You built a great website. It looks good, and the copy hits the right notes, so you’re happy with it. But when people in Chicago search for what you do, your site is nowhere to be found.
The issue is almost always technical. Something under the hood is keeping Google from finding your pages, reading them properly, or deciding they’re worth showing. Picture your website as a shop on the Magnificent Mile: great windows, solid reputation, but the front door sticks, and the address isn’t listed anywhere. People walk right past.
Most of these issues are fixable, and a lot of them you can handle yourself. What you’re about to read is essentially a Chicago technical SEO audit in checklist form. These are the same issues a professional would flag, laid out so you can work through them on your own.
1. Check your page speed
If your site is taking more than three seconds to load, that’s a problem: most people leave by then. Attention spans are short online, and Google tracks that behavior, pushing slow sites further down.
What to do:
- Run your URL through Google PageSpeed Insights. It’s free, and it tells you exactly what’s dragging.
- Compress your images before uploading them. This alone can cut load times significantly.
- Get rid of plugins you’re not using. Each one adds load time, even if it’s sitting idle.
- Ask your hosting provider about caching and CDN options. Sometimes a quick settings change shaves off a full second or two.
2. Make sure your site works on phones
More than 60% of Google searches happen on mobile. If your site is awkward on a small screen, if buttons are tiny or the layout doesn’t adjust, people leave. And these aren’t casual browsers: a lot of mobile searchers are ready to buy right then!
What to do:
- Try to actually use your own site on your phone. Tap things, scroll around, and see what annoys you.
- Buttons and links should be easy to hit with a thumb. If you’re squinting or pinching, something’s off.
- Check how forms look on mobile. A contact form that’s painful to fill out on a phone is a lost lead.
3. Fix broken links
Old pages get deleted, URLs change, or someone linked to something that doesn’t exist anymore. Every broken link is a dead end for visitors and a small trust hit with Google.
What to do:
- Use a free crawler to scan for 404 errors. Anything under 500 pages can usually be scanned at no cost.
- Set up 301 redirects so old URLs point to relevant current pages instead of dead ends.
- Run this check quarterly. Links break more often than you’d expect, especially if you’ve redesigned your site or renamed pages.
4. Clean up duplicate content
If you have several pages covering basically the same topic with similar wording, Google gets confused about which one matters. The problem? It tends to show none of them.
This happens a lot with service-area pages or blog posts that overlap without anyone realizing it.
What to do:
- Look through your site for pages targeting the same keyword. If two could be one, merge them.
- Use canonical tags when you genuinely need similar pages (like city-specific landing pages) to tell Google which is the primary version.
- Review your blog archive for older posts that cover topics you’ve since written about more thoroughly. Merge or consolidate where they overlap.
5. Set up HTTPS
If your URL still starts with “http” instead of “https,” browsers show a “Not Secure” warning. That scares people off, and Google penalizes it in rankings.
What to do:
- Ask your hosting provider about enabling SSL. Most offer free certificates.
- Check all internal links and images to make sure they point to the https version once it’s live. Mixed content (some secure, some not) causes its own headaches.
- Update your Google Business Profile URL to https as well, and bookmark your own site to confirm it loads correctly.
6. Submit a sitemap
A sitemap is a file that lists every individual page on your site so Google doesn’t have to guess what’s there. Without one, pages can go unnoticed for weeks or months.
What to do:
- Check whether your platform generates one automatically. Most (WordPress, Squarespace, Wix) do: you can usually find it by adding /sitemap.xml to the end of your domain.
- Submit it through Google Search Console. If you haven’t set that up yet, do it first. It’s free and gives you a direct line into how Google sees your site.
- Resubmit your sitemap whenever you add or remove pages, so Google picks up the changes faster.
7. Add structured data (schema markup)
Structured data is extra code that helps Google understand what your pages are about. For a local business, this can mean your hours, reviews, and address show up right in the search results, before anyone even clicks.
What to do:
- Start with LocalBusiness schema. Google has a free markup helper that walks you through it step by step.
- Test your markup with the Rich Results Test before publishing. It catches errors that would otherwise go unnoticed.
- Look into Service schema if you run a service business, as it helps Google connect your pages to specific queries.
What to expect
This won’t change your rankings overnight. Give it two to three months after making changes before you judge the results. SEO builds slowly, but it also compounds. The longer you rank well, the harder it gets for competitors to displace you.
Start with the easy stuff: compress images, fix broken links, submit a sitemap. Each small fix makes your site a little more visible. Stack enough of them, and the difference adds up faster than you’d think.
