SEO Basics Every Small Business Should Know

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of making your website appear higher in Google search results. When done right, it brings free, organic traffic to your website without spending money on ads.

What is SEO? When someone searches 'best restaurant in Ludhiana' on Google, the websites that appear on the first page get 90% of all clicks. SEO is the set of techniques that help your website appear on that first page.

Google My Business The single most important thing for local businesses is setting up Google My Business (now Google Business Profile). It's completely free and puts your business on Google Maps. Include your address, phone number, hours, photos, and encourage customers to leave reviews.

Keywords Matter Think about what your customers would search for. A dentist in Jalandhar should include phrases like 'dentist in Jalandhar', 'dental clinic Jalandhar', 'teeth cleaning Jalandhar' naturally throughout their website.

Mobile-Friendly Website Over 80% of internet users in India browse on mobile phones. Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher. If your website looks broken on a phone, you're losing both customers and Google ranking.

Page Speed Google loves fast websites. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, 53% of visitors will leave. Use optimized images, good hosting, and clean code to keep your site fast.

Content is King Regularly adding useful content (blog posts, FAQs, guides) signals to Google that your website is active and helpful. Even one blog post per month can significantly improve your rankings over time.