You search your own business name and get a Facebook page, a directory listing and a competitor. Your website is nowhere. Annoying. Usually fixable.
Here's what we check, in order. Most sites fail on one of the first three.
1. Google hasn't found it yet
Type site:yourdomain.co.uk into Google. If nothing comes back, Google hasn't indexed you. Set up Google Search Console (free), add your site, submit your sitemap, and ask Google to inspect your homepage. New sites can take a couple of weeks.
2. Something is telling Google to stay away
It happens more than you'd think. A "noindex" tag left on from when the site was being built, or a robots.txt file blocking everything. Search Console will flag both. One tick box in WordPress ("Discourage search engines") has hidden plenty of perfectly good sites.
3. Your pages don't say what you do
If your homepage title is "Home" and the page says "Welcome to our website", Google has nothing to go on. Every important page needs a clear title and heading that says what you do and where. "Electrician in Gateshead" beats "Quality You Can Trust" every time.
4. It's slow, or broken on phones
Most searches happen on phones. If your site takes eight seconds to load or needs pinching and zooming, Google ranks it lower. Run it through Google's PageSpeed Insights and fix the big red items first. Usually it's giant images.
5. Nobody links to you
Google trusts sites that other sites mention. A brand new site with no links from anywhere starts at the back of the queue. Local directories, suppliers, trade bodies and clients you've done work for are all good places to start.
6. You're on Google, just not where you're looking
For local searches, Google shows a map first. If you've not got a Google Business Profile, you're missing the part of the page most people actually click.
How long until it works?
Indexing problems can be fixed in days. Ranking well for competitive searches takes months, not weeks. Anyone promising page one by Friday is selling something.
Want us to look?
Our free website audit checks all of the above and tells you what to fix first. Or see our SEO service.
Rather we just did it? That's literally the job. See our seo service or the prices.
