Launching an online business: which SEO actions should you prioritise to win your first clients?

To win your first clients when launching your online business, prioritise three SEO actions: a Google profile, targeted service pages and customer reviews. The rest can wait.

Which SEO actions should you prioritise when launching an online business?

The SEO actions to prioritise at launch are the ones that reach people ready to buy, not the ones that generate traffic. A brand-new site has no history and no inbound links: Google will not hand it the generic queries that established players have been fighting over for years. It can, however, rank it quickly for precise searches, and your Google Business Profile can show up in the local pack as soon as it is verified.

My order of priority, after more than 300 projects since 2016, comes down to five steps: set up the technical and identity foundations, create the Google profile if your business is eligible, publish 3 to 5 service pages targeting transactional queries, collect customer reviews from the very first contract, and only then produce blog content and go after links. This order shifts with your business model, as the table below shows.

The Google Business Profile row often surprises freelancers who work remotely: Google reserves these profiles for businesses that meet customers in person, at an address or within a service area. A copywriter or developer who only works over video calls is not eligible, and a profile created anyway risks suspension.

The foundations to lay before your first page

Before writing a single page, lock in the identity that Google and AI engines will associate with your business. That identity starts with your legal status. As a sole proprietor (in France, an entreprise individuelle), your legal name is your first and last name; if you use a trading name, choose it from day one and keep it identical everywhere. Google Business Profile rules require a profile name that matches the name you actually use on your storefront, website and documents: adding “cheap plumber Nice” to your name exposes the profile to suspension.

This consistency also serves your AI visibility. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity cross-check your site, your profiles and public directories to describe a business. Three name variants, two addresses and a different phone number on LinkedIn are enough to blur that picture.

Here are the five foundations I have my clients validate in the first week:

• One single name (legal or trading name) spelled the same way on the site, the Google profile, LinkedIn, directories and invoices.
• A domain name that is short, easy to say, with a country extension if you target one country (see my comparison of .com vs .fr).
• Google Search Console installed and a sitemap submitted, so you can check every page gets indexed (step-by-step in my guide to installing Search Console and Analytics).
• A complete legal notice: company registration number, address, publishing director. It is a legal requirement in France and a trust signal for visitors and Google alike.
• An “About” page stating who you are, how long you have been practising and who you serve, with a real photo.

None of these actions brings in clients on its own. Without them, though, the service pages you publish next may never be indexed or may be attributed to a blurry entity.

Why target transactional long-tail queries rather than volume?

A new site wins first on precise queries where purchase intent is strong and competition is weak. “Business coach” shows thousands of searches and a first page held by national platforms. “Career change coach for managers online” may only get 30 searches a month, but everyone who types it is looking for a provider.

The method I apply comes down to one rule: one page per service, one service per page. Each page targets one main transactional query and answers the questions a prospect asks before contacting you: what the service includes, who it is for, how long it takes, how much it costs, which area you cover and what proof you have. To find these queries, start from the exact words used in your first client conversations, then check them against Google suggestions and the “People also ask” box (my full method is in my article on SEO keyword research).

Three signals point to a transactional query you can win at launch: it contains a purchase modifier (price, quote, rate, near me, city name); Google’s results show provider pages rather than general guides; and the first page includes at least one modest site, a sign that the spot is still up for grabs.

In my view, the most underrated page on a launch site is the pricing page. Displaying a starting price, even an indicative one, captures “how much does it cost” searches and gives AI engines a factual data point to reuse when someone asks them for a price range. Freelancers put it off for fear of competitors; in the projects I run, it is often the page that converts best.

Google Business Profile and reviews: the fastest lever for a local business

For a business that welcomes clients or travels to them, the Google profile and reviews generate contacts faster than any page. The profile appears in the local pack and on Google Maps without waiting for your site to build authority, provided it is complete: exact primary category, service area, opening hours, detailed services, real photos. My tutorial on creating and optimising a Google page covers every field.

Reviews then act as a filter. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, conducted among 1,002 US consumers, shows that 47% of them will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and that only 9% will accept one with five or fewer. The figures are US-based, but the logic holds for any new business: without reviews, you stay invisible at the moment of choice.

Recency weighs as much as volume. Collecting ten reviews once at launch is not enough: ask for a review at the end of every job, through a direct link or a QR code on the invoice, and reply to each one. The same report states that 80% of consumers are more likely to choose a business that responds to all its reviews. A BrightLocal study cited in the report indicates that only 35% of the small businesses surveyed have a Google profile: a well-kept profile already sets you apart from part of your competition.

Can ChatGPT and AI engines recommend a business that is just starting out?

Yes, and sometimes before Google does, because answer engines do not draw their sources from the top 10 alone. The Ahrefs study published in March 2026, covering 863,000 queries and 4 million cited URLs, shows that 37.9% of pages cited in AI Overviews rank in the first ten results, 31.2% between positions 11 and 100, and 31.0% beyond that. Nearly two citations out of three therefore come from pages that are not on page one.

Usage is following. In BrightLocal’s 2026 report, the share of consumers using ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local business recommendations rose from 6% to 45% in one year. AI has become the third source of recommendations, behind Google and Facebook.

For an AI to cite a young business, three conditions matter more than domain age. Factual pages that answer plainly (starting price, area, turnaround, method) and are easy to extract in one paragraph. A consistent identity across your site, Google profile, LinkedIn and directories. Third-party mentions: reviews, interviews, presence on industry platforms (Malt, Codeur, professional directories), discussions on forums or Reddit. My guide to getting listed on ChatGPT covers these levers.

In my view, a business launching in 2026 should check, from the third month, what ChatGPT answers when asked for a provider in its trade and city. Answers change from week to week and often cite competitors you never see in Google. To track these answers without testing by hand, I use Cockpyt AI, a tool I co-founded (I mention it for transparency): from €29 a month for 10 prompts tracked weekly on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Tracking for Google AI Overview and AI Mode is in development, with no confirmed date.

3 SEO actions to postpone until after your first clients

Some SEO actions that pay off in the long run eat up the time and budget of a launch without producing a single lead. I systematically have them postponed:

• High-volume generic blogging. Publishing two posts a week on informational topics (“what is digital marketing”) attracts readers who are not looking for a provider, on a domain that does not yet have the authority to rank. One or two “proof” pieces (client case, pricing guide) are worth more.
• Bulk paid link building. Paid links on sites unrelated to your trade do not make up for a lack of useful pages and expose a new site to a manual action. A young business’s first links come from its partners, clients, local press and industry directories (strategy detailed in my article on SEO backlinks).
• Paid tools and 200-point audits. On a ten-page site, Google Search Console and a few free SEO tools cover the first six months. A subscription costing over €100 a month adds nothing until you have data to analyse.

Postponing does not mean dropping. Once your service pages are indexed and your first reviews are live, the blog becomes a semantic coverage lever and links become an authority accelerator.

90-day SEO plan to launch your online business

A 90-day plan is enough to set up everything that drives your first organic clients. I split it into four phases, each with a deliverable you can check.

Week 1: foundations and identity

Pick your final name, register the domain, publish the legal notice and “About” page, install Search Console and submit the sitemap. If your business is eligible, create the Google Business Profile and start verification.

Weeks 2 to 4: service pages

Write 3 to 5 pages, one per service, each targeting a transactional query. Add a pricing page, even with “from” prices. Request indexing for each page in Search Console and check it appears in the “Pages” report.

Month 2: reviews and external presence

Set up a systematic review request after every job. Create or align your LinkedIn, Malt, directory and industry profiles with exactly the same name, address and phone number. Ask two or three partners for a link or a mention.

Month 3: measurement and first content

Analyse the queries generating impressions in Search Console and strengthen the pages close to page one. Publish a first “proof” piece: a client case with figures or a pricing guide. Test what ChatGPT and Gemini answer about your trade and area.

How do you know if your launch SEO is working?

Launch SEO is judged on demand signals, not traffic. In the first weeks your site gets few visits: that is normal, and the number says nothing about the quality of your work.

The first indicator to track is the number of impressions in Search Console on your transactional queries. A page going from zero to a few dozen impressions a week is indexed and being tested by Google; its average position then tells you which pages to strengthen. For the Google profile, track calls, direction requests and website clicks in the profile’s performance report.

The second indicator is commercial: how many quote requests or calls mention “I found you on Google”? Ask every prospect, or add a “How did you hear about us?” field to your form. That number, however small, is worth more than any dashboard. My article on SEO tracking lists free tools to automate it.

The third indicator concerns AI: is your business cited when ChatGPT or Perplexity is asked about your trade and area? The right AI visibility KPIs are mention rate, position in the answer and the competitors cited instead of you.

FAQ: SEO and launching a business

Do you need a website to find your first clients?

A website is not required to sign a first client, but it quickly becomes indispensable to sign them regularly. According to BrightLocal (2026), 54% of consumers visit a business’s website after reading positive reviews. Without a site, that already-convinced prospect has nowhere to go.

Is SEO suitable for a micro-business?

Yes, as long as it stays targeted. A micro-business does not need a hundred pages: a Google profile, a few service pages and regular reviews are often enough to generate enquiries in a local or specialised niche. Your tax regime changes nothing about Google’s rules.

Should you start with Google Ads or with SEO?

The two complement each other. Google Ads brings contacts from day one and shows you which queries convert; SEO then captures those same queries without a cost per click. On a small budget, I recommend a short, tightly targeted campaign to validate your keywords, then shifting the effort to organic pages.

How many pages do you need to get started?

Between 6 and 10 pages cover most launches: home, 3 to 5 service pages, pricing, about, contact and legal notice. The quality of each service page matters more than how many there are.

Can you do your own SEO at the start?

Yes, for the foundations: Search Console, a Google profile, service pages and review requests do not require advanced technical skills. An outside view becomes useful to choose the right queries and avoid architecture mistakes that are expensive to fix later.

Does a keyword domain name help with SEO?

Very little. Google no longer gives a meaningful advantage to domains like “plumber-nice.com”, and a generic name is hard to remember and hard to protect. A short brand name used consistently everywhere does more for your visibility on Google and in AI engines.

How much does SEO cost when launching a business?

Doing it yourself, the direct cost is close to zero: your time and possibly copywriting for the pages. Support from a consultant generally ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand euros depending on scope; my article on Google SEO pricing details the 2026 ranges.

Written by Florian Zorgnotti, SEO consultant based in Nice since 2016. Published on 27 October 2026.