Technical SEO for small business websites, explained.
How search engines find, read and judge your pages, and the fixes that matter most, based on what Google publishes about its own systems. No ranking guarantees, no tricks.
Topics: Crawling and Indexing · Speed and Mobile · Site Health
Mixed Content Warnings: Fixing HTTP Assets on an HTTPS Site
Find and fix HTTP images, scripts and iframes that trigger mixed content warnings on your HTTPS pages, and keep your site secure for visitors.
XML Sitemaps: What to Include, What Google Ignores and How to Submit
What an XML sitemap is for, which URLs belong in it, the 50,000-URL limit, how Google uses lastmod, and how to submit a sitemap now that ping is gone.
Structured Data for Small Businesses: What’s Worth Adding
What structured data does, why JSON-LD is recommended, schema types that help local businesses, the 2023 FAQ and HowTo changes, and how to test.
robots.txt vs. noindex: Blocking Crawling Is Not Blocking Indexing
The difference between robots.txt and noindex, why combining them backfires, common robots.txt mistakes and how to keep pages out of Google.
Redirects and Site Migrations: Moving Pages Without Losing Traffic
301, 302, 307 and 308 redirects explained, mapping old URLs to new ones, Google’s Change of Address tool and why redirects should stay up.
Reading Google’s Page Indexing Report: What Each Status Means
What the statuses in Search Console’s page indexing report mean, which ones need fixing, and how to tell a real problem from normal behavior.
Mobile-First Indexing: Google Reads Your Site the Way a Phone Does
What mobile-first indexing means, what changed in July 2024 for sites that fail on phones, and a checklist for keeping mobile and desktop in step.
Image Optimization: Faster Pages and Better Image Search
How to size, compress and format images for the web, when to lazy-load, why width and height matter, and how to write useful alt text and file names.
HTTPS and Site Security: The Basics That Protect Your Visitors and Your Rankings
Why every site needs HTTPS, the ‘Not secure’ warning, mixed content, moving from http to https, and habits that keep hacked pages out of Google.
Core Web Vitals for Small Business Sites: LCP, INP and CLS
What the three Core Web Vitals measure, the good and poor thresholds, why INP replaced FID in 2024, where to find your real-user data and common fixes.
