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SEO for small businesses and SMEs: more customers, without giving up your evenings.
You run the business, you manage the staff, the bank and the unhappy customers. The website comes somewhere after the fire extinguisher inspection. I know that, and I build the work around that fact rather than pretending it doesn't exist.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroThe detail of this page
Your Google Business Profile, half filled in
When you need a plumber urgently, you don't read a website: you look at a profile, its stars, and you call. Here's yours, as it often is. Fill it in, line by line.
You
Your business
3 reviews
- Category“Business”Plumbing and heating engineer
- Hoursnot providedMonday to Saturday, emergencies included
- PhonemissingYours, one tap away from the result
- Areanot specifiedYour town and the surrounding villages
- PhotosnoneThree jobs, before and after
- Reviews3 reviews, the latest very oldA review requested at the end of every job
Profile to complete: 6 lines
Fig. 1. A tradesperson's Google Business Profile, the usual kind. Six lines, ten minutes each. (Incoming call: a customer who found you on their own. No platform took a cut.)
What this means for you. I fill in the profile with you, I give you a method for asking for a review after every job, and we count the calls. Nothing else.
What is SEO for a small business or SME?
SEO for a small business or SME is search optimisation sized for a company with no marketing department and nobody working full-time on its website. It means choosing a small number of profitable actions, getting them done without tying up the owner, and reporting back in terms of revenue. It stands out less for its techniques than for its restraint: we do few things, in order, all the way through.
The problem
Where it gets stuck when you run a small business.
Quotes that can't be compared
One offers a monthly package, another an audit, the third “optimisations”. You have no way of knowing which one is serious, and you don't have a week to spend on it.
You've already paid for nothing
An overpriced website, a campaign that went nowhere, a provider who vanished. Since then, every call from a web sales rep puts you in a bad mood, and I can't blame you.
An audit, for real
What I spot in thirty seconds on a small business website.
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
https://votre-entreprise.exemple
YOUR BUSINESS NAMEHome · Services · Contact
Welcome to our website
Feel free to contact us with any enquiry.
Contact usFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
- 1A title reduced to the word “Home”Your trade and your town should be in it. It's the most profitable fix on the site, and it takes ten minutes.
- 2The phone number is hidden under “Contact”On a phone, it should be visible at the top of every page, and tappable.
- 3“Welcome to our website”Visitors know they're on a website. They want to know what you do and whether you'll come out to them.
- 4A carousel of five imagesHardly anyone looks at the second one. A single image showing your work is enough and loads faster.
- 5All the services on one pageOne page per service: that's what makes you show up for every search, instead of just one.
What your customers type
What small business customers type.
Your business could be anything; yet your customers' searches look alike in their form. Here are six, as examples, with no claim to be measurements.
- 1Your business name, quite simply
- Someone has heard of you and is checking. They should land on your website and an accurate Google Business Profile, not on a directory with out-of-date opening hours.
- 2“accountant” or “caterer”, followed by a town
- Trade and place: the typical local search. It's won with the Google Business Profile and a page that says what you do and where.
- 3“seminar equipment hire prices”
- The customer wants a price range before calling. A page that gives a bracket or explains what the price depends on filters out the merely curious and reassures the rest.
- 4“how to choose” followed by what you sell
- They're at the very beginning and looking for a guide. If you're the one who writes it, simply and without hiding behind jargon, you become the reference they call back.
- 5Your business name followed by “reviews”
- They've almost decided and are looking for a reason not to. Your reviews, and the way you respond to the bad ones, make the difference.
- 6“supplier” or “provider” and your speciality
- One business is looking for another. It needs a precise service page, references, and a way to reach you that isn't a twelve-field form.
What works
The levers within reach of a small business.
Pick three priorities, not thirty
A small business can't afford to do everything, and doesn't need to. I look for the few actions with the best effort-to-result ratio for you, and I rule out the rest in writing, so nobody can sell it back to you later.
The Google Business Profile
For any business with an address or a customer area, it's the cheapest lever. It's free, it's quick to fix, and your customers see it before your website.
One page per thing you sell
Your website often has five pages: home, about, services, news, contact. Every important service or product should have its own, because nobody searches for “services”.
The evidence you already have
Customer reviews, photos of jobs, names of references, years in business, team. You have all of that in a drawer or on a phone. Putting it online costs little and answers the visitor's real question: can I trust them.
A measure you understand
How many enquiries this month, where they came from, how many led to a sale. A one-page table, read in five minutes, on which you can decide to carry on or stop.
What costs dearly
The mistakes that cost small businesses dearly.
Starting with a website redesign
It's the most visible expense and rarely the most useful. A modest website with the right pages brings in more than a brand-new one without them.
Not holding the keys to your own website
The domain name, the hosting and the logins must be in your name. Otherwise, the day you want to change provider, you discover you were only renting.
Buying articles by the kilo
A text a week on topics unrelated to your sales has never filled an order book. Four good pages beat fifty lukewarm articles.
Judging by the number of visits
Visits don't pay salaries. If nobody shows you the link between SEO and your sales, it's because nobody looked for it.
The method
What I set up with a small business or SME owner.
I ask for little of your time, but I really do ask for it: one conversation at the start, then a short check-in each month. In between, the work moves forward without you.
- Sorting. An assessment, then a short list of actions ranked by what they bring in.
- Foundations. Google Business Profile, website access in your name, service pages: what must exist before anything else.
- Production. Pages are written and published by the Newp team or by your provider, under my supervision.
- The review. Once a month, you see the enquiries received and decide what comes next.
One-minute test
Is SEO right for you?
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
SEO you can count in euros.
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 500 searches a month for your trade in your town, 5% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €900 per customer. Click-through rates by position are orders of magnitude, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your own figures
What your page could bring in
Ticket no. 10th · worked example- Searchesper month, for your trade in your town
- 500
- Estimated visitsclick-through rate: 1.5%
- 0
- Possible enquiries5% of visitors
- 0
- Possible customersone enquiry in three
- 0
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Small businesses and SMEs in Charente.
Charente has shops and tradespeople in small towns like Jarnac, Barbezieux, Ruffec or Confolens, SMEs around Angoulême and Cognac, and wine estates that are businesses too. For all of them, word of mouth matters. It has a limit: it doesn't reach the newcomer, the customer from another département, or the person searching at ten at night. That's the share I go after.
The local shop or service
Its customers live a few kilometres away and look for it on the map. A well-kept Google Business Profile and a few recent reviews do most of the work, at low cost.
The SME selling outside the département
It's based here and its clients are everywhere. Its SEO has nothing local about it: it's about its trade, and Charente barely appears outside its legal notice.
A consultant within driving distance
I live between Cognac and Paris and I know the département. We can meet at your premises for the kick-off, which avoids plenty of misunderstandings, then carry on by video call.
Beyond Google
What AI changes for a small business.
Your customers now ask ChatGPT or Gemini the questions they used to ask a neighbour: “who can install a heat pump near Cognac?”, “which accountancy firm for a small company that's just starting out?”. The AI gives two or three names, rarely more. There's no second page.
The good news is that it doesn't favour big players on principle. It picks up the businesses it understands: a clearly described activity, a precise area, reviews, the same information from one site to the next. A small, well-described business can get ahead of a big one that's stayed vague. What needs doing largely overlaps with traditional SEO, and I put both in the same plan.
Question put to an AIWhich joiner near me makes bespoke staircases?
Answer
Three tradespeople stand out for this request:
- Our client— joiner and cabinetmaker: bespoke staircases, photographed projects, towns covered listed.
- — general joinery, mostly fitting windows and doors.
- — DIY superstore, flat-pack staircases.
Tradesperson's websiteGoogle Business ProfileCustomer reviews
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three business owners, three starting points.
These portraits are made up for the example. They show that you don't start in the same place for every business.
A small accountancy firm
It grows through referrals and would like to attract business founders.
- Complete the Google Business Profile and get reviews from current clients.
- Create one page per type of client: founder, tradesperson, self-employed professional.
- Write four short guides on the questions asked at the first meeting.
A building materials merchant
It has a brochure website, a trade counter, and no way of knowing what the website brings in.
- Recover the website logins and set up tracking of calls and enquiries.
- Create one page per product family, with the brands and related services.
- Keep each depot's Google Business Profile up to date, opening hours and photos included.
A business services SME
Its clients are all over the region and its website only mentions its head office.
- Rewrite the service pages using the clients' own words.
- Publish three detailed references, with the agreement of those involved.
- Simplify getting in touch: one number, a short form, a stated response time.
In practice
What you get.
- A list of priorities that fits on one page
- Access to your website and Google Business Profile put back in your name
- Your service pages written, without you having to write
- A monthly table of enquiries received, readable in five minutes
- An honest opinion on the quotes others send you
Pricing
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
- The size of the site: ten pages or ten thousand
- The competition on your queries
- What you can do in-house, and what needs producing for you
- The pace you want
Fancy a game?
Insert a coin.
The copycat, the price-slasher, the big chain: they all want your spot. Grab the piece and slide it into the slot.
Slide it into the machine
SERP KOMBAT
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Credit: 0
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds, five opponents, only one first place.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
SEO for small businesses and SMEs: your questions as a business owner.
How much of my time will it take?
One in-depth conversation at the start, then a short check-in each month. In between, I may need an answer or a photo, rarely more. If you have a team member who can handle the follow-up, it's even less.
Is my business too small for SEO?
Size doesn't decide. What decides is what one more customer is worth to you and how many people search for what you sell. I do that calculation with you in our first conversation, and sometimes I conclude that it isn't worth it.
I know nothing about it. How can I check what you're doing?
Every action is explained in one sentence, with the reason and the expected result. The monthly report reads without a glossary. If you don't understand something, I've explained it badly, and I'll try again.
Do I need to redo my website?
Rarely as a first step. Most of the time we add pages and fix what gets in the way, on the site as it is. If it really does need rebuilding, I'll tell you why and help you write the brief for the provider.
My website was built by a local agency. Should I switch?
Not necessarily. I'm happy to work with the existing provider: I give the instructions, they apply them, I check. We only switch if they can't or won't follow.
Who writes the copy?
Not you. I ask you about your business, my agency's team writes, and you proofread to check it's accurate and sounds like you. A text you've proofread beats one you'll never write.
Am I tied in for a year?
No, there's no minimum term. You can stop whenever you like, and you keep what's been produced: pages, logins, profile. It's the least I can do.
Will I be talking to you, or to a salesperson and then an intern?
To me. I decide the strategy and I answer you; my agency's team produces under my direction. You won't have to explain your trade all over again to three different people.
SEO or advertising: where to start on a small budget?
If you need customers this month, advertising, properly set up and capped. If you can wait a little, SEO, whose cost per customer tends to fall over time. We often do a bit of both, and I'll tell you in what proportion.
Can you train me so I can do it myself afterwards?
Yes, and for some small businesses it's the best solution. I lay the foundations, then show you, or a team member, what needs maintaining. You call me back when you need me.
See also
Other industries
ConstructionJewelleryDigitalManufacturingPlumbersElectriciansRoofersBuildersSolar panelsHeat pumpsAir conditioningJoinersPrivate clinicsHair removal centresAesthetic medicine and surgeryLocksmithsPool buildersKitchen fittersEnergy renovationOpticiansHearing aid specialistsAccountantsLawyersRemoval companiesLandscapersRestaurantsBarsCaterersEvent agenciesCoachesHypnotherapistsSophrologistsBeauty and hair salonsGarages and body shopsEstate agentsProperty surveyorsDriving schoolsNotariesArchitectsFuneral directorsHotels and B&BsBathroomsPainters and decoratorsTilersConservatories and pergolasCarpentersFacade specialistsStoves and fireplacesAlarms and CCTVGyms and studiosBrokersPhotographersWines and spiritsCar dealershipsTraining providersRecruitment agenciesCleaning companiesSoftware publishersFloristsBakeries and patisseriesWine shopsTravel agenciesCampsites and outdoor accommodationPrintersCommunication agenciesHauliers and logistics firmsWellbeing practitionersNaturopathsWellbeing massage practitionersYoga teachersWellbeing training providersSophrology schoolsHypnosis schoolsCoaching schools
Support services
SEO consultant in Charente
30 minutes · video call · with me
Be the one they remember.
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
Book a callFig. 5. A K. (The landscape was missing one.)