South African small businesses spend a lot on digital advertising. Some of that spend is justified. But a surprising amount goes into paid traffic that lands on sites with broken basics: slow load times, missing meta descriptions, pages that are not indexed. Fix the foundation first.
This is not a comprehensive SEO guide. It is a triage list: 12 specific things that show up as problems on the majority of South African SMB sites we scan. Work through them in order.
Technical
1. Check that Google can index your pages
Search site:yourdomain.co.za in Google. If the number of results is much lower than the number of pages on your site, something is blocking Google. Common causes: a noindex meta tag left over from development, a Disallow: / line in robots.txt, or a crawl budget problem on large sites. Fix blocking issues before anything else.
2. Confirm HTTPS is working correctly
Not just that your SSL certificate is valid, but that every HTTP request redirects to HTTPS, that no pages load mixed content (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages), and that www and non-www both redirect to your canonical version. Google treats these as separate sites until you sort the redirects. See the poor score sample for what mixed content issues look like in a health check.
3. Fix your Core Web Vitals
Check PageSpeed Insights on mobile. If your LCP is over 2.5 seconds, you are likely losing ranking positions to slower competitors who still beat you on speed. South African hosting is often slow by default. See our guide on fixing Core Web Vitals on WordPress for the five fixes that move the score.
4. Submit a sitemap to Google Search Console
If you have not done this, do it today. WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math generates a sitemap automatically. Submit it in Search Console under Sitemaps. This does not guarantee indexing, but it ensures Google knows which pages exist.
On-page
5. Write unique title tags for every page
Title tags are the single most direct on-page SEO signal. Every page should have a unique title that includes the primary keyword and is under 60 characters. Check for duplicate titles in Search Console under Pages, then Coverage. Duplicate titles are extremely common on WordPress sites using default settings.
6. Write meta descriptions that sell the click
Meta descriptions do not directly affect rankings, but they affect click-through rate, which does. Write them as one sentence that answers: why should someone click this result instead of the others? Avoid generic descriptions like "Welcome to our website." Keep them under 155 characters.
7. Use one H1 per page
Your H1 should match the intent of the page. Most WordPress themes put the post or page title in the H1 automatically, but theme customisations sometimes break this. Check three or four key pages by viewing the page source and searching for <h1. If there are zero or more than one, fix it.
8. Add structured data to key pages
For local businesses: add LocalBusiness schema. For products: Product schema. For blog posts: Article schema. These do not guarantee rich results in Google, but they increase the chances significantly. Google's Rich Results Test tool checks whether your markup is valid. See the local business sample to see how structured data is scored.
Local
9. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
If you serve local customers, your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is arguably more important than your website for local search. Make sure it is claimed, verified, and complete: correct address, phone number, hours, and a description that includes your city and service type.
10. Get your NAP consistent
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. If these details appear on your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, and local directories, they should be identical character-for-character. "123 Main Road" and "123 Main Rd" are different to a machine. Inconsistent NAP reduces local ranking confidence.
Content
11. Have one page that targets your primary keyword
Many SMB sites are built as brochures with no page optimised for any specific search. Pick the term your best customers would search when they need exactly what you offer. Write a page of at least 400 words on that topic. Use the keyword in the title, H1, first paragraph, and at least two subheadings.
12. Link internally between related pages
Google uses internal links to understand site structure and to distribute ranking authority. If your blog posts never link to your services pages, or your services pages never link to each other, you are leaving value on the table. Add three to five relevant internal links per page as a minimum.
Before you run ads
Run a health check on your site before launching a paid campaign. Sending paid traffic to a slow, unindexed, or insecure site is a fast way to burn budget. The free scan covers all the technical items on this list and flags the ones that need attention first. The Studio plan adds scheduled monitoring so you know immediately if something breaks after you launch.