SEO tips for small businesses
If you’re like most businesses, your number-one goal is to bring in new customers. That means finding the people or businesses looking for your product or service.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to improve its visibility and ranking on search engines. The goal is to improve organic traffic to your website, making it more likely that potential customers will find your company.
With the arrival of generative AI technologies such as Chat GPT and Copilot, SEO has been losing some of its ability to help attract potential customers to specific websites. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most cost-effective means of marketing your company.
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
SEO is a technique that helps your website rank higher in Internet searches. In turn, this drives organic (non-paid) traffic to your website.
SEO involves various techniques to improve the performance of your website, including:
- Keyword research
SEO starts with identifying relevant keywords and phrases that users might use when searching for information about a website’s content or services. - Web page analysis and optimization
Elements of your web pages, such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings and content, must naturally include target keywords. Your content must also be of high quality, providing value to users while being informative, easy to read and shareable. - Internal links
Internal linking improves the user’s experience on your site, distributes a page’s authority across your site, and establishes a hierarchy and structure for your website. - External links
Acquiring high-quality links from trusted sources outside your website is essential for SEO success. Search engines view backlinks as a vote of confidence in your credibility and authority. One high-quality backlink can often do as much to boost your traffic as several low-quality links.
Purchasing links is not recommended. You’ll want to link to a site where your readers will find valuable content, which is not often the case with purchased links. - Mentions
In the world of AI, unlinked mentions of a site or brand are becoming as important as links. They enhance brand authority and signal relevance. Coupled with strategic internal and external links, these mentions help create a comprehensive digital footprint, boosting a website’s visibility and ranking. - Technical optimization
It’s now standard for your website to be mobile-friendly, provide a secure connection (https) and have proper header tags so that it can be found by web crawlers. It should also load rapidly for users. Speed is important because generative AI will cite the source that’s quickest to answer. - Local SEO
For businesses targeting local customers, optimizing for local search, by creating a Google business profile, getting online reviews and ensuring consistent business information across online directories, is essential for success.
At its essence, SEO focuses on ensuring your website is relevant and attractive to search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. Google is the most popular search engine, accounting for 89.62% of Internet queries, according to a March 2025 report from data research firm Statista. That figure was three points lower than the year before, which is partly explained by the rising popularity of AI searches.
“A lot of searches are questions asking how to do something,” says Jean-François Monfette, Senior Advisor, Digital Marketing at BDC. “The user wants to find an answer and the search engine is trying to offer helpful content. If you provide the most relevant and helpful content, it has more chances of landing at the top of the results page.”
Monfette warns that a vital part of this exercise is to offer what you are promising.
“If you’re saying you’ll answer a how-to question, you need to answer it. And when the reader finishes the article or video, they’ll know how to do what they were hoping to do.”
How does SEO work?
Search engine optimization capitalizes on a search engine’s ability to find, classify and display information posted on the Internet.
Search engines use Web crawlers to scour the Internet, looking for the most relevant information for what someone has typed into its search bar.
There is also a human element involved in the process. For example, Google uses third-party Search Quality Raters to help improve search results.
Google and the other search engines determine which websites best address queries on their platforms. That’s done by assessing how comprehensively and authoritatively the subject is covered and by searching for keywords and relevant subject matter in the body of the page, the headings, URLs and back-end descriptions.
The relevance of the images and videos on your pages, credible sites linking to your content, your site’s user-friendliness and the speed at which your pages load are also factors that influence the search results of a page.
The user wants to find an answer and the search engine is trying to offer helpful content. If you provide the most relevant and helpful content, it will be featured at the top of the results page.
Jean-François Monfette
Senior Advisor, Digital Marketing, BDC
Why use SEO?
SEO is an essential part of marketing your products or services. It will help you rank higher in search traffic, making it more likely that potential clients will click on the link and end up at your website.
Depending on the keywords you are targeting and the results you obtain, SEO can be cheaper than paid search ads for attracting clients to your website. Page speed optimizations, clear call-to-actions, and improved display for all types of devices will also improve conversion rates on your site.
SEO can also play a role in familiarizing prospects with your brand. Clients will more likely interact with your sites if they are easy to find. Users often perceive websites that rank high in organic search as trustworthy.
“You need to match your website to what your potential customers are looking for. You want to be providing helpful information. So, if they have a certain problem, you are providing a solution,” Monfette says.
Finding out what terms and questions your clients are searching for will also let you know what challenges they are facing and what they value.
What is EEAT?
EEAT stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It is important when assessing how well your website will rank on a search engine query.
EEAT is particularly important in fields where expertise is crucial (such as medical or financial subjects). In such cases, you can showcase expertise and experience through author bios and credentials, authoritativeness through valuable backlinks, and trustworthiness through transparent sourcing and the accuracy of the information. You can establish trustworthiness with user reviews or testimonials on third-party sites.
Search engines recognize sites that post regularly on a specific subject and offer fresh information. Posting regularly on matters related to your field of work will help you rank higher, giving you what’s referred to as domain authority.
“To have domain authority, you have to have shown expertise on the subject,” says Monfette, who adds that Google will factor that in when ranking web pages, along with the experience, authority and trustworthiness mentioned above.
Many government, university and media websites will have a solid overall EEAT, since they have published information, research or articles on many topics.
“Stick to what you know,” says Monfette, who adds that you can then go deeper into the subject to gain a strong EEAT.
How do you improve your SEO?
If you have not yet worked on your SEO, Monfette suggests a few simple starting points that will help improve your website’s ranking:
Find the right keywords
Consider the words your clients will likely use when looking for your products or services on the Web. If you’re selling appliances, for example, are your customers more likely to use a formal word like “refrigerator” or the more common “fridge?”
Make a list of 20 to 50 keywords, then use online tools to validate that the keywords you chose are those you frequently use in online searches.
Position your website pages on the keywords, synonyms and frequently asked questions by prospective customers searching the topic to help them rank higher when.
Include the main keywords in your titles and meta descriptions (the brief text that tells search engines what your content is about). Placing keywords in the URL (the address appearing in the Internet browser for each of your website pages) can also help for clickthrough rates.
Set up a Google business profile
Google offers a free business profile service that literally puts your business on Google Maps. It also increases your chances of coming up in a search when someone is looking for your category of products or services in their neighbourhood.
Solicit reviews from customers
Google reviews help the public get to know your business better. You can create and share a link to build up a base of customer reviews. You can place the link in thank-you emails or on your receipts. “But you’ll have to ask everyone equally, not just the satisfied customers,” Monfette notes.
Provide rich content
Monfette says you need to closely examine what you offer as a business and what need it caters to.
“People will be searching for a problem to solve. So, you need to work backwards and do something on your website or your profile to answer that,” he says.
The content you create has to answer the needs of your potential customers and have them leave your site with a greater connection, a more positive view of your business and, hopefully, be further along on their buying journey.
Post how-to videos
“Making a video related to your company’s work is good for SEO. If there’s a video in your article, your users don’t just read but see what you’re doing,” says Monfette.
He adds that search engines have evolved from simply looking for text. “It’s all about the user experience, and it’s important if they can learn through these visuals.”
Here are a few examples of how-to videos that various businesses could post:
- car dealership’s mechanics offering tips on car care
- head chef demonstrating some of the restaurant’s recipes
- local groomer showing how best to bathe a dog
Obtain authoritative links
Ask the owners of authoritative sites to carry a link to your site. Offer to post a link to theirs as part of an exchange.
“The more sites that carry links to your site, the better your chances of ranking higher on searches,” Monfette says.
Focus on the quality of the links. One link directing to your website from a chamber of commerce or a university website will help you more than a dozen links from obscure blogs.
- Linking to external websites: Include a link to a page on another website only when it provides valuable context or helps clarify a key point. This enhances the reader’s understanding and supports a better user experience.
- Linking from external websites: Earn links organically and never through buying backlinks—a practice that violates Google’s guidelines. Other websites should link to us because our content is high-quality, relevant, and genuinely useful to their audience.
Examples of good SEO
Below are examples of how five companies figured out what their potential customers would ask in a Google search.
The first column identifies the company’s industry; the second is a popular question that gets Googled; the third is each business’s decision to be ranked number one for that particular question.
Business | Popular question | What the business created to rank high |
---|---|---|
Kitchen countertop maker | Are marble countertops still in? | An article on the year’s top countertop trends |
Cosmetics company | Which lipstick colour is best for dark skin? | FAQ section that includes a question on the best shades of lipstick for various skin tones |
Manufacturer of temperature-controlled trucks | Does a refrigerated van use more fuel? | A blog entitled “How economical is it to run a fridge van?” |
Industrial lighting manufacturer | What voltage are stadium lights? | A blog entitled “8 factors on LED stadium lights.” |
Data management service | How do I create a network disaster recovery plan? | A step-by-step guide to creating a disaster recovery plan |
As you’ll see in the above table, search engine results may not perfectly match the questions asked.
For example, Google could interpret from the question, “Are marble countertops still in?” that the inquirer would be interested in trends. And, in the same vein, when someone asked the specific question about gasoline, “Does a refrigerated van use more fuel?” the strongest ranking answer was something more general, namely the overall costs associated with refrigerated vans.
How much does SEO cost?
SEO does not cost money beyond the resources needed to analyze, create and implement an efficient SEO strategy. It can also take time for results to appear.
While you can likely do much of this work yourself, most business owners hire internal resources or work with an outside firm to maximize their time.
David Girolami, Senior Business Advisor with BDC Advisory Services, offers an estimate: “If you are hiring a firm or consultant, you should prepare to pay approximately $3,500 per month—and you would need at least six months to see it through. If you are hiring an individual SEO specialist, expect to pay $75-$100 per hour and sign a three-month engagement.”
SEO vs Paid Search
Monfette says that some business owners will prefer to put their money into pay-per-click advertising. Gaining new visitors that way, he warns, requires continual payment.
“As soon as you stop paying, the results stop. Compare that to SEO, where you pay at the start with your time and resources. But you’ll see permanent results with SEO.” He also adds that the pay-per-click rates are higher in more competitive industries.
On the other hand, some search queries are so popular that achieving a high ranking through SEO will be very difficult, even with time and effort. Sometimes, you have no choice but to pay if you want visibility on these searches.
Monfette says you’ll need to check your results regularly to see if the investment has been paying off through organic traffic or pay-per-click.
How is AI changing SEO?
Generative AI has introduced challenges for entrepreneurs using SEO to promote their business. Trying to increase your visibility has become more difficult with generative AI answers that adequately answer queries, overriding the need for users to visit your website to obtain information.
“Until now, we were doing SEO with the goal of having people click back to the website,” says Monfette, who like many in his industry has observed a drop in clicks. “There are still a lot of clicks but a lot less than before.”
He sees AI as a type of supercharged SEO, where instead of scrolling for the best answer to your query on a search engine, like Google, all the information is now summarized by the AI program.
While it can be frustrating for your business that the SEO efforts you made just a few years earlier yield fewer results, Google and other search engines still receive a record number of searches and lists sites that perform effective SEO.
How to increase your visibility in the age of AI
In the current AI-driven search era—where featured snippets, AI overviews, and zero-click searches are reducing traditional website traffic, you’ll need to optimize for clarity, originality, locality and usefulness across platforms.
“Branding and traditional brand marketing will be even more important now,” says Monfette, who adds that offering something unique is key; it’s your originality that will stand out in the age generative AI.
Monfette also says that people on a buying journey tend to veer toward a website and not a distillation of what’s on the Internet.
“When people need to buy something, they are usually not satisfied with the AI overview.”
The SEO techniques listed above remain useful to stay competitive and visible. Establishing your authority and relevancy, adapting to the AI formats and creating more meaningful connections with potential and existing customers are particularly important.
Use conversational keywords
For example, instead of "roof repair," target "how to fix a leaking shingle roof in rainy climates."
Structure content for AI summaries
Use short and clear answers to questions, label your headings, and use FAQs, bulleted lists and summaries.
Double down on local SEO
Regularly update your Google Business Profile, encourage and respond to online reviews and get listed on local directories and those relevant to your industry.
Create original, expert-level content
Write blog posts with personal insights, unique data or real-life examples; share customer stories, experiments or behind-the-scenes looks; and leverage your EEAT.
Don’t forget video and visual content
Searches on video platforms are more frequent than ever. Whether it’s a YouTube explainer or short clips for TikTok and Instagram (with captions), images are important for visibility.
Step up your emails
Collect email addresses with lead magnets, such as discounts, run loyalty or referral programs and send out emails with valuable content.
Refresh and repurpose old content
Audit older blog posts and update stats to keep your relevancy.
Focus on niche partnerships and backlinks
Reach out to local blogs, podcasts and industry influencers for collaborations, try and get featured in local news stories and sponsor community events.
Monitor the AI visibility of your brand
There are several new tools to help you see if your business name is showing up in AI searches.
Optimize for multiple search engines and platforms
Post content to YouTube or any relevant site in your industry with SEO-friendly titles, and answer questions on Reddit or Quora.
Three new important acronyms: GEO, AEO and AIO
As AI transforms SEO techniques, new terms and acronyms are emerging, all related to the same goal: getting your product or services mentioned in the answers provided by AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, as well as voice assistants.
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)
GEO is the practice of optimizing content specifically for generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. It focuses on how content is interpreted, summarized and cited specifically by generative AI. Using GEO involves producing dynamic, conversational responses, being very clear and using natural language in your answers to common queries.
At the same time, GEO requires a comprehensive and authoritative take on a subject. As a business offering your expertise, the content you create will need to include statistics, fact-based research, internal links and sources, which will all helping to prove that you know the subject well and give you a good EEAT. - Answer engine optimization (AEO)
AEO helps provide voice assistants like Siri and Alexa with answers to questions users ask out loud. It involves framing your business’s information in a concise, plain-language response.
For good AEO, you’ll need to write 50-60-word answers to frequently asked questions. This format also suits other search engine features like FAQs, short snippets and “people also ask.”
Having a high degree of EEAT gets you cited by AI programs, with users associating your company with the topic on which you’re writing. - Artificial intelligence optimization (AIO)
AIO adapts to the new AI era for all types of artificial intelligence and helps improve how well AI understands, uses and responds to what you create.
So, whereas GEO is specifically geared for generative AI, AIO is more of an umbrella technique for generative AI, AI assistants, chatbots, voice AI, recommendation systems and machine learning algorithms.
To improve your AIO, like AEO and GEO, you’ll need your information to be in plain language, not be stuffed with keywords and consist of short paragraphs with appropriate headings.
How to track and measure SEO
Don’t expect users to flock to your site immediately. A long-term approach to SEO is vital, says Monfette.
“Great results take time. You can write something new and not see any results for six months.”
Monfette suggests that you keep an eye on your progress. Various web analytic tools will help with that and point out how your website and those of your competitors are doing.
You can start by using Google Search Console to check if your pages are visible on the search engine. It lists the number of impressions and clicks you’ve received. (Impressions are the number of times your pages were shown in the search results, with clicks being the number of times people clicked on the link in the search engine to land on your site.) It also gives you your site’s ranking position for various queries.
“Seeing if you are getting traction with your content is valuable information,” Monfette says, adding that Bing offers a similar tool called Bing Webmaster Tools.
Since the onslaught of AI, technology companies have released tools to analyze how your brand is faring on AI platforms.
Digital analytics software shows you the following:
- if search engines brought visitors to your website
- session duration, bounce rate and pages per visit
- a high-level view and a comparison of traffic sources.
Tracked conversions are another key way to measure impact. For example, you’ll want to see if visitors submit contact forms, subscribe to newsletters or download key content. If those conversions are low, you can optimize your website to try and achieve more.
Your visitors will often need many touchpoints with your brand before conversion takes place and turns into a lead; SEO traffic is one of those touchpoints.
Next step
Discover what it takes to build a successful brand online by downloading the free digital marketing guide for entrepreneurs, Attracting and Selling Online.