If one thing makes small business owners who understand marketing break out in a cold sweat, it’s SEO.
“Blessed are the poor in SEO knowledge, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Being knowledgeable in SEO makes you think about millions of reasons why you can’t do it good. Those who know only a little bit don’t have the anxiety. They just do it.
And that’s the key difference..
But here’s the plain old truth – while SEO has complexities, the fundamentals that drive most results aren’t rocket science. In fact, with a few straightforward tweaks, you can significantly improve your website’s search performance.
Let’s cut through the mystique and look at five practical SEO tricks you can implement today, even if you think HTML sounds like a football league in Helsinki.
Speak Your Customers’ Language, Not SEO Jargon
The cornerstone of effective SEO isn’t gaming algorithms, it’s about understanding what your potential customers are actually typing into search boxes.
Many business owners make the mistake of optimising for technical terms they use internally, rather than the everyday language their customers use. For example, you might call it “a real Italian gastronomic experience,” but your customers search for “pizza delivery nearby.”
Quick Implementation:
- Make a list of the last 10 questions customers asked you
- Note the exact words they used to describe their problems
- Check if these phrases appear on your website
- If not, update your headings and content to include them
The simple alignment between your content and your customers’ language can produce remarkable results, and give your brand a personality – we wrote about it as well.
Give Google What It’s Begging For: Page Titles and Descriptions
If you take nothing else from this article, remember this: your page titles and meta descriptions are like the cover of your book. They’re the first thing Google reads and often what determines whether someone clicks on your link.
Yet many websites have vague titles like “Home” or “Services” or, worse, automatically generated nonsense that means nothing to humans or search engines.
Quick Implementation:
- Every page title should include:
- Your main keyword for that page
- Your business name
- A compelling reason to click (when possible)
- Keep titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation
- Write meta descriptions that summarize the page content in 155 characters or less
For example, instead of “Products | Pizza Place,” use “Pick your Pizza | Quick Delivery | Pizza Place”
Fix the Technical Issue Hiding in Plain Sight
You don’t need to understand code to fix one of the most common technical SEO problems: site speed. A slow-loading website isn’t just a major factor in Google’s ranking decisions; it’s also bloody annoying.
The good news is that oversized images are the most common cause of slow sites, and fixing them requires zero technical expertise.
Quick Implementation:
- Go to Google’s PageSpeed Insights and test your website
- Look for “Properly sized images” in the suggestions
- Download free tools like ImageOptim (Mac) or RIOT (Windows)
- Reduce your image sizes before uploading them to your site
Make Your Content Answer the Question Behind the Search
Google has become remarkably good at understanding user intent, and we aren’t getting into LLM like ChatGPT, which is even better in it. Good old Google understands the real question behind a search query. Your content needs to do the same.
For example, when someone searches “best pizza toppings,” they’re not looking for a 1,000-word history of pizza. They want specific, tasty topping combinations they can order tonight.
Quick Implementation:
- Identify your top 5 target keywords
- For each, ask “what problem is the searcher trying to solve?”
- Review your current content – does it directly address this problem?
- Add clear, concise answers near the top of your content
- Use subheadings that mirror common questions
This approach improves your ranking potential and chances of appearing in featured snippet, those coveted answer boxes at the top of search results.
Build Internal Links Like Stepping Stones
Internal links are links from one page on your site to another and a secret weapon. They help Google understand which pages are most important and how they relate to each other. Like we did with Tone of voice or Marketing channels.
Oops, we did it again.
Think of your website as a city and internal links as the roads. Without them, visitors (including search engines) can’t navigate efficiently.
Quick Implementation:
- Identify your 3-5 most important “money” pages (the ones that drive conversions)
- Find relevant mentions of related topics throughout your site
- Add links from those mentions to your important pages
- Use descriptive text in your links, not just “click here”
For example, if you run a pizzeria and write a blog post about cheese types, link phrases like “our signature pepperoni pizza” to your menu page.
Testing If Your Changes Are Working
The beauty of these SEO improvements is that you can measure their impact. Here’s how to know if your changes are making a difference:
- Set up Google Search Console (it’s free and takes minutes)
- Take screenshots of your current performance metrics
- Implement the changes above
- Compare metrics after 30 days, looking for:
- Improved click-through rates
- Higher average positions
- More impressions for target keywords
Remember, SEO isn’t an overnight miracle, it’s a process.
But these foundational improvements often show meaningful results within a month or two.
So trust the process, Sam Hinkie.
Ready to take your SEO to the next level? Download our free “Complete SEO Audit Checklist” to identify even more opportunities to improve your search performance.
