SEO basics every business owner should know.
September 24, 2026
One of my earliest SEO clients was a landscaper with an outdated website. Over his slow winter months, I rebuilt the site and worked on his SEO and content. When the next season came around, his revenue was up by roughly a quarter of a million dollars, many times what he’d put into the work with me.
Not every result is that dramatic. But it shows what’s at stake when the right people can find you, and what’s being left on the table when they can’t.
SEO sounds technical, and plenty of people selling it like to keep it that way. For a local business, it comes down to something simple: when someone nearby searches for what you do, do they find you, and do they like what they find?
Where it happens
SEO mostly lives in three places:
- Your Google Business Profile, the listing with your map pin, hours and reviews. For many local businesses, it brings in more work than the website does.
- What other places say about you: reviews, directories and anywhere else your business shows up online.
- Your website, and whether it answers what people are searching for. If you worked hard to get people to your site, don’t disappoint them when they arrive.
All three need to tell the same story. When they don’t, Google trusts you less, and so do your customers.
Three mistakes I see all the time
Ask an SEO person almost anything and the answer starts with “it depends.” It’s a running joke, but it’s also true. Still, a few mistakes come up no matter what:
Judging by the searches you’d type. Owners often check how they rank for the words they would use, or for their own business name. But your customers search in their own words, and those can be very different. What matters is what’s actually being searched, and that’s something you can look up rather than guess.
Your own searches can mislead you in another way, too. Results can change with where the person searching is located. Check from your shop and you’ll see what’s near your shop, while a customer across town may see a different list.
Chasing the big term. Ranking first for “landscaper” sounds like the prize. It’s also the hardest search to win, and many of the people typing it are just browsing. Someone searching “retaining wall installation Spruce Grove” knows what they want and where. Those smaller, specific searches are easier to win, and they’re the ones that turn into jobs. The big term is still worth working toward. Just don’t count on it early.
Setting it and forgetting it. SEO isn’t something you finish in one go. Competitors keep working on theirs, Google keeps changing, and reviews get older. It’s like going to the gym: one visit won’t get you in shape. The businesses that stay on top keep showing up.
Basics you can do yourself
- Ask every happy customer for a review, and reply to the ones you get. It’s the cheapest win there is.
- Keep your business name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere they appear online.
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current: hours, services, photos of real jobs.
A warning about your Google Business Profile
Getting your profile right matters. But Google is strict about it, and profiles do get suspended or removed. I’ve seen it happen many times.
The most sensitive areas are:
- Your business name. Don’t add keywords to it (“Joe’s Roofing Best Roofer Edmonton”), and don’t keep changing it.
- Your location. An address that looks suspicious to Google, or one that keeps changing, is a common way to get flagged.
There are other, smaller risks too. If you’re not sure about a change, get help before you make it. Getting a suspended profile back can take a while, and until it’s back, you don’t show up on the map at all.
The takeaway
SEO for a local business isn’t magic, and it isn’t a one-time job. Be easy to find for the searches your customers type, look trustworthy when they find you, and keep at it.
If you’d like a hand with the parts that need a careful touch, let’s talk.