How to Get Found on Google as a Local Business
Getting found on Google is not one trick. It is a handful of ordinary things, done in the right order and kept up. Nobody can promise you a spot at the top, and Google says there are no secrets that put a site first automatically. What you can do is make it easy for Google and for customers to see what you do, where you are and that you are open.
This guide is the order of work. Reading it takes about 10 minutes, and each step links to a detailed guide with its own time.
Step 1. See what customers see today
Search your business name and city on your phone, and look at what shows up. Write down what is wrong. See Check How Your Business Shows Up on Google, and Fix What Is Wrong.
Step 2. Get your Google profile in place
This is the most important step for a local business. Claim it, verify it, and fill in every section: category, services, service area or address, hours, description and photos.
- How to Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile
- How to Choose Your Google Categories, Services and Service Area
- How to Write Your Google Business Description
- Which Photos to Put on Your Google Listing
Step 3. Make your details match everywhere
Your name, address, phone number and hours should read the same on your website, your Google profile, Facebook, Instagram and the directories customers use, such as Apple Maps, Bing Places and Yellow Pages. See Make Your Name, Address and Phone Number Match Everywhere, and Set Up Facebook and Instagram for Your Business.
Step 4. Get honest reviews and reply to them
Reviews affect how people decide whether to choose you, and Google lists them as part of how it judges how well known a business is. Ask every customer, make the link easy, and reply to what comes in.
Step 5. Give people a page that answers their question
A profile gets someone's attention. Your website has to give them the details. Write one page for each main service, plus an article now and then that answers a question customers ask. See How to Write a Service Page That Answers Your Customers and What to Write on a Small Business Blog. A simple path is: a post catches their eye, an article answers a question, and a service page explains what you offer and how to book.
Step 6. Post on a schedule you can keep
An account that has not posted in months can look closed. You do not need to post daily. You need a pace you can hold. See A 90 Day Posting Plan You Can Copy and What to Post on Your Google Business Profile.
Step 7. Check, change one thing, repeat
Every few weeks look at your calls, messages and bookings, and change one thing at a time. See How to Tell If a Change to Your Marketing Worked.
A note on "SEO"
If you are being pitched SEO services, see What an SEO Audit Is, and What to Ask Before You Pay for One. Most of what matters for a local business is on this list, and much of it you can do yourself.
If you would rather hand this off
The steps above are the work we do each month for clients: the profile, the matching details, the posts and the review replies. See Local SEO for Small Business, or get started.