clear solution.

Tidy up your technical house

You do not need to be a developer to handle the basics of technical SEO. Google wants to send its users to websites that provide a good experience. A technically sound website is a huge part of that.

Here are three areas to check yourself.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

More than half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. If your site is difficult to read or navigate on a phone, people will leave immediately. This is a negative signal to Google. Open your website on your own phone. Can you read the text without pinching and zooming? Are the buttons easy to tap? Is the menu simple to use? If not, this is a priority to fix.

Is it fast enough?

A slow-loading website is another major cause of frustration. People are impatient. If your page takes more than a few seconds to appear, many will simply give up. You can use Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to check your site. Often, the biggest cause of slow speeds is using images that are far too large. Resizing and compressing your images before you upload them is one of the quickest wins available.

Is the structure logical?

Can a new visitor easily find what they are looking for? A clear, simple navigation menu is essential. For most service businesses, something like Home | About | Services | Blog | Contact is perfect. A confusing structure not only frustrates users but also makes it harder for Google to understand what your most important pages are. This is also where our Podcast Management services can help, by creating content that naturally builds out the authority of your website.

Get your local signals straight

Even if you work with clients globally, local SEO signals can provide a powerful boost, especially if you offer services that people might search for with a location qualifier (like “accountant in Manchester”).

For any business with a physical address or a defined service area, creating and optimising a Google Business Profile is non-negotiable. It is the single most effective free tool for improving your small business visibility in local search results and on Google Maps.

To make it work for you:

• Claim and verify your profile: Make sure you have control of it.
• Ensure consistency: Your business Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) must be identical across your website and your profile.
• Complete every section: Fill out your services, add your opening hours (even if by appointment only), write a full description, and upload high-quality photos of you, your workspace, and your logo.
• Get reviews: Actively and systematically ask every happy client to leave you a review. Reviews are a huge trust signal for both potential customers and Google.

This is a critical part of *small business marketing * strategy for any company serving a specific geographic area, but its value extends to online-only businesses too as a general signal of legitimacy.

Write for humans, not robots

Ultimately, SEO success comes down to one thing: creating the most helpful resource for the person searching. All the technical tweaks in the world won’t help a website with thin, unhelpful, or unoriginal content.

Think about the questions your clients ask you all the time. Those are your best content ideas. Write articles, create guides, or record videos that answer them. When you create genuinely useful content, good things happen.

• People stay on your site longer, showing Google it’s a valuable resource.
• People are more likely to share your content or link to it from their own sites.
• You build trust and demonstrate your expertise, making it easier for a prospect to decide to work with you.

This is why we encourage so many of our clients to think about their bigger content platforms, like a book or a podcast. A podcast can be a brilliant source of articles for your website, and a book establishes you as a true authority. Both are powerful assets that improve your visibility way beyond simple SEO. You can find out more about our process for this in our Book Publishing services.

Don’t aim for perfection. Consistency is far more important. A useful 800-word article published every month is much better for your business than a perfect 3,000-word article you only manage to write once a year.

What to do next

Working through these foundational steps will put you ahead of most of your competition. It takes time, but the effort is worth it to build a sustainable source of leads for your business.

If you’re feeling stuck or want an expert eye on your website, we can help. Book a free, no-obligation 30-minute call and we can talk through your business and how to get it seen.

Book your free visibility review here