Showing up on Google is not magic and it is not a secret. For a small business it mostly comes down to a short list of basics. Most sites we look at are missing two or three of them.
First, check whether Google knows you exist
Type this into Google, using your own address:
site:yourbusiness.com.au
If pages from your site come back, Google has found it. If nothing comes back, Google has not listed your site at all, and nothing else matters until that is fixed.
The usual reasons
1. Google was never told about the site. Google offers a free tool called Search Console, where the owner of a website can confirm it is theirs and submit a list of its pages. Plenty of small business sites have never been registered.
2. The site does not say what you do or where. Google reads words. If your home page says "Quality service since 1998" and never says "electrician" or "Toowoomba", Google has no reason to show you to someone searching for an electrician in Toowoomba.
3. Your Google Business Profile is unclaimed or half empty. This is the listing that appears on Google Maps with your hours, phone number and reviews. It is free, it is separate from your website, and for a local business it often matters more than the website does.
4. The site is poor on a phone. Google looks at the mobile version of your site when it decides where to rank it. Slow, cramped or broken on a phone counts against you.
5. Your details do not match. One phone number on the website, another on Google, an old address on Facebook. Mismatched details make a business look less reliable to people and to search engines.
6. Every page has the same title. The title is the blue line people click in Google. If every page on your site is just your business name, you are wasting the most valuable line you have.
What about the AI assistants?
More people now ask an AI assistant for a recommendation instead of searching. Those assistants lean on the same things: a site that states clearly what you do, where, and for whom, with details that match everywhere else. Getting the basics right helps with both.
What you can do this week
- Run the site: check above.
- Search your business name and claim your Google Business Profile if you have not already.
- Read the first two lines of your home page. Do they say what you do and where?
- Make your phone number, address and hours identical everywhere.
What we do about it
Every site we build is set up so Google can find it, registered with Search Console, and paired with a claimed and completed Google Business listing. It is part of the job, not an extra.
We will not promise you the top spot. Nobody honest can. What we can do is make sure nothing basic is holding you back. If you want to check the rest of your site, try the ten minute self check.