Technical SEO Basics Every Local Business Website Needs
Technical SEO basics are a bit like the plumbing and wiring in a building. You don’t see them, you might not fully understand them, but if they’re wrong, everything else stops working properly.
You can have beautiful design, great copy and lovely photos – but if Google can’t easily crawl, understand and load your site, you’ll struggle to rank. Especially in local search, where you’re competing with other businesses on the same high street (or the same Google map pack).
In this guide, we’ll walk through the technical SEO basics that every service‑based business website needs, in plain English and with practical steps you can actually take.
What is Technical SEO (In Normal Human Language)?
Forget the jargon for a second.
Technical SEO is simply:
Making sure your website is easy for search engines to access, understand and load quickly.
If your website is a shop:
- Design and content = your shop window and salespeople
- Technical SEO = your foundations, wiring, fire exits and floor plan
Customers don’t come in for the wiring – but if the lights keep going out or the doors get stuck, they’ll quickly leave.
1. Make Your Website Crawlable: Don’t Lock Google Out
Google finds and understands your pages using little bots (often called “crawlers”). Think of them as inspectors walking through your building with a clipboard.
Check your robots.txt isn’t blocking important pages
Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site they can and can’t look at.
Quick checks:
- Visit:
yourwebsite.co.uk/robots.txt - Look for lines like:
Disallow: /(this blocks the whole site – bad)Disallow: /wp-admin/(fine – that’s just your WordPress back‑end)
If you see Disallow: / on a live site that should be visible, that’s like putting a “Staff Only” sign on your front door.
Create and submit an XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is basically a contents page for search engines.
- It lists your important pages
- Helps Google find new or updated content faster
How to get one (non‑technical version):
- On WordPress, use an SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math – they generate a sitemap automatically
- It will usually live at:
yourwebsite.co.uk/sitemap.xml - Add it to Google Search Console (free tool from Google) under Indexing → Sitemaps
This is like handing Google a clear floor plan instead of letting them wander around blind.
2. Mobile-Friendly: Your Website Must Work on a Phone First
Most local customers will find you on their phone – in a car park, on the sofa, or outside someone else’s shop.
Google uses mobile-first indexing, which basically means:
Google looks at the mobile version of your site first when deciding how to rank you.
Quick mobile-friendly test
- Go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
- Paste your homepage URL
- See if it passes
If it fails, that’s like having a shop where the front door is too small for most customers to get in.
Common mobile issues to fix
- Tiny text that forces people to pinch and zoom
- Buttons too close together (hard to tap on a phone)
- Pop‑ups that cover the whole screen
- Menus that are confusing or hidden
If your site is older and not responsive (doesn’t adapt to different screen sizes), it’s usually more cost‑effective to rebuild properly than keep patching it up.
3. Site Speed: Don’t Make People (or Google) Wait
Website speed is like queueing at a till. A short, smooth queue is fine. A long, slow one makes people abandon their baskets.
Google knows this, so speed is a ranking factor.
How to check your speed
Use Google’s free tools:
- PageSpeed Insights – gives a score and simple recommendations
- Lighthouse – built into Chrome DevTools for deeper analysis
You’ll see technical terms, but focus on the basics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – how quickly the main content appears
- First Input Delay / Interaction to Next Paint – how quickly the site responds when you click
Simple speed wins for non-techies
You don’t need to understand every graph. Start with these:
-
Compress your images
- Huge photos are the number one speed killer
- Aim for images under 200–300KB where possible
- Use tools like TinyPNG or built‑in compression in your CMS
-
Use modern image formats
- WebP is usually smaller and faster than JPEG/PNG
- Many website builders and plugins can convert automatically
-
Remove unused plugins and scripts
- Old chat widgets, tracking codes you don’t use, abandoned plugins – they all slow things down
- Think of them as dusty boxes clogging up your shop floor
-
Use proper hosting
- Ultra‑cheap hosting often means slow servers
- For a business website, it’s worth paying a bit more for decent performance and support
At Los Webos, we build speed in from day one – so you’re not constantly firefighting a slow site later.
4. Secure Your Site: HTTPS as Standard
If you still see http:// instead of https:// in your browser bar, that’s like running a card machine over a wobbly phone line.
HTTPS means your site has a security certificate (SSL) and data is encrypted.
Why it matters:
- Browsers now show “Not secure” warnings on non‑HTTPS sites
- Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal
- Customers are less likely to trust (or contact) a site that looks unsafe
What to do
- Ask your hosting provider to install an SSL certificate (many include this free via Let’s Encrypt)
- Make sure all versions of your site redirect to https://www.yourwebsite.co.uk (or your preferred version)
That way, whether someone types yourwebsite.co.uk or http://yourwebsite.co.uk, they end up in the right, secure place.
5. Clean URLs and Clear Structure: Make It Easy to Navigate
Your website structure is like the layout of a supermarket. Related things go together, and signs help you find what you need.
Use simple, readable URLs
Good URLs are:
- Short
- Descriptive
- Use real words
Better:
yourwebsite.co.uk/services/plumbing-repairsyourwebsite.co.uk/about
Worse:
yourwebsite.co.uk/p=123yourwebsite.co.uk/page?id=456&cat=7
Readable URLs help:
- Users understand where they are
- Google understand what the page is about
Create a logical structure
For most service businesses, something like this works well:
/(homepage)/services/(overview)/services/service-name//services/service-name/location/(for local landing pages)
/about//contact//blog/or/resources/
If your site structure looks like a plate of spaghetti, Google will struggle to understand which pages are most important.
6. Fix Broken Links and Redirect Old Pages
Broken links are like sending customers down a corridor that ends in a locked door.
Why broken pages are bad for SEO
- They waste Google’s time crawling dead ends
- They frustrate visitors
- They can dilute the authority of your site
How to find and fix them
- Use a tool like:
- Screaming Frog (free for smaller sites)
- A site audit tool in Ahrefs, SEMrush or similar
- Look for 404 errors (pages not found)
- For each important missing page:
- Either reinstate the content
- Or add a 301 redirect to the most relevant current page
A 301 redirect is simply a permanent change of address. It tells Google and users: “This page has moved – go here instead.”
If you’ve had a redesign and lost rankings afterwards, missing redirects are often the culprit.
7. Local SEO Technical Basics: Help Google Put You on the Map
For service‑based businesses, local visibility is everything. You don’t just want anyone – you want people near you who are ready to buy.
Alongside your Google Business Profile and local content, there are some technical bits that help.
Make your contact details machine-readable
Google needs to clearly see your Name, Address, Phone number (NAP).
- Put your full NAP in the footer or contact page
- Ensure it matches exactly across your website, Google Business Profile and directories (no random variations of “Ltd”, different phone numbers, etc.)
Add LocalBusiness schema (structured data)
Schema markup is like giving Google a labelled diagram of your business.
For local companies, you can use LocalBusiness schema to highlight:
- Business name
- Address
- Phone number
- Opening hours
- Service area
You don’t need to code this yourself – many SEO plugins can add it, or your web agency (like us) can set it up.
Test your schema with Google’s Rich Results Test.
8. Keep Things Consistent When You Update Your Site
Websites aren’t “set and forget”. As your business grows, you’ll add services, locations and content. The technical foundations need to grow with you.
When you:
- Add a new service page
- Change your business address
- Launch a new location
Remember to:
- Update your sitemap (most plugins do this automatically)
- Check your internal links still point to the right places
- Update schema and footer details
- Add redirects for any URLs you change
It’s like updating your sat nav when you move premises – otherwise people (and Google) will keep turning up at the old address.
When to DIY and When to Get Help
You can absolutely handle some technical SEO basics yourself:
- Checking mobile-friendliness
- Compressing images
- Spotting obvious broken links
- Making sure your contact details are clear and consistent
But if:
- Your site is painfully slow and you don’t know why
- You’ve redesigned and your rankings have crashed
- You’re expanding into new locations and need a proper structure
…it’s usually cheaper in the long run to get an expert to sort the foundations properly, rather than keep patching cracks.
Want a Technical Health Check for Your Website?
If all this feels a bit like staring at a fuse box you don’t want to touch, that’s where we come in.
At Los Webos, we specialise in building and fixing websites for UK SMEs so they’re:
- Technically sound
- Easy for Google to understand
- Fast, secure and mobile‑friendly
We can run a plain‑English technical SEO audit on your site, show you what’s holding you back, and either fix it for you or work alongside your existing developer.
Ready to make sure your website’s wiring is as good as your shop window?
Get in touch with Los Webos today and let’s give your site a proper technical once‑over – so it can start doing its job as your 24/7 salesperson.