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SEO guides & free tools

14 plain-English SEO guides for UK small businesses, from local SEO and your Google Business Profile to keyword research and Google’s AI answers. Work through our two free checklists, or claim a free SEO audit if you’d like a person to check your site. For your website and ads, see our website guides and Google Ads guides.

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  1. Rank in Google AI Overviews What earns a citation in Google’s AI answers
  2. WooCommerce SEO guide Product, category and speed fixes for UK shops
  3. Answer engine optimisation (AEO) Get mentioned by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini

All SEO guides

Local SEO, technical fixes, keywords and AI search, in plain English and updated for 2026.

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What is llms.txt?

The file that helps AI tools read your site: whether Google uses it and if your business needs one.

7 min readUpdated Nov 2026Read the guide

Prefer a person to check your site?

The guides are for doing it yourself. The free audit is us looking at your actual website.

Free SEO audit

A person checks your whole site, not just one page. We review it by hand and email you a free, plain-English SEO report within 2 working days. All we need is your website address.

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Local SEO, done for you

Short on time? We set up and look after your Google Business Profile, listings and reviews routine, at £30 an hour.

See local SEO services

Free SEO tools

Quick checks you can run yourself, with no sign-up.

Free SEO checker

Enter a page address and see if Google can read it: title, description, main heading, HTTPS, redirects, noindex and image alt text.

Check my page

Meta description length checker

Test a page title and meta description before you publish, and see a rough preview of how Google may show them.

Check my title and description

SEO ROI calculator

Put in your own numbers and see what SEO could return each month in enquiries, customers and value for every £1.

Work out my SEO return

SEO report template

Turn a month of Search Console, GA4 and Google Business Profile numbers into a short, plain-English report you can copy or print.

Build my SEO report

Free SEO checklists

The steps in the guides as tick-lists. Free, with no sign-up: work through them on screen or print them.

Local SEO checklist

The steps that help nearby customers find you on Google Maps, in three stages: week 1, weeks 2 to 4, then every month.

Open the checklist

Website redesign SEO checklist

How to change or rebuild your website without losing your Google rankings, from your “before” figures to week 8.

Open the checklist

Launching a brand-new site? Start with our website launch checklist instead.

SEO terms in plain English

The words you’ll meet when you start on SEO, in 20 words or fewer.

  • Keyword. The words people type into Google, like “plumber in Bristol”.
  • Content marketing. Useful guides and articles that answer your customers’ questions and bring in visits from search. See content marketing services.
  • Search intent. What the searcher wants: to buy, to learn or to find a place.
  • Organic results. The free listings below the ads. You can’t pay Google to rank there. See organic SEO services.
  • Title tag. The clickable headline Google shows for your page in its results. See on-page SEO.
  • Meta description. The short summary under that headline. A good one wins the click.
  • Backlink. A link to your site from another website. Links from trusted sites help you rank. See link building.
  • Google Business Profile. Your free business listing on Google Maps and in local results.
  • NAP. Your business name, address and phone number. Keep them identical everywhere.
  • Schema markup. Code visitors don’t see that tells Google facts about your business and pages. See technical SEO.
  • Indexing. Google storing your page so it can show in results. A page that isn’t indexed can’t rank.
  • Category page. A shop page that lists a group of products, like “women’s running shoes”. See ecommerce SEO services.
  • AI Overviews. The AI-written summaries Google shows above some results, with links to their sources. See AI SEO services.

Questions about doing your own SEO

What’s the first thing to do for local SEO?

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile. It’s free, and it’s what puts you on Google Maps. Then make sure your business name, address and phone number are written the same way everywhere they appear online, from your website to directories. If you’d rather hand it over, our local SEO services cover it.

Will redesigning my website hurt my Google rankings?

Not if you plan for it. Keep your page addresses the same, or redirect each old address to its new page, and carry over your titles and content. Record your rankings before launch so you can compare afterwards. Missed redirects are a common reason rankings drop after a redesign. The website redesign SEO checklist covers each step, or our website redesign services handle it for you.

Can I do SEO myself?

Yes, the basics. You can set up your Google Business Profile, improve your page titles and ask customers for reviews yourself, and our local SEO checklist covers these steps. Get help when the technical work grows or competitors pull ahead. We charge £30 an hour, so you can hand over only the parts you’d rather not do.

What’s the difference between the checklists and the free SEO audit?

The checklists are lists you work through yourself, on any website. The free SEO audit is us reviewing your actual site, then emailing you a plain-English report within 2 working days. There’s no obligation, and you don’t need to share any logins. You can do both: the audit shows where to start, and the checklist keeps you on track.

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SEO plans start at £180 a month for 6 hours, with no minimum term.

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