SEO is the work of helping Google find your pages, understand what they're about, and trust them enough to show them to searchers. For a small business, it comes down to three things: a site Google can read, pages that match what people search, and signals that you're a real, trusted business.
1. Crawling and indexing
Google sends crawlers to discover pages through links and sitemaps, then stores them in its index. If a page isn't indexed, it can't rank. See getting Google to index your site.
2. Understanding and relevance
Google reads your page titles, headings, text, images and structured data to understand what each page covers. A page dedicated to "bathroom renovations in Joondalup" matches that search far better than a homepage listing ten services. See on-page vs technical SEO.
3. Trust and prominence
Links from other sites, reviews, consistent business listings and a good user experience tell Google your business is real and reputable.
Local results work a bit differently
The map pack is based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, with your Google Business Profile at the centre. See local ranking factors.
How long it takes
Changes take time to be crawled and weighed. Most local SEO shows clear movement in three to six months. See how long SEO takes.