Most small business websites lose traffic not to fierce competition, but to fixable basics: slow pages, thin content, and missing structured data. This is the checklist we work through for every site we build — now updated for the AI-search era.
1. Nail the on-page fundamentals
- One clear H1 per page that states what the page is about.
- Unique title tag (≤60 chars) and meta description (≤155 chars) per page — never duplicated.
- Descriptive, keyword-aware URLs (e.g.
/web-development-malaysia, not/page?id=12). - Real headings and body text — search engines and AI can't rank an image of text.
- Descriptive
alttext on every meaningful image.
2. Add structured data (Schema.org)
Schema markup is how you hand search engines and AI the facts about your business in a machine-readable form. For a small business, prioritise:
- Organization / LocalBusiness — name, logo, contact, hours, area served.
- FAQPage — eligible for rich results and frequently quoted by AI answers.
- BreadcrumbList, Service, and Article for blog posts.
Consistency is the whole game. Your name, address, phone and hours must match exactly across your site, Google Business Profile and every directory. Mismatches confuse both Google and AI engines.
3. Pass Core Web Vitals
Google measures real-world speed and stability. Aim for:
| Metric | Target | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | < 2.5s | How fast the main content loads |
| INP | < 200ms | How responsive the page feels to input |
| CLS | < 0.1 | How much the layout shifts unexpectedly |
Quick wins: compress images and serve modern formats (WebP/AVIF), set explicit image width/height, avoid heavy render-blocking scripts, and cache static assets.
4. Win local SEO
- Claim your Google Business Profile — even a fully-online, service-area business can list one.
- Get consistent citations in relevant local and industry directories.
- Collect genuine reviews — never fabricate them (fake review markup is penalised).
- Create location- or service-specific pages rather than cramming everything onto one page.
5. Optimise for AI search (AEO & GEO)
Search now includes AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. To be the answer they cite:
- Answer real questions directly — lead with a clear, quotable sentence, then expand.
- Publish an
llms.txtat your root summarising who you are and what you offer. - Keep your facts explicit and consistent — founder, location, services, contact.
- Allow reputable AI crawlers in
robots.txt(GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, CCBot).
We go deeper on the AI side in RAG vs Fine-Tuning and in our llms.txt — a live example you can copy.
The 10-minute audit
- Does every page have a unique title, description and single H1?
- Is Organization + FAQ schema present and valid?
- Does the homepage load in under 2.5s on mobile?
- Is your Google Business Profile claimed and accurate?
- Do you have an
llms.txtand an up-to-datesitemap.xml?
Five "no"s is normal. Fixing them is often the difference between page two and page one.