10 SEO mistakes I see on almost every small business website (and how to fix them)
The most common SEO mistakes on small business websites: forgotten noindex, generic titles, missing descriptions, sites that break on mobile, content invisible to Google… and how to check them for free.
I review a lot of websites for small businesses, shops and professionals, and the same problems keep coming up. The good news: almost all of them can be fixed quickly and without rebuilding the site. Here's the list, from most to least serious.
You can check most of them on your site right now with the free SEO checker.
1. A forgotten "noindex"
The most expensive and silliest mistake: the site was built in a staging environment telling Google not to index it, and that instruction survived launch. Result: the site doesn't appear on Google, however good it is.
Fix: look for noindex in the <meta name="robots"> tag and your server's X-Robots-Tag header, and remove it.
2. Generic titles ("Home", "Welcome")
The page title is what Google shows in big letters in results. "Home | My Company" tells no one what you do or where.
Fix: a different title per page, 15-65 characters, with the service and city.
3. No meta description
If you don't write it, Google grabs any snippet of text from the page. The description doesn't rank directly, but it decides whether people click.
Fix: 70-165 characters explaining what you offer and why choose you.
4. The site doesn't work well on mobile
Most local searches happen on mobile, and Google evaluates the mobile version of your site.
Fix: responsive design and the viewport tag. Open your site on your phone and try to book an appointment: if it's hard, there's work to do.
5. Content Google can't see
Many modern sites "paint" all their text with JavaScript. The browser shows it, but the HTML Google receives arrives almost empty. Google reads it eventually, later and worse, and many AI tools that cite websites never read it.
Fix: get the content into the HTML (prerendered or server-rendered). It happened with my own site, as I explain in why I rebuilt it.
6. Several H1s, or none
The H1 is the page's main heading. None, or five because the design uses them to make text big, confuses what the page is about.
Fix: exactly one H1 per page that says what it offers.
7. One page for every service
"We do everything" on one page ranks for nothing specific. In the Vigo case, a dedicated service page reached position 4.7 while searches for a service without its own page stayed beyond position 40.
Fix: one page per important service, written for what people search.
8. Huge images without alt text
5 MB photos uploaded as-is that slow the site down, and no alt attribute, which is what Google (and screen readers) use to know what an image shows.
Fix: compress, serve modern formats (WebP or AVIF) and describe each image in its alt.
9. No structured data or sitemap
Structured data (schema.org) tells Google, in its own language, that you're a local business, your hours or your FAQs. The sitemap gives it the list of all your pages.
Fix: add the schema for your business type and a sitemap submitted through Search Console.
10. Redirect chains and duplicate versions
http://www.yoursite.com → https://www.yoursite.com → https://yoursite.com. Every hop costs time, and serving several versions without canonical can look like duplicate content to Google.
Fix: pick one version of the domain, reach it in a single hop, and add a canonical tag to every page.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these mistakes is the most serious?
The forgotten noindex, because the site doesn't appear at all. After that, not working on mobile and having no visible content in the HTML.
Can I fix this myself?
Some yes (titles, descriptions, alt text) from your site's admin. Others, like invisible content or redirects, usually need whoever maintains the site. If you'd rather hand it over, it's part of what I do in web design and SEO in Ourense.
If I fix these, will I rank first?
Not necessarily. Fixing them is the technical foundation; ranking also depends on content, competition, reviews and links.