Base SEO: laying the foundations so people find you on Google
This chapter isn't a full SEO course
Editorial SEO — the content strategy that brings lasting traffic — has its own program. Here, we deal with the technical and on-page foundations: the settings on your site that let Google understand, index and surface it. It's the "plumbing" part of SEO, the kind you set once and that conditions everything else. A beautiful site invisible to Google is a billboard at the bottom of a cellar.
The essential foundations
Whatever your builder, check these elements — they make up most of the technical SEO of a small site:
- A unique title tag per page, under ~60 characters, clearly describing the content and containing the word people would type. It's the blue clickable text in Google.
- A meta description per page (~150 characters): it doesn't affect ranking but decides whether people click.
- A single
H1tag per page (the big visible title), thenH2/H3to structure. Google reads this hierarchy as an outline. - Clean, readable URLs:
yourbrand.com/executive-coachingrather than?p=12873. - Alt text on images: it describes the image for Google and for accessibility.
- HTTPS active (the padlock): non-negotiable, and included by default with all serious builders.
Modern builders (Framer, Webflow, WordPress with the Yoast or Rank Math plugin, Wix, Squarespace) all expose these settings in a simple interface. You don't write code; you fill in fields.
Getting indexed: the two indispensable free tools
Having a site isn't enough: Google has to know it exists. Two free Google tools are essential.
- Google Search Console. You register your site, submit your sitemap (the map of your pages, automatically generated by your builder at
/sitemap.xml), and request indexing of your pages. It's also where you'll later see which keywords people find you on, your average position and your clicks — the compass of your visibility. - Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). Essential if you have a local business or receive clients: it's the listing that appears in Google Maps and the right-hand panel, with hours, reviews and phone number. Free, and often the first source of customers for a shop or practice.
Create both as soon as you go live. Without Search Console, you're flying blind.
The minimum content that actually helps
For people to find you, your site must say, in words, what you do and for whom. Three reflexes:
- Name your business and your area in the copy: "HR consultant for SMEs in Lyon" is findable; "I reveal your potential" is not.
- One page = one topic. If you have three distinct services, create three pages rather than one catch-all: each can rank on its own words.
- A real "about" page and a contact page with your details: Google rewards sites that inspire trust (the famous E-E-A-T signal: experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness).
If you want to go further, a blog (native in WordPress, Webflow, or via Framer's CMS) lets you answer the questions your customers ask and attract traffic — but that's the subject of the dedicated SEO program.
The mistakes that make you invisible
Four common traps kill a small site's SEO: blocking indexing (the "discourage search engines" box, on by default in draft mode on WordPress, that people forget to uncheck at launch); a slow or unreadable site on mobile (Google indexes the mobile version first — see chapter 9); content as images (text turned into an image isn't read by Google); and duplicate pages with no content of their own. Check these four points before anything else.
Key takeaways
A small site's technical SEO boils down to clean foundations — titles, descriptions, hierarchy, URLs, HTTPS, described images — that your builder lets you set without code. Connect Google Search Console and submit your sitemap to get indexed, create your Google Business listing if you have a local business, and write copy that clearly names what you do. The content strategy comes next; without these basics, it would be useless.