If you build it, they will come. Right? Unfortunately, this can be the farthest thing from the truth when it comes to building a website. After a website is created, the first thing many people do is search for it. You jump on Google, type in your business name and⌠nothing. You sit there and wonder, why canât I find my business on Google? This must be a mistake.Â
If this is you, donât worry. Itâs fixable! Chances are you didnât optimize your website for search. In other words, you didnât incorporate SEO strategies. Not sure what search engine optimization is? Start here with our simple guide to SEO for beginners.Â
If you own a local business, these five things are especially important to make sure your customers can find your business online, whether that be a search engine like Google or even a maps page. So letâs dive into it!
Why canât I find my business on Google? Hereâs why!
1. You donât have a Google My Business account
Itâs exactly as it sounds. Google My Business, also known as GMB, is what allows your customers to easily google your business. Especially if you have a local service or offering. Think about how many times you may Google â[fill in the blank] near meâ. With a GMB account, Google understands where you are located and can showcase you as a relevant business to that search.Â
Donât have an account? The good news is, it is extremely easy to create an account! In fact, go ahead and do it right now. Click here to get started and follow these steps:
- Create an account by logging into your Google account
- Follow the prompts and enter in your business information (name, location, etc.)
- Verify your business – this is typically done via postcard
- Optimize your listing with keywords and images
- Snag your first review – more on this in reason number 4
Finally, donât forget that Google isnât the only search engine. Check out this recent post on our Instagram. You may want to consider creating a Bings Places or Yahoo Local account as well.
2. Your contact information isnât displayed on your website
When building a website, we often focus on our home page and services or product offerings. The contact page ends up being forgotten about or completely undervalued. One of the reasons why you canât find your business on Google might be because you simply forgot to create this page. Â
Your contact page is a digital business card. Itâs where potential customers and clients take action. Itâs where a relationship begins. And that is exactly why it’s so important. So what should you include on this page?
First, before you even start designing this page, think mobile first! In todayâs society more people will find you on their smartphones than with a desktop computer, so make sure this page is easy to navigate on your mobile device.
- Your companyâs name written in full live text (not embedded over an image or in a logo, Google canât read that!)
- A location or address
- Contact information through an embedded form or by simply sharing your email or phone number
- Finally, include links to FAQs or blog posts that might speak to your services, offerings or products
Keep it simple and inviting. Donât scare your audience away with too many questions or confuse them with too much content. And finally, once your contact page is ready, share it! The more traffic you drive to this page, the more authority your website will gain with Google.Â
3. Your site isnât optimized for mobile
Like we mentioned above, mobile is the future of online browsing. In the past year, 60% of our website traffic comes from a mobile device, compared to 37% on desktop. Curious where you stand? We encourage you to pop into Google Analytics and follow this path:
Audience > Mobile > Overview
Did you know you can even view this by device – iPhone vs. Android for example- by clicking on âdeviceâ under mobile. Google Analytics is amazing folks!
Not sure where to start? Here are some quick and easy ways to optimize your website for mobile:
- Double check your user experience. Pop onto your website from your phone. Do you enjoy the browsing experience? If not, chances are your audience doesnât either. User experience is a huge part of Googleâs algorithm and without it, you won’t rank well because your audience will bounce right off that page.Â
- Pagespeed: Did you know that if your page takes longer than 3 seconds to load youâve lost 53% of mobile users. Dang! Go here to see how long it takes for your site to load and make sure to view both mobile and desktop.Â
- Image Size: If your page takes too long to load, chances are your images arenât optimized for the web. In other words they are too large. If this is the case, our favorite two sites to compress images are Compress JPEG and Compress PNG.Â
4. You donât have any customer testimonials or reviews
Letâs jump back to your GMB account. This is our go to resource in order to collect customer reviews and testimonials. Did you know that 78% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family? Reviews are an extremely powerful local SEO tool and your Google My Business account is the perfect place to gather those reviews.Â
Once youâve created your account, you click ârequest reviewsâ and youâll get a link for your customers to leave a review. Itâs that simple! How do reviews help you rank higher online? A consistent stream of reviews tells Google that you are an active business and will therefore help you rank higher than those companies that arenât sourcing any reviews. That is right, finding your business on Google just got a whole lot easier by letting your customers do the hard work for you.Â
5. You donât have any trustworthy backlinks
Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are a massive topic that we cannot wait to chat more about. These are links on someone else’s website that drive traffic to your website. But before we start to write oodles of blog posts on this topic, here is what you should know. These links are one of the most important ranking factors and something you should definitely prioritize in 2021.Â
Why? Because first, these links give Google a better understanding of what you have to offer. Second, they give you authority on a specific topic or topics. And third, they drive traffic to your website. How about we say this in Instagram terminology⌠the right backlink might just make you viral!Â
Backlink Strategy
So here are three ways you can start to ideate on how to get backlinks:
- Guest blog posting
- Link rounds ups or lists of business and offerings in your industry
- Testimonials through third party websites like Yelp or Etsy
We have so much more to share on how to increase backlinks to your website. Make sure you follow us on Instagram and Facebook to hear more about our link building tips and strategies. We may even be launching a link building challenge in the near future!
There you have it 5 ways to remove the question âwhy canât I find my business on Googleâ from your vocabulary. These 5 reasons are now your tips to improve your local SEO rankings.Â
If you are ready to take the next step in learning how to optimize your website for SEO, then we have just the course for you. The Beginners Guide to SEO is made for creative entrepreneurs who are ready to learn SEO and optimize their website through easy to understand language, tutorials and step by step instructions. See you in there!
This is such a good post! As a copywriter who also works with SEO often, I find that people ALWAYS forget to set up Google My Business, so I’m glad its your #1 tip. đ
So happy you agree! It’s such a simple tool that can be implemented in minutes (aside from waiting for your confirmation postcard ?)