It’s frustrating. You search for what you do in your town, and your competitors come up instead of you. The good news is that most of the fixes are free, and you can do many of them yourself this week.
Two places you can show up
When someone searches for a local business, Google usually shows two things:
- The map results, a short list of businesses with stars, a phone button and directions. These come from Google Business Profiles.
- The normal results underneath, which are mostly websites.
To be found properly, you want to be in both. Here’s how.
1. Claim your Google Business Profile
This is the single biggest thing for most local businesses, and it’s free.
- Search for your business name on Google. If a profile already exists, claim it. If not, create one at google.com/business.
- Verify it. Google will ask you to prove the business is yours, often with a short video.
- If you work from home or travel to customers, you can hide your address and list the areas you cover instead.
2. Fill in every detail
An empty profile looks like a business that’s closed. Add:
- the right main category, plus any extra ones that fit
- your opening hours, phone number and website
- your services, with prices if you’re happy to share them
- a short, honest description of what you do and where
- real photos of your work, your team and your premises
3. Get reviews, and reply to them
Reviews help you rank, and they help people choose you. Ask every happy customer, with a direct link so it takes them a minute. Reply to every review too, good or bad. It shows you care, and people read the replies.
Never buy reviews or write your own. It’s against Google’s rules, and profiles get suspended for it.
4. Keep your details the same everywhere
Google checks that your business name, phone number and area match across the web: your website, Facebook, Bing Places and local directories. Different numbers or old addresses make Google less sure about you. Pick one version and use it everywhere.
5. Give Google a website to show
Your profile gets you into the map results. A website gets you into the normal results, and it helps your profile rank too. The pages that help most are:
- a page for each main service you offer
- a page about the areas you cover
- clear contact details on every page
Why your competitors come first
Google says it ranks local results on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile and website match the search.
- Distance: how close you are to the person searching.
- Prominence: how well known you are, from reviews, links and mentions.
You can’t change where people search from, but you can improve the other two. A complete profile and a good website cover relevance. Reviews and a consistent presence build prominence over time.
Be patient
A new profile or website can take a few weeks to show up, and a few months to climb. If you’ve done the steps above, keep going. It’s working, even when it feels quiet.
Want a hand?
If you’d rather someone did this for you, my local SEO keeps your profile active, gets you more reviews, adds pages for the areas you want work from, and reports back in plain English. It’s £250 a month. Or ask me a question, and I’ll point you in the right direction for free.
