I love a good-looking website. Lovely photography, beautiful fonts, thoughtful design – all of it.
But there's not much point having a gorgeous website if nobody can find it. And that's where SEO comes in.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can sound a little intimidating, particularly if you're already juggling a million other things in your business.
There are technical terms, endless advice online and plenty of people promising to get you to the top of Google overnight, but the fundamentals are actually pretty straightforward.
When I'm working on a winery website, there are a handful of things I always check. Some are technical, others are more about content and the customer experience. And while I work predominantly with wineries, most of these apply to any small business website.
So, if you're wondering whether your website is properly set up for Google, here's where I'd start.
1. Check Your SEO Page Titles
Every important page on your website should have its own SEO title, sometimes called a title tag. This is one of the signals Google uses to understand what a page is about, and it's often the title people see in search results.
One thing I come across quite often is websites where every page title is simply the winery name, or something equally vague like Our Wines. It's not necessarily wrong, but it's a missed opportunity.
For example:
Instead of: Our Wines | Example Winery
Try: Margaret River Chardonnay & Cabernet Sauvignon | Example Winery
The second version gives Google and potential customers a much clearer idea of what's on the page.
I'd aim to keep titles relatively concise, usually around 50–60 characters where possible, but don't get too hung up on the exact number. The most important thing is that they're relevant, descriptive and unique.
And remember, Google can choose to display a different title in search results.
2. Give Every Important Page a Meta Description
Your meta description is the little summary that may appear beneath your website's title in Google. It doesn't directly improve your rankings, but it can make a difference to whether someone decides to click. Think of it as your opportunity to explain why that page is worth visiting.
For example:
Discover small-batch Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and other estate-grown wines from our Margaret River vineyard. Shop online or visit our cellar door.
I'd generally aim for around 140–160 characters, although Google may shorten it or use a different snippet.
And please don't use the same description for every page! Your homepage, wine shop, Wine Club and cellar door pages all serve different purposes, so their descriptions should reflect that.
3. Make Sure Your Headings Make Sense
This is something I regularly check when working on websites. A heading might look great visually, but behind the scenes it might be marked as the wrong type of heading.
Your main page heading is usually an H1.
Below that, you use H2 headings for your main sections, followed by H3 headings for smaller subsections.
For example, a winery homepage might be structured like this:
H1: Estate-Grown Margaret River Wines
H2: Discover Our Wines
H2: Visit Our Cellar Door
H2: Our Vineyard & Winemaking Philosophy
H2: Join Our Wine Club
The aim is to create a logical structure that helps both visitors and search engines understand your content. I'd generally recommend one clear main H1 per page.
4. Add Proper Alt Text to Your Images
If your website is full of beautiful vineyard photography, this one's for you.
Alt text is a short written description of an image. It's primarily there for accessibility, helping people using screen readers understand what's being shown. It can also give search engines useful context.
For example:
Not ideal: IMG_4829.jpg
Also not ideal: Best Margaret River winery vineyard wine cellar door Chardonnay
Better: Hand harvesting Chardonnay grapes in a Margaret River vineyard
You don't need to squeeze keywords into every image, just describe what's actually there, and only include details that are relevant.
Decorative images that don't add meaningful information can have empty alt text.
It's also worth giving your image files sensible names before uploading them, rather than leaving everything as DSC_0048.jpg.
5. Keep Your URLs Clean
Your website URLs should be relatively short and descriptive.
For example:
Instead of: yourwinery.com/pages/page-4728
Try: yourwinery.com/pages/our-vineyard
For a blog:
Instead of: yourwinery.com/blog/post-12
Try: yourwinery.com/blog/margaret-river-chardonnay
That said, don't go changing every URL on your website just because you think it could be a little better.
If a page already exists and has links pointing to it, changing its URL without a proper redirect can create problems. Whenever you move a page permanently, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
6. Connect Google Search Console
If you haven't set up Google Search Console, I'd put this pretty high on your to-do list.
It's free, and it's one of the most useful tools for understanding how your website performs in Google Search.
You can see:
What people are searching for when they find your website.
Which pages are receiving clicks and impressions.
Whether Google has indexed your important pages.
If there are any indexing or technical issues.
How your search visibility changes over time.
It's also where you can submit your website's XML sitemap.
Most website platforms generate a sitemap automatically, often at: yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml
Submitting it helps Google discover your pages, although it doesn't guarantee they'll all be indexed.
7. Check That Google Can Actually Index Your Pages
This is one of those technical things that's easy to overlook.
You can have a perfectly written page with beautiful images and all the right keywords, but if it's accidentally marked as noindex, Google won't include it in search results. A noindex directive tells search engines not to index that page.
There are perfectly good reasons to use it on certain pages, but you don't want it accidentally applied to your homepage, Wine Club or main service pages.
Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to check your important pages.
It's also worth making sure your robots.txt settings aren't unintentionally blocking search engines from crawling important content.
If you're not confident with these settings, I'd recommend getting someone to check before changing anything.
8. Check Your Website on Mobile
I know, I know... Everyone says websites need to be mobile-friendly. But it's worth repeating because I still come across so many websites that look beautiful on desktop and are frustrating to use on a phone — and Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for indexing. So it's important!
Go through your website on your phone and try to complete a few basic tasks.
Can you find the wine shop? Can you read the tasting notes? Can you join the Wine Club? Can you actually check out?
Look out for tiny buttons, enormous headings, awkward image crops and pop-ups that take over the entire screen. Sometimes the smallest mobile fixes can make the biggest difference.
9. Test Your Website Speed
Nobody enjoys waiting for a website to load, and if you're using lots of high-resolution vineyard photography, videos or third-party apps, it's worth checking whether they're slowing things down.
Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool is a good place to start.
It measures several things, including Core Web Vitals:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly the main content loads.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How responsive the website feels when someone interacts with it.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Whether things unexpectedly jump around while the page loads.
Some common issues include oversized images, unnecessary apps, too many scripts and large videos loading automatically.
You don't need to chase a perfect score, but I'd focus on fixing the things that are genuinely affecting your visitors.
10. Add Internal Links
Internal links are simply links between pages on your own website.
They're helpful for visitors, and they also make it easier for search engines to discover content and understand how your pages relate to one another.
For example, if you've written a blog about the growing season, you might link to your vineyard page. If you're talking about the benefits of Wine Club membership, link directly to your Wine Club. And if you've written a lovely article about Chardonnay, link to the relevant wines in your shop.
Try to make the link text descriptive. Something like explore our Chardonnay range is much more useful than click here.
11. Look for Broken Links
Broken links are frustrating, particularly when someone clicks on a wine they want to buy and ends up on a 404 error page.
They're also pretty common when websites have been redesigned, products renamed or old pages removed.
I'd recommend checking for broken links from time to time, especially after making significant website changes.
Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider can help you crawl your website and identify issues, and if a page has moved permanently, use a 301 redirect to send visitors to the most relevant replacement.
12. Think About What Your Customers Are Searching For
This is where SEO becomes a little more interesting. Rather than simply thinking about which keywords you'd like to rank for, think about the questions your customers are actually asking.
For a winery, that might be:
Where can I go wine tasting in [insert your wine region]?
What's the difference between Shiraz and Syrah?
How long can I cellar Chardonnay?
What is a good Wine Club in [insert your wine region]?
Which wineries offer accommodation in [insert your wine region]?
These questions can be great inspiration for useful website content, and the more genuinely helpful your content is, the better experience you're providing for potential customers.
I wouldn't recommend writing endless blog posts purely for the sake of targeting keywords, but write about things you actually know, and things your customers will find interesting (like this blog — hopefully!).
13. Update Your Google Business Profile
If your business has a physical location, such as a cellar door, restaurant or shop, your Google Business Profile is incredibly important. It's what helps people find your business on Google Search and Maps.
Make sure your opening hours, address, phone number, website link and other details are accurate. Add good-quality photography, respond to genuine reviews and keep your details updated around public holidays or seasonal closures.
For wineries, I'd also make sure your cellar door page clearly explains where you are, whether bookings are required and what visitors can expect.
14. Check Your Structured Data
This one's a little more technical, but it's worth knowing about… Structured data, or schema markup, is code that helps search engines understand particular information on your website.
Depending on your business, that might include:
Your business or organisation details.
Product information, including prices and availability.
Blog articles.
Breadcrumb navigation.
If you're using Shopify, some structured data may already be included in your theme, but it's worth checking, particularly if you've installed several SEO apps or made significant changes to your website.
Google's Rich Results Test can help identify supported structured data and potential errors.
Just remember that structured data doesn't automatically mean better rankings or guaranteed rich results.
15. Keep an Eye on Your Results
SEO isn't really a set-and-forget exercise. Your website changes, new wines are released, products sell out and customers start searching for different things. I'd recommend checking Google Search Console at least once a month.
You don't need to spend hours analysing every number. Just have a look at which pages are attracting visitors, what people are searching for and whether anything unusual is happening.
You might discover that an old blog is performing particularly well, or that one of your most important pages isn't being indexed. Both are useful things to know, and sometimes updating an existing page can be more worthwhile than writing something completely new.
A Final Thought
SEO doesn't have to mean a complete website overhaul or an enormous monthly marketing budget, but often, it's a collection of small, sensible improvements that add up over time, and the lovely thing is that most of these changes aren't just good for Google — they're good for the people visiting your website, too.
Clear information, easy navigation, useful content and a smooth shopping experience are things every customer appreciates.
Need a Hand with Your Website?
I work with wineries and independent businesses across Australia and New Zealand on Shopify websites, SEO, email marketing and digital strategy.
Whether your website needs a complete refresh or just a good tidy-up behind the scenes, I'd love to help.
