SEO for Small Businesses With Limited Resources

You finally sit down to “work on SEO”… and immediately feel behind.

There’s too much to do. Too many opinions. Too many checklists.

So you write a blog. Maybe tweak a few keywords. Then hope it works.

If you are a small business with limited resources, it can be incredibly difficult to know where to start, let alone to get any real results.

The reality is, a little bit of the right leverage can go a long way in SEO. In this article, I break down the essential 7 steps you can take in less then an hour per week to improve your SEO and rankings on Google and AI search (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude).

Table of Contents

1) Stop Chasing Traffic and Identify What People Are Searching

Traffic is not the goal. Leads are.

If someone lands on your site and doesn’t take action, that traffic has no value.

So before anything else, ask:

What would someone type into Google right before hiring me?

That’s what you target.

Examples:

• service + location (Website designer NYC)

• repair + location (septic repair Denver)

• cost or pricing searches (what does a squarespace website designer cost)

• urgent problems that people ask right before they hire someone (do I need to hire a plumber to fix my faucet)

If you want to search keywords, you can use Google's free keyword planner. If you are a small business with limited resources (this includes time), go after the questions you already know your audience is asking. Just be sure to include the City name in titles, url's, headings, page content, FAQ's, and the footer, if you are targeting local SEO.

2) Focus on key money-making pages (such as a service page)

The more pages you create, the more you have to keep up with, optimize, track, etc. Keep it simple and focus on the pages that are most likely to drive revenue, such as your home page and service page(s).

At minimum:

• Homepage

• One main service page

• Supporting service or location pages

• About page

• Contact page

Each page should:

• Match a specific search

• Be clear about what you offer

• Make it easy to contact you

Also, be sure to include an about page and contact page. These are often cited in LLM and AI search models and are critical for building trust with search engines. Plus, the AI models will look for contact information and about information to provide to users.

If you skip on the about or contact page, or don't keep it up to date, it might prevent LLM models from pulling you as a recommendation.

3) Setup and optimize your Google My Business Profile

This is 100% required if you are local. I've seen local businesses do everything "right" with SEO on their website and not rank at all until their profile was setup and optimized.

Even if you aren't a local business, setting up a GMB and getting reviews can help build trust with Google and your audience.

Pro-Tips:

• Make sure the address is within 10 miles of where you want to rank (even if it is a hidden service-based address)

• Write a description that showcases who you are, the value you provide, your location (city name) and any keywords you are targeting. Plus, include trust signals such as how long you've been in service or how many clients you've served.

• Get lot's of reviews. This can be tricky, but it's critical. Grab the "review link" from inside your GMB dashboard and send every client or customer directly to leave a review after you have worked with them.

4) Basic website structure

You don't need to be an SEO expert to build clarity into your website.

Clarity just clear page titles, heading structure, and natural internal links from one page to another.

This is user experience. If your users can easily find and understand the information, so can Google and LLM's.

Here are some key areas to address:

• Each page should have one, and only one, H1 (this is your page title)

• Make each page title clearly state what that page is offering/providing

• Use clear H2's, and H3's for subheadings and always use P1 or P2 (paragraph text) for all blocks of text/paragraphs.

• If you don't like the style, edit using the global "site stiles" not making something an H1 because you like the size better.

• Split big chunks of copy into smaller bit-sized pieces and organize them with boxes or bullets to make things easier to understand.

• Provide clear call to actions and always use descriptive text for alt images and links/buttons (instead of "click here" say "download the SEO Guide PDF".

5) Prove you are the best

Most small businesses don't showcase why they should be chosen over their competitors. Make this clear to your visitors and search engines.

For example, you can add:

• Testimonials

• Real reviews

• Photos of your work

• Years in business

• Certifications

This will improve your conversions and your rankings in SEO.

6) Track the essentials (leads)

Tracking data can take a ton of time and expertise. At minimum, add a "how did you find us" field to your contact forms and make a note each time someone fills that out in your CRM. Over time, you will see trends. If you are actively working on your SEO, start to notice when people say they found you on Google or AI search!

7) Blog later

If you are tight on time, this might be tricky. Get started with the essentials first, and then come back to blogging later.

When you do, stick to questions your audience is already asking. You can turn your FAQ's into blogs. This is a great way to start.

If you do use AI to help you write your blogs, always include your own unique perspective, and always edit the final version (Google is not a fan of AI generated content if it adds no new value and doesn't seem unique).

Final Thoughts

If you’re tired of guessing what tSquarespace SEO Labo work on next, this is exactly what I built my lab for.

Inside the Squarespace SEO Lab, I show you what’s working right now (so you don't have to keep up with industry news), give you a clear system to follow, and help you apply it to your business.

Skip the checklists. What you really need is direction, and that you’re focusing on the right things.