#4 ~Technical SEO Basics for Small Businesses

Nicolette Ford

Hello and welcome back to Bots & Brains, the Intelligent Marketing Podcast by Social Matrix. I'm Nikki Ford, and joining me as always is the wonderful Lorraine Windsor. We're letting our cloned voices run wild today—very Twilight Zone, but if you’ve listened to our earlier episodes, you'll know we just can’t resist a bit of tech experimentation.

Lorraine Windsor

Oh absolutely, Nic! I mean, it feels a bit strange talking about making things more human when, you know, we’re basically robot versions of ourselves here. But anyway, changing the subject swiftly, right, technical SEO! I think a lot of small business owners hear that and their eyes glaze over. But if you’ve got a website, you've gotta hear this.

Nicolette Ford

That’s so true. And honestly, it’s not just for developers. Think of Google as this enormous library with a slightly neurotic librarian running around trying to keep everything in perfect order.

Nicolette Ford

If your website is like a book, technical SEO is what makes sure your book actually ends up on the right shelf, where people can find it, rather than just being shoved somewhere in the back, forgotten about entirely.

Lorraine Windsor

Yeah, and the thing is, most of those 'books' aren’t even making it onto the shelves. Over 96% of web pages get no Google traffic at all! That's a nasty thought, isn’t it? I might be wrong about this, but I think we mentioned in our last SEO episode how content alone just isn’t enough to get found. You’ve gotta make sure Google can actually see and understand your stuff in the first place.

Nicolette Ford

Exactly,... and that’s where I start to feel a bit passionate,.... maybe even a bit nerdy.

Nicolette Ford

I remember working with a lovely little bookshop, and their website had absolutely beautiful descriptions, gorgeous photos... But if you Googled them, they just didn’t show up anywhere. Do you remember?

Nicolette Ford

Then, I went down the rabbit hole and found they'd missed some basic technical SEO... Google couldn't access half their pages. All that perfect content essentially hidden in a cupboard. That was eye-opening for them, and a bit heartbreaking for me, to be honest.

Lorraine Windsor

Oh, I remember! You were really on a mission that week. It just shows: you can pour your heart and soul into making your website look perfect, but if you skip the technical bits, it can be like locking the door and throwing away the key. Luckily, fixing those basics doesn’t have to be rocket science.

Nicolette Ford

No, it doesn’t. The annoying part is, you often don’t realise there’s an issue until you look behind the scenes. And you might remember from earlier episodes, we always say: tiny improvements in the right areas can make all the difference for small businesses. That's very true with technical SEO. In fact, maybe more so than anything else.

Lorraine Windsor

So, let's break down exactly what you need as the foundation. I like to think of it as a checklist for getting into Google’s good books. Number one on that list is website speed. If your site takes ages to load, people bounce off. The research shows even just a one-second delay can lose you customers. People have no patience to wait for s slow site.

Nicolette Ford

Yes, and on that point, speeding up your site is all about cutting out unnecessary code, compressing images, and using good hosting. All these little things add up. Second on the hit list is mobile-friendliness... With over 60% of web traffic now on mobile, you just can’t ignore it.

Nicolette Ford

Lorraine, didn’t you help out that café last year when they weren’t getting any online orders?

Lorraine Windsor

Honestly, their coffee is lovely but their website was a nightmare. It looked fine on desktop, but on my phone, it was impossible to read the text, the menu was just a smudge, and the buttons were impossible to tap. We made it responsive, so it worked on every device, and suddenly, they had online bookings and more people actually walking through the door. Sometimes, it’s just that obvious, you know?

Nicolette Ford

And most people won’t tell you, they'll just leave. Next, there’s HTTPS, which is about making your site secure. You know the little padlock icon next to the web address in your search bar. Google takes it seriously. Customers do too, especially if you’re selling anything or asking for info.

Lorraine Windsor

I mean, if I see a site with that ‘not secure’ warning, I’m gone, straight away. OK. So, after that, there’s crawlability. This is simply making sure that Google’s bots can access your site. You can achieve this by making sure your site has clear navigation, no accidental blockages in places like the robots txt file. If you accidentally block your good pages, Google just, sort of, walks by and ignores them. Not what you want.

Nicolette Ford

Yep. And even if Google crawls your pages, you need them indexed too. Google stores the pages it finds in its ‘catalogue’. It's called an index. If your pages have errors, or have developed errors over time, or someone has marked a page as "noindex" by mistake (yes, it happens all the time), those pages will not show in search results. So we always say, check your pages, make sure they're indexable, and indexed.

Lorraine Windsor

And then there’s this thing called an XML sitemap. A bit boring, but so important. It’s like your master list of pages, a backup plan, so if Google misses something while crawling, it’s got a direct map, literally, to every important page.

Nicolette Ford

Yes, and site structure is a thing too. So, make sure your URLs make sense and your pages link together nicely. Keep them readable and logical, so both people and Google know where they’re going. I mean, yourwebsite.com/dog-walks is way better than yourwebsite.com/page?id=32 any day of the week. People and robots understand what that pages is about and where to file it.

Lorraine Windsor

Let's not forget internal linking. Don’t leave your pages orphaned out there with nothing pointing to them. A page with no link in or out will be left on the shelf. It's not related to the rest of the site if it's not linked to it.

Lorraine Windsor

Next up: 404 errors and redirects. You know those 'page not found' moments? Too many of those are like leaving potholes all over your website. Proper redirects help steer people, and Google, to the right place, so you don’t lose traffic unnecessarily.

Nicolette Ford

And then, of course, there’s canonical tags. Bit of a mouthful, but actually simple. If you’ve got duplicate pages, for example, almost identical product listings, a canonical tag tells Google which one’s the ‘main’ version, stops confusion, protects your rankings. Vital for e-commerce sites.

Lorraine Windsor

Last up in the essentials: structured data, or schema markup. That helps Google understand what’s actually on your page—price, reviews, event dates—so your listing in search results stands out, gets more clicks. Kinda optional, but gives you that extra edge.

Nicolette Ford

And let’s not forget, all these fixes help your reputation too. A slow, broken, or flickery site just puts people off. And broken links—oh, my pet hate!—if you spot any links that just go nowhere, fix them straight away. Your audience will thank you, and so will Google.

Lorraine Windsor

Absolutely, and duplicate content too—it confuses Google, and can mess with your rankings. Sorting the basics pays off, and honestly, it’s worth your while just for the peace of mind. Treat it as a spring clean for your business website.

Nicolette Ford

Alright, if you’re still with us, don’t worry—it’s not all technical wizardry from here. Let’s talk about a few simple things you can check right now, even if, like me, you’re occasionally terrified of breaking the internet. Number one: try Google PageSpeed Insights. Stick your URL in, and Google hands you a speed score and quick-n-easy improvement ideas. Sometimes it’s just an image that’s way too big.

Lorraine Windsor

Brilliant tool. Number two, try your site out on your phone. Just load it up, see if you can read the text, tap all the buttons, or if you end up pinching and zooming and squinting like mad. If it’s not working, make it responsive. No point losing customers to dodgy menus, trust me.

Nicolette Ford

And number three, a really easy one: do a Google search using site:yourwebsite.com. If you only see a couple of pages, you probably have some indexing issues, and it’s worth digging deeper. And honestly, these quick wins can help you spot major problems before they damage your rankings or scare off your customers.

Lorraine Windsor

Right! And look, if you try these checks and you’re still scratching your head, or you’ve done a website redesign and things just aren’t going right, it makes sense to call in some help. Like I always say to my small business clients—there’s no shame in getting a pro in, especially if it saves you a mountain of time (and a few headaches). For stuff like ongoing slow speed, or making big changes, just get a proper expert in.

Nicolette Ford

Absolutely. And, you know, it happens to the best of us—Lorraine, hasn't your band’s website been guilty of the world's slowest loading homepage at some point?

Lorraine Windsor

Oh, totally! For ages, we were losing visitors, and I was blaming everyone else until I ran a speed test and realised my own website was the culprit. So, you’re not alone. Even people in digital marketing can mess this up, so don’t feel bad if your first check isn’t perfect!

Nicolette Ford

That’s it, nobody’s immune. So, if you’re listening today, try one of those tests and see what comes up. Little improvements genuinely add up over time. And hey, don’t be shy—if you want more detail, or you get stuck, reach out to us at Social Matrix. We’re here for the geeky stuff, so you can focus on your business.

Lorraine Windsor

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks for tuning in, and remember, technical SEO sounds scarier than it is. It’s just the foundation that lets your website shine. Nicolette, this has been fun as always—until next time?

Nicolette Ford

Absolutely, Lorraine. Thanks so much, and thanks to everyone listening. We’ll be back soon with more tips for brilliant online marketing. Bye for now!

Lorraine Windsor

See you soon everyone! Cheers!