Free tips to help you get found
Small business marketing blog
Plain-English advice from the Happy Otter team on getting found on Google and in AI assistants like ChatGPT, plus marketing and coaching tips for busy business owners.
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How much should a small business spend on marketing? A UK guide for 2026
“How much should I spend on marketing?” is the question we hear most. Here’s how to work out a sensible budget from your own…
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Local SEO for AI search: how to get recommended when customers ask AI “who’s best near me?”
Customers now ask AI assistants for the best plumber, dentist or café nearby. Here’s where those assistants get their information, and how to make…
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E-E-A-T explained: how small businesses can show experience, expertise and trust
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. Google says trust matters most. Here’s what it means in practice, and simple ways a small…
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Schema markup in 2026: what still helps in search and AI answers
Google has dropped FAQ rich results and several other schema types, and says AI search doesn’t need special markup. So is structured data still…
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How to track AI search traffic in Google Analytics 4, Search Console and Bing
Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot are hiding inside your “Referral” and “Direct” traffic. Here’s how to separate them in GA4, and what Search…
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Is SEO dead? What zero-click search really means for small businesses
Clicks from Google are falling as AI answers questions on the results page. Here’s what the research shows, what Google says, and why SEO…
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AI crawlers and robots.txt: which bots to allow and which to block
Some AI crawlers decide whether you can appear in AI search answers. Others only collect training data. Here’s which is which, and how to…
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What is llms.txt, and does your website need one?
llms.txt is a small text file meant to help AI tools understand your website. Google says it doesn’t use it, but some AI tools…
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How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business
More customers now ask ChatGPT who to use. Here’s how ChatGPT finds businesses, the sources it trusts, and the practical steps that make it…