SEO Basics: What We Learned Looking at 100 Small-Business Websites
When people need a local business, they Google it. If your site isn't set up right, you don't show up, and they go to a competitor instead. We looked at 100 small-business sites for the basics. Not one had them all. The good news: most of it is free to fix in an afternoon.
of sites fail at least one of these SEO rules.
When customers Google what you sell, whether you show up, and whether anyone taps it, comes down to a few simple things on your website: your Google headline and description, your headings, the words on the page, and a few hidden settings. None of it is technical, most is free, and you do it once.
So we looked at 100 real small-business websites: restaurants, salons, auto shops, trades, gyms, and more. Here's the big takeaway:
How we looked at this
We looked at each site for 17 simple things, grouped into five plain-English areas. Every number in this article comes straight from what we found, nothing is guessed, and we've kept the businesses anonymous.
A quick note on the percentages: we only count something against a site where it actually applies. "Don't repeat the same headline," for example, only matters if you have more than one page, so for those we'll tell you the smaller number. Let's go area by area, starting with the problems we saw most.
1. Your Google result: the headline and the blurb
When your business shows up on Google, two little bits of text do almost all the work of earning the tap: the headline (the bold line you click) and the blurb (the gray sentence underneath it). It's your shop window in the search results. And by a wide margin, this was the weakest area in the whole study.
Headlines and blurbs that are the wrong length
This was the single most common problem in the whole study. 72% of the websites had a headline or blurb that was too long (or too short) for Google to show in full. Over and over we saw headlines cut off in the middle of a word and blurbs running two or three times longer than Google will ever display.
Why it matters: a headline that reads "…Authentic Neapolitan Pizza, Pasta, Catering and Pri…" looks broken and hides the words people actually search for. And a blurb that gets cut off loses its punchline right when you needed it.
How to fix it:
- Keep headlines to about 50–60 characters. Put the important words first, your main service and town, then your name: "Wood-Fired Pizza in Your City | Tony's Pizzeria."
- Keep blurbs to about 150–160 characters. Treat it like a tiny ad: what you offer, where, and a nudge ("Order online," "Book today," "Free estimates").
- Search for your own business and look at how it shows up, or paste a page into any free "Google preview" tool to catch the cut-off before Google does.
No blurb at all
44% of the websites were missing the blurb on at least one page. When you leave it blank, Google grabs a random scrap of text off your page to fill the gap, often a piece of your menu bar, a cookie notice, or a half-sentence that does nothing to sell you. You're letting a computer write your ad for you.
How to fix it: write one short, deliberate blurb for every page, home, services, menu, about, contact. Each one is a tiny ad. Say where you are and what you want the reader to do. If writing one for every page sounds like a chore, building your site with Frontpage fills in a deliberate headline and blurb for each page as it goes.
Your business name missing from the headline
11% of the websites didn't put their own name in the page headline at all. That's a quiet own-goal: when someone Googles you by name (your warmest possible customer), you can lose your own spot to directories and competitors. Pop your name into every headline, usually at the end: "Balayage & Color | Your Hair Studio." It costs nothing and locks down your name.
The same headline on every page
On sites with enough pages to compare, about 1 in 4 (26%) used the exact same headline or blurb across pages, and others were vague or said nothing useful. When every page is titled "Home," you're telling Google your pages are all the same, so it competes you against yourself and may show the wrong one (or none). Give each page its own headline that matches that page: the services page sells services, the menu page sells the menu.
2. Headings: the outline of your page
Headings aren't just big and small text, they're the outline of your page. Both readers and Google use them to understand how a page is organized. The trouble starts when people pick a heading because it "looked the right size" instead of because it's the right level. This was the second-weakest area in the study.
Headings in the wrong order
69% of the websites we could measure used their headings out of order, opening on a smaller heading, or jumping straight from a big one to a tiny one. When you scramble the outline, Google and screen readers lose the thread, and it makes the page harder for some visitors to use, too.
How to fix it:
- Start every page with a single main heading that says what the page is about.
- Then go in order: bigger headings for big sections, smaller ones for points underneath. Never skip a level.
- Choose the level for meaning. If it's the wrong size, change the size with styling, not by grabbing a different heading level.
No main heading, or five of them
More than half, 51% of the websites, didn't have exactly one main heading. Some had none; some had five. Page builders love to wrap logos, slogans, and every banner in a main heading.
How to fix it: give every page exactly one main heading that describes it, ideally with your main service and town: "Auto Repair & Tires in Your City." Turn every other tagline and banner into a smaller heading.
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3. Words on the page
Google still needs actual words to figure out what you do. Image-heavy and one-page sites often leave their pages with almost no readable text, then wonder why they don't show up.
The first sentence doesn't say what you do
17% of the websites didn't say what they actually do anywhere in their opening line. One site's first text was a shipping promo, "FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS $150+, because we love you," under a banner that just said "THE DROP." Another opened straight into menu links with no intro at all. If your first words are a coupon, a slogan, or nothing, you've wasted your strongest chance to tell Google (and visitors) what you even do.
How to fix it: open every important page with one plain, human sentence about what you do and where, as real text on the page, not buried inside a slideshow. Describe your business to Frontpage and it writes that opening line for you, as real readable text rather than a slogan trapped in a slideshow.
Only chasing the big, impossible words
15% of the websites aimed only at broad words like "tires" or "pizza" and missed the exact phrases people actually type. "Tires" is nearly impossible to show up for; "commercial tire replacement near me" has far less competition and a customer who's ready to buy. Write the way your customers search: service + detail + location, not clever-but-unsearchable headlines like "Where Flavor Meets Fire."
Menus and prices trapped inside an image
A handful of sites had almost no readable words because the whole menu was one big image. Google can't read a picture of your menu. Put your menu, services, and prices in real text, and use the words your customers would actually say out loud, naturally, not crammed into every line.
4. Linking your own pages together
5% of the websites barely linked their own pages to each other. Links between your pages do two jobs: they help Google find and understand your pages, and they walk visitors deeper into your site, from a services overview to a specific service, from a blog post to your booking page.
A site whose pages don't link to each other leaves both Google and your customers at dead ends. Add helpful links throughout your text and make sure every key page is a click or two from the homepage. Because Frontpage builds your pages together as one connected site, those links between them are there from the start.
5. Share previews: how your link looks when someone sends it
When a happy customer drops your link in a group chat, a Facebook post, or a text, a few hidden settings (called share preview info) decide whether it shows up as a polished card with an image and headline, or as a bare, easy-to-ignore web address.
No share preview set up
1 in 3 websites (33%) where this applied had a missing or half-finished share preview. In a word-of-mouth, share-the-link local economy, that's a quiet loss of clicks every time someone recommends you. The fix: set a share title, a short description, and especially a clean, branded image (at least 1200×630 pixels). Most website tools let you set these in a couple of clicks, then you can test it with a free preview tool.
The extra bits that make the preview look right on every app were missing on only 4% of sites, so most sites that handled the image handled the rest too. Set it once and every future share looks good.
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6. Behind the scenes: one hidden setting worth checking
This is the under-the-hood part of getting found, and the good news is most sites had it in decent shape. There was one common gap worth closing.
Pages that can be reached at slightly different addresses
18% of the websites where it applied hadn't set this. The same page can often be reached at slightly different web addresses, with and without a slash on the end, with tracking bits, http vs https, and Google can treat those as separate, duplicate pages, splitting your power across them. Setting this tells Google which version is the real one. Most modern website tools handle it automatically once it's turned on.
A rare but nasty version showed up on one site: its setting pointed at a completely different website, which basically tells Google "show that other site instead of mine." Always make sure it points at your web address, not a builder's preview link.
The one thing everyone got right
Here's the bright spot of the whole study. On clean, readable web addresses, every single site scored perfectly:
7. The one setting almost nobody needs
There's a setting for websites published in more than one language. It mattered for just 2% of the businesses. Unless you run your site in multiple languages, you can happily ignore it. It's a good reminder that "more settings" isn't the goal, the right basics for your business are.
What to fix first
If you only have one afternoon, work down this list. It's in order of how common each problem was, a fair guess at where the typical local site has the most to gain:
- Fix your headlines and blurbs: the right length, and never missing. This is your Google shop window and the single highest-payoff thing you can touch.
- Give every page exactly one main heading and put your headings in order.
- Write a real opening sentence that says what you do and where, not a promo or a slideshow.
- Set up your share preview so your links look good every time someone sends them.
- Point Google to the right version of each page so your own pages don't compete.
- Add links between your pages and use specific, local phrases to help Google and walk visitors through your site.
Why these basics are worth your afternoon
It's tempting to write all this off as techy busywork. It's not. It's the difference between showing up for the searches that matter and being invisible, and, when you do show up, between earning the tap and getting scrolled past.
Look at what these small fixes actually change. A short headline with your service and town turns a broken, easy-to-ignore Google result into a reason to tap. One clear main heading and a real opening sentence tell Google exactly what each page is for. A proper share preview turns every link a customer shares into a polished card instead of a bare web address. And pointing Google to the right version of each page stops your own pages from fighting each other. None of this needs a redesign, a developer on call, or an ad budget. Most of it is set-and-forget.
The 100 businesses in this study are, by and large, real, well-run shops with decent-looking websites. The gap between them and a site that really gets found isn't talent or money, it's a short to-do list. Every one of them was leaving customers on the table, and every one of them could close most of that gap in a single focused afternoon.
Your Google result is one of the cheapest pieces of marketing you own. The businesses that treat it that way are the ones customers find first. Want to know where your own site stands? Run a free Website Audit to see your score and a simple list of exactly what to fix.
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This article is based on a close look at 100 small-business websites. Every number is drawn directly from what we found.