Google works in three steps. First, a program called a crawler searches the web, following links as it goes. Then Google stores the pages it finds in a huge index. Finally, when someone searches, Google sorts the matching pages by relevance and quality. SEO comes into play at all three steps. Your pages need to be found, properly understood and judged to be a helpful answer.
It's important to tell this apart from advertising. Google Ads appear at the top for as long as you pay for them. SEO is about the unpaid results. It takes longer to work, but it doesn't need an ongoing ad budget.
For small businesses, local search matters most. Anyone searching for "joiner Kriens" or "hairdresser Lucerne" wants a provider nearby. A well-kept Google Business Profile is free and often makes a big difference. On top of that come the basics on your website:
- A title and description for each page that say what's on it and for which place.
- A clear structure with a separate page for each service and sensible headings.
- Structured data that tells Google your address, opening hours and services in a machine-readable form.
- Mobile and speed: Google uses the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking, and takes the Core Web Vitals into account.
What to keep in mind: good content does more than tricks. Write the way your customers search, and answer their questions specifically. Be careful with offers that promise fixed rankings. Google itself says that no one can guarantee a top spot in search. We set up the SEO basics, with titles, descriptions, structure and structured data, on every website we build.
A hair salon in Emmenbrücke has so far had a single page titled "Home". On Google, it barely shows up for "hairdresser Emmenbrücke". The owner fills out the salon's Google Business Profile with photos, opening hours and services. On the website, each service gets its own subpage, such as "Men's haircuts in Emmenbrücke" with prices and common questions. Every page has its own title and a matching description. Nothing is guaranteed after that. But the chances of showing up in the map view and in the results are much better than before.