On-page SEO guides for local business websites
Every check ppclift runs, explained properly: what it is, why it costs a business money, and exactly how to fix it. Written for people who have to action the findings rather than just read them.
Check your own site. These are the same checks the free auditor runs. Run a free audit and see every check on one page, with no account required.
Foundation
Metadata
Writing title tags that earn clicks
The title tag is the single most important piece of on-page metadata. It is the clickable headline in search results, th…
Meta descriptions that earn the click
A meta description does not affect rankings directly. It affects whether anybody clicks your result instead of the one a…
Content structure
Heading structure that makes sense
Headings give a page an outline. Used properly they help readers scan, help screen readers navigate, and help search eng…
Thin content, and what to do about it
A page with very little text gives a search engine almost nothing to match against a query. Thin content is one of the m…
Mobile and accessibility
The viewport meta tag
Without a viewport tag, a phone renders your page at desktop width and shrinks it to fit. Text becomes unreadable and bu…
Writing useful image alt text
Alt text describes an image to anyone or anything that cannot see it: screen reader users, search engines, and visitors …
Structured data and discoverability
Structured data and rich results
Structured data states the facts about your business in a format machines read without guessing: what you are, where you…
Canonical links and duplicate content
The same page is often reachable at several addresses. A canonical tag nominates the one that counts, so ranking signals…
Open Graph and social previews
When somebody shares your page on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or in a text message, Open Graph tags decide whether it a…
robots.txt and crawler instructions
robots.txt is the first file most crawlers request. It tells them which parts of the site they may fetch, and points the…
XML sitemaps
A sitemap is a list of the addresses on your site that you want indexed, along with when each last changed. It is how yo…
AI and answer-engine readiness
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews increasingly answer questions directly rather than sending a click…
Going further
The cold outreach playbook
Finding businesses with weak websites is the easy half. This is the other half: what to send, when to send it, and what …
The research
What we found auditing 2,661 local business websites, with the method and its limits.
SEO by industry
Measured scores and the most common faults for eight local trades.
SEO glossary
Thirty terms defined in plain English, from alt text to structured data.
The 15-point checklist
The full checklist in one page, as a quick reference.