Website SEO

What website SEO actually means for a service business

Website SEO is the work that makes your own pages rank in Google's regular results, below the ads and the map. For a service business the goal is narrow and practical: when someone in your area searches for a job you do, they land on a page about exactly that job, see prices or a range, real photos and a way to call. Everything else is decoration.

That sounds simple, yet most small business sites fail at the first step. They describe the company instead of the services, use internal jargon and hide the phone number in the footer. Google ranks pages that match a search; customers call businesses that look like they solve their problem today.

The keyword map: one search, one page

Before I write a word, I build a keyword map. I collect the searches with buying intent in your market, such as "bathroom renovation cost" or "emergency furnace repair", group them by meaning and assign each group to one page. Two rules apply:

• every group has exactly one page, so your own pages don't compete with each other;
• every page has a clear next step, usually a call, a form or a booking.

The map also shows what's missing. Often a profitable service has steady demand and no page at all. Writing that page is usually the single best SEO move available. For bigger sites with many locations, I follow the approach in ranking in several cities without doorway pages, because thin pages with only the city name swapped can hurt more than help.

Writing pages that rank and sell

A service page has two readers. Google needs clear topic signals: the keyword in the title and heading, related terms, structured headings, internal links. The customer needs reassurance: what the job includes, how long it takes, a price range, proof you've done it before and what happens after they call.

I write from a short conversation with you, because the details that convince people live in your head, not in a template: the questions customers always ask, the mistakes you fix after other contractors, the warranty you give. More on this approach on the SEO content writing page.

Internal links and structure

Pages that nothing links to are hard for Google to value. I connect services to each other, link blog articles to the relevant service, and make sure the menu reflects what you sell most. A simple rule: your most profitable service should be reachable in one click from the home page.

Quebec and French-language pages

In Quebec, French content must be at least as available as English. My SEO work is in English only: I don't write, translate or optimize French pages, so if your business needs them, they come from your own team or translator. Machine-translated copy rarely ranks or convinces, so whoever handles it should be a real writer or a careful human editor. On the first call I'll tell you honestly whether English-language SEO fits your market.

When the website itself is the obstacle

Some sites can't be optimized properly: a page builder that blocks editing headings, a template that loads slowly no matter what, or a structure that would take longer to fix than to rebuild. I don't patch other people's code. If that's the case, I'll say so after the audit and offer a new business website on hand-written code or a custom CMS, keeping your domain and moving the content that already ranks.

What to expect month by month

The first month is planning and quick fixes: titles, headings, obvious gaps. Months two to four bring new and rewritten pages. From there, I watch which pages gain and which stall, and adjust. Every month you get a one-page report: what I did, which pages moved and how many calls and forms came from organic search.