SEO (search engine optimisation) is the ongoing work of making your website easy for Google to find, understand and trust, so it has a fair chance of appearing when people search for what you offer. For a trades business, that usually means fixing technical problems, improving the pages you already have, publishing useful content, looking after your local listing and checking what is working. None of it can force Google’s hand, but done steadily it gives your site a solid footing.
How Google finds, understands and ranks pages
Google’s own explanation of how Search works breaks the process into three stages:
- Crawling – automated programs (crawlers) discover pages and download their text, images and videos. Google mainly finds new pages through links from pages it has already crawled.
- Indexing – Google works out what each page is about and stores that information in its index, a huge database of pages.
- Serving results – when someone searches, Google looks through the index for matching pages and shows the ones it judges most relevant. That judgement uses hundreds of factors, which can include the searcher’s location, language and device.
Two points from the same page are worth remembering. Google doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more often or rank it higher, and it doesn’t guarantee that it will crawl, index or show any page, even one that follows its guidelines.
The same basics apply to Google’s AI features, such as AI Overviews. Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in them: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, so ordinary SEO good practice is what counts.
The main areas of SEO work
Technical health
Before anything else, Google has to be able to reach and read your pages. Its technical requirements are short: Googlebot (Google’s crawler) mustn’t be blocked, the page must work (your server returns a normal “success” response), and the page must have content Google can index. Even then, indexing isn’t guaranteed.
A typical technical check covers:
- Pages you want found aren’t blocked or marked “noindex” by mistake
- Broken pages and redirects are fixed
- The site works well on phones, because Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking
- The site is served securely over HTTPS
- Pages load quickly and don’t jump around as they load
That last point relates to Core Web Vitals, a set of measurements of loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability. Google says they are used by its ranking systems, but its page experience guidance is clear that relevance comes first and good scores don’t guarantee top rankings. Treat speed as part of a good experience for visitors, not a shortcut.
On-page work
On-page SEO means making each page clear about what it covers. Google’s SEO Starter Guide recommends:
- A unique, accurate page title for every page – one of the main sources Google uses for the clickable headline in search results
- A short, page-specific meta description – a summary Google sometimes uses for the snippet of text under that headline
- Readable URLs with useful words rather than random strings of characters
- Descriptive link text, so people and Google know what a link leads to
- Alt text on images – a short description that explains what an image shows and how it relates to the page
The same guide notes that Google doesn’t use the meta keywords tag, and that cramming keywords into a page (“keyword stuffing”) is against its spam policies.
Content
Content is where most of the long-term value sits: the Starter Guide says useful, compelling content is likely to influence how your site does in search more than anything else it covers. Google asks site owners to create helpful, reliable, people-first content: pages written mainly to help readers, not to manipulate rankings. Its self-assessment questions are a good test. Does the page offer original information or analysis? Is it written or reviewed by someone who knows the subject well?
For most trades businesses, that means a clear page for each service, honest answers to the questions customers ask when they ring, photos of real jobs, and evidence of your experience and accreditations. Length alone doesn’t matter for ranking, so there’s no target word count to hit.
Local SEO
If you serve customers in a particular area, your Google Business Profile matters as much as your website. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence – how well your profile matches the search, how far you are from the searcher, and how well known your business is. Businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and more reviews and positive ratings can help. There’s no way to pay for a better local ranking.
Follow Google’s guidelines for representing your business: use your real-world business name without extra keywords, an accurate address or service area, and your genuine opening hours. Breaking these rules can lead to your profile being suspended. Our Google Business Profile checklist walks through the setup step by step.
Earned links and promotion
Links from other websites to yours (often called backlinks) help Google discover your pages. Google’s SEO Starter Guide describes PageRank, which looks at links, as one of many ranking signals rather than the whole picture. The key word is earned. Google’s spam policies treat buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link swaps and automated link-building as link spam, and sites that break these policies may rank lower or disappear from results.
Good ways to earn attention include local partnerships, trade bodies, suppliers, press coverage and word of mouth – which the Starter Guide calls one of the most effective and lasting ways to promote a site.
Measuring progress with Search Console and GA4
Two free Google tools do most of the measuring:
- Google Search Console helps you monitor and troubleshoot how your site appears in Google. Its Performance report shows clicks, impressions (how often your site appeared in results), click-through rate (clicks divided by impressions) and average position. It also flags indexing problems.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4) shows what visitors do once they arrive. Its Organic Search channel covers people who came from unpaid search results, and you can mark important actions, such as an enquiry form being sent, as key events.
Rankings for a handful of phrases tell you little on their own. Calls and quote requests from search tell you far more.
How long does SEO take?
Plan in months, not weeks. Google’s Starter Guide says some changes take effect within hours while others can take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change has worked. New pages also need to be crawled and indexed before they can appear at all.
Google’s page Do you need an SEO? is blunt: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” It suggests asking any SEO what results they expect and in what timeframe, and notes that a great time to bring one in is when you’re considering a redesign or planning a new site – the earlier, the better.
What a good SEO report looks like
A useful monthly report should be something you can read in ten minutes and understand without a glossary. Look for:
- A plain list of what was done, including every change made to your site
- Search Console clicks and impressions, compared with the previous period and the same time last year
- Organic visits and key events (enquiries, calls, bookings) from GA4
- Technical issues found, fixed or still outstanding
- What didn’t work, as well as what did
- What’s planned next, and why
What to be wary of
Google’s own advice on hiring an SEO lists several warning signs:
- Guaranteed rankings, or a promised first place in results
- Claims of a “special relationship” with Google or a “priority submit” service
- Unsolicited emails from agencies you’ve never contacted
- Secrecy, or a refusal to explain what they plan to do
- Talk of link schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines
- Tools claiming to be “approved” by Google Search
Ask whether they follow Google Search Essentials and how they measure success. Our guide on how to choose an SEO agency covers more questions worth asking.
Need a hand?
If you’d like someone to look at where your site stands and explain what would help, get in touch for a no-pressure chat.