Free SEO course: 10 lessons for small businesses
Learn SEO by doing it on your own website. Ten short lessons, in the order that matters most, each with a couple of tasks and the free XKey guides and tools to do them. No sign-up, no email.
Last updated · By the XKey team
Tick tasks as you go – your progress is saved in this browser only.
Stuck on a word? The SEO glossary explains every term in plain English.
- How Google decides what to show
- Check where you stand
- Find the words your customers use
- Titles and descriptions
- Write pages worth ranking
- Fix the technical basics
- Win local search
- Earn links and mentions
- Get found in AI search
- Measure and keep going
Lesson 1: How Google decides what to show
Google sends crawlers to read pages, stores them in its index, then ranks the pages it thinks best answer each search. Ranking leans on three things: whether the page is relevant to the words searched, whether it's trustworthy (links and reviews from elsewhere), and whether it's a good experience to use. For local searches, distance and your Google Business Profile matter too. AI answers such as Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT use much of the same signals.
Read and use: How to rank higher on Google · What E-E-A-T means
Lesson 2: Check where you stand
Before changing anything, get a baseline. A quick check shows the problems stopping Google reading or trusting your site, and Search Console shows the searches you already appear for. Most small business sites have a handful of easy fixes – a missing title, a blocked page, a slow image – that are worth more than any clever trick.
Read and use: Free SEO check · Set up Google Search Console · Why isn't my website on Google?
Lesson 3: Find the words your customers use
Keyword research is just finding out how people describe what you sell. They rarely use your industry's terms: they search "emergency plumber Preston", not "heating engineering services". Pick one main phrase for each page, and choose phrases you can realistically win – a local phrase beats a national one for a small business.
Read and use: Keyword research for beginners · Keyword generator · Keyword difficulty checker
Lesson 4: Titles and descriptions
The title tag is the blue link in Google, and it's the strongest on-page signal you control. Put the main phrase near the start, add your town if you're local, and keep it under about 60 characters. The meta description doesn't change rankings, but a good one gets more people to click.
Read and use: How to write title tags · Meta descriptions · Title tag checker
Lesson 5: Write pages worth ranking
Google ranks pages, not websites. Every service you want to be found for needs its own page that properly answers the questions a customer would ask: what's included, prices or price ranges, areas covered, how long it takes, and why choose you. Photos of real work and real reviews beat generic text every time.
Read and use: How to write SEO content · On-page SEO checklist · SEO content editor
Lesson 6: Fix the technical basics
Technical SEO is making sure Google can find, read and load your pages. That means a working sitemap, nothing important blocked in robots.txt, one secure https address, no broken links, and pages that load fast on a phone. You only need to get these right once, then keep an eye on them.
Read and use: Technical SEO checklist · Core Web Vitals · Broken link checker · Page speed checker
Lesson 7: Win local search
For anything people want nearby, the map results get most of the clicks. Your Google Business Profile is the biggest factor: the right category, full details, photos, posts and a steady stream of reviews. Keep your name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere they appear.
Read and use: Google Business Profile guide · Local SEO checklist · How to get Google reviews · Local search checker
Lesson 8: Earn links and mentions
Links from other websites are how Google judges trust. You don't need many, but you need real ones: suppliers, local organisations, clubs you sponsor, local news, trade bodies and directories. Never buy links – it breaks Google's rules and can get your site pushed down.
Read and use: How to get backlinks · Business directory listings · Backlink checker
Lesson 9: Get found in AI search
ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot increasingly answer questions directly. They favour clear pages that state facts plainly, structured data that describes your business, and sites that let their crawlers in. Most of this is good SEO anyway – but check you're not blocking AI crawlers by accident.
Read and use: AI search optimisation · AI SEO checker · Schema markup · llms.txt
Lesson 10: Measure and keep going
SEO takes months, not days, so measure the right things: clicks and searches in Search Console, enquiries from the website, and where you rank for your main phrases. Check monthly, keep adding useful pages, and re-run a full check after any website change.
Read and use: Measuring SEO results · How long SEO takes · Rank tracker · Weekly SEO monitoring
Frequently asked questions
How long does the course take?
Each lesson takes a few minutes to read. The tasks take anything from five minutes to an afternoon – do one lesson a week and you'll have covered the essentials in under three months.
Do I need any technical knowledge?
No. The course is written for business owners. Where something needs a developer, the guides say so.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in this browser only. Nothing is sent to XKey and there's no account.
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