Most small businesses get stuck once they’ve covered the basics of SEO. Your site is live, your content is written and you’ve done the simple fixes, but your rankings stop moving. This is where many owners assume they need an agency or a big budget. You don’t. You just need a clearer strategy and a few advanced techniques that make Google pay attention.
Advanced SEO is not about hacks or shortcuts. It’s about tightening the parts of your website that influence authority, relevance and trust. When you apply these steps, you move beyond the basics and start building real momentum.
This guide breaks down the advanced SEO tactics that make a measurable difference for small businesses that want to grow.
Let’s look at what that means in practice and how to apply it without needing an agency or big budget.
Think of technical SEO as the foundation of your site. If it’s shaky, your content won’t perform at its best. Here’s what to check:
Google rewards fast, user-friendly sites. Use tools like Page Speed Insights or GTmetrix to identify what’s slowing you down. Compress large images, reduce unnecessary plugins, and switch to a reliable hosting provider if your site is sluggish.
Most searches happen on mobile. Make sure your website is responsive and loads correctly on different screen sizes. You can test this using Google’s Page Insights Tool.
Search engines need to find and understand your pages. Check your sitemap.xml and robots.txt files are set up correctly, and ensure key pages are not being blocked. In Google Search Console, look for “Excluded” pages to spot potential indexing issues.
Adding schema markup helps Google understand your site’s content. For example, a local bakery could add LocalBusiness schema to show opening hours, reviews, and location directly in search results. Tools like Google's Structured Data Markup Helper make this straightforward even without coding skills.
Internal links help search engines discover your pages and understand which ones matter most. They also keep visitors moving through your site.
This strategy not only improves user experience but also boosts the authority of your core pages, such as your main SEO or content marketing resources.
Basic SEO is about finding good keywords. Advanced SEO is about structuring them.
Build a clear hierarchy:
This cluster approach strengthens topical authority and makes your site more likely to rank across related terms.
If your site has grown over time, it may have become messy. Clean, logical site structure helps Google and users alike.
Organise your content under clear categories, with pillar pages supported by relevant blog posts or resources. For example:
A well optimised website hierarchy is critical for an optimised user journey, as well as for SEO. Our small business SEO hub can help you get started with everything you need to know to get your SEO strategy from concept to action.
Core Web Vitals measure how quickly your site loads and how stable it feels for users. Google uses them as a ranking factor.
Focus on these metrics:
Not all backlinks are equal. You want quality over quantity. Focus on:
Avoid spammy or irrelevant links, which can hurt your rankings.
SEO is never “set and forget”. Track your results using:
Look for trends over time, not overnight results. Small, steady improvements add up.
Advanced SEO is about fine-tuning, not overcomplicating. Once your site is technically sound, your content structured, and your links purposeful, you’ll be well positioned to outrank larger competitors.
Small businesses that get technical SEO right don’t just climb the rankings; they stay there.
Next up: Schema mark up for beginners →
If you’d like to learn how to use SEO to grow your business (without the jargon), check out more of our SEO for small businesses content. We explain how to choose keywords, create great content and track your progress, all in language that makes sense.