Google’s first search results page is the place where everyone wants to be. Nothing translates to more visibility, more customers, and more revenue like a well-ranked website. But the Google content universe is vast – you can write amazing content and build a high-quality website and yet miss the mark when it comes to showing up where it matters the most i.e. Google search results.
Suppose you’re a local business or marketing agency owner who specializes in Local search engine optimization. In that case, you’re probably losing sleep wondering how to get your website noticed by 83% of all internet dwellers who use Google. Countless resources are available online – so much so that every other website you visit wants to drown you in the endless information and repetitive fluff that actually does nothing for your rankings.
That ends here. In this article, we’ve covered the most helpful (and more importantly – actionable) tips to get your website found on Google and present in the most important places.
Why should local businesses increase their visibility on Google?
Local businesses have historically relied on offline channels to grab eyeballs. This worked – probably in the past when your ideal customer would shuffle through a bouquet of flyers or fat yellow page directories to call up your store.
That’s a naive dream today.
Here’s what the customer journey looks like instead-
Let’s say you’re a bakery with multiple stores across your state/nation. Your ideal customer, call her Sarah, has this sudden urge for croissants. Sarah won’t spend time driving around or trying to recall top bakery names off the top of her head. She’ll instead type in Google “Best Crossaints near me”. And voila! Some great suggestions will show up. She looks at reviews, photos/videos of the place, checks if it’s open, and off she goes!
As a bakery, you really need to be the first thing Sarah sees when she goes on Google. Multiply this one search to thousands of daily searches relevant to your business. And you can see the vast potential of Google for local business marketing.
Your website ranking plays a significant role in where you stand in search engine results & Google Maps. Google considers it a major signal when deciding which businesses are relevant to the search queries.
To be more specific, here are other reasons why your website should show up on Google:
Competitive Advantage: Local competitors who invest in online visibility are more likely to capture market share, leaving businesses without a strong online presence at a disadvantage. In simpler terms, if you’re the first to do it or do it better, you will beat competitors left and right.
Increased Traffic: A higher website ranking on Google's search results can drive more organic traffic to your business website, potentially resulting in more leads, sales, and revenue. Imagine this – this is all free traffic and leads that keep rolling in without active resource allocation.
Mobile Users: Many people search for local businesses on mobile devices. A well-optimized website can cater to this growing segment of users so that your business shows up where your customers are most active.
Reputation Management: Although a website isn’t the direct source of information for your business, having a well-ranking website reflects positively on your brand. While checking your business on local online directories and Google Business Profile, your customers might also visit your site. It helps build trust and credibility among potential customers.
Local SEO: Optimizing a website for local search helps you appear in Google's local pack as well as Google Maps which is crucial for attracting nearby customers. This can drive foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar stores and attract more local clients.
Targeted Marketing: If your website has a good number of visitors, you can utilize a host of free tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Microsoft Clarity to study user behavior for your target locations and the performance of your content. You can use this data to tailor marketing efforts to local audiences effectively.
Cost-Effective Advertising: Compared to traditional advertising methods, investing in your website visibility on Google can be more cost-effective in the long run, especially if you run a small or medium business. Google ads campaign, Local Services Ad along with Local SEO can be a great way to get in front of your prospective buyers.
Measurable Results: Online visibility efforts can be tracked and measured. This means you get valuable data to assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and make informed decisions.
Adaptation to Changing Trends: The world of marketing changes more often than my new year’s resolutions. A strong online presence allows you to adapt to new digital marketing trends and stay competitive.
On the contrary, NOT having a well-ranking website on Google also does a lot of damage. You lose credibility in the eyes of your customers and opportunities for brand awareness every time they search for relevant content.
Now that we’ve nodded our heads on the importance of website visibility for your business, let’s talk about what you can do right away to get your website visible on Google.
How to get your website on Google: 15 Tips for Better Site Visibility
The top three websites listed on Google’s SERP get 75% of all traffic, according to a study by FirstPage. It means your website needs to be on the coveted spots in Google to attract your next potential customer. Up next, we’ll discuss how you can make your website appear on Google.
First – submit your website to Google
Having Google properly index and list your website is mission-critical. After all, Google drives over 63,000 searches per second! Without getting your site into Google's good graces, you might as well not have a website at all.
Submitting your site to Google's index is the first step to search domination. It tells the Googlebot to start crawling all your pages and content, bringing you onto its radar. Don't leave it to chance, and hope Google eventually finds you. You can submit your website on your own.
The process is simple. Here’s an overview:
Sign up: Go to Google Search Console and create a free account. This is where you'll manage your site's presence in Google.
Verify your website ownership: Google needs to confirm you own the site. Multiple methods include HTML tags, domain name providers, Google Analytics, etc. Follow the verification steps for your preferred method.
Submit your XML sitemap: A sitemap lists all the pages Google should index. Generate a sitemap and submit it in the Search Console. This signals Google to crawl these URLs.
Submit individual URLs: For new pages like blog posts, manually submit each URL in the Search Console to expedite indexing.
Fix crawl errors: Search Console shows any crawl errors blocking indexing. Diagnose and fix these technical issues.
Ping Google after major website changes: Use the "Submit to Index" feature after launching a revamped site or adding lots of new pages.
Once indexed, your focus shifts to SEO and high-quality content to drive organic search rankings. But none of that matters if Google hasn't indexed your website in the first place. Just take 5 minutes to submit your sitemap and open the door to vast search engine visibility. It could be the difference between a site seen by dozens versus millions!
Once you have a rank-worthy website and have ensured that Google is indexing it, you can get started by optimizing your website for the search engine. Here are some no-BS, directly-implementable tips to get your website to show up on Google.
1. Target the right local keywords
Optimizing your website pages for local SEO can help drive more traffic from searches for products/services in your geographical area. By targeting relevant keywords, you can go from local search obscurity to appearing right at the top (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit here. But keyword targeting will play a major part in it).
Here’s what you can start doing from day 0:
Research Initial Keyword Ideas
Brainstorm target keywords related to your business location, products, services, and target customers.
Leverage keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush to find relevant keywords.
Look at keywords your competitors rank for by analyzing their pages.
Include Local Intent Keywords
Add your city, neighborhood, street, area code, etc. This signals relevance for local searches.
Use “near me”, “around [location]”, “[city] area”, etc.
Include branded keywords like restaurant chains popular locally.
Review Search Intent
Analyze keywords to understand user intent - informational, commercial, navigational, etc.
Identify keywords at each stage of the buying journey. Include some low-competition keywords.
Organize Keywords ByTheme
Group keywords into themes like your services, products, attributes, comparisons, etc.
This allows targeted optimization across different pages.
Refine with Long-Tail Keywords
Include longer, more specific versions like “Japanese steakhouse restaurant Chicago downtown”.
These drive highly qualified traffic.
Ask your customers what they searched for or were looking for when they found your business.
Audit Accessibility
Plug keywords into Google to see your current ranking positions.
Deprioritize the ones already ranking on Page 1, as optimization is less urgent for these. But make sure you keep them up-to-date to maintain your ranks.
Focus on the pages that are highly relevant with a strong conversion intent but are not ranking well
2. Structure your web pages for Google search
The flow of your web page and how well your website is structured gives you two-fold benefits:
It improves the user experience of visitors coming to your site (Who doesn’t like a well-laid out page, with clear navigation, and easily accessible links?)
And it helps Google crawlers index and map your site more easily, which means your content will get mapped properly and show up in results more often
Spend ample time planning and structuring your website structure. Some quick tips -
Structure your website into logical categories and subcategories.
Use descriptive category names and architecture.
Implement site-wide navigation with dropdown menus
Follow a bottom-up website structure so your users can navigate smoothly and you can make changes easily
Write for the user first and then Google.
3. Optimize for mobile
57% of all local searches happen on a mobile device. Your website should be well-set to function on mobile for a good user experience. Here are a few things you can do to make sure your website is mobile friendly:
Create a responsive website that adapts to all types of devices
Improve page load speed. Nearly half of all visitors leave a mobile website if the page doesn’t load within 3 seconds
Simplify your navigation menu and keep everything visible. Your fonts, images, descriptions, buttons, and menu items should all be easily readable and clickable without zooming in.
Make sure your layout is sorted, and images/graphics aren’t spilling out of the main view.
Your website should reflect clearly that you cater to the area your customer is present in. You can do this by creating locally relevant content such as events/festivals happening in the area, local product/industry guides, and partnerships with other local businesses/influencers that your customer engages with regularly.
Local keywords and locally relevant information about your business (address, link to directions, open hours, area code, etc). Make sure when a user lands on your website, they have access to such information (in noticeable places like footers/home page). Now, these are also good signals to Google – so your website is more likely to rank better.
5. Create high-quality content consistently
Having a well-ranking website isn’t a one-time effort. You want to ensure you’re always present in the conversation and talking about topics/issues relevant to your customers. One good way of doing this is running an active blog on your website. Make sure you’re consistently sharing new content that is perspective-driven and highly relevant to your customers. Maintain a good mix of locally relevant information along with a broader scope of topics that interest your readers.
6. Add your business to major online directories
Local directory listings aka citations also act as backlinks to your website and reflect positively on local SEO (but don’t overdo it, it’s not a hack!)
Create or claim your business listing on key directories like Facebook, Yelp, Yellowpages, etc.
Make sure you provide consistent information about your business across all these directories as well as your own website and owned media. Google considers NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) consistency as a significant indicator of how legitimate your business is.
Finally, and this is the trickier part, make sure you update all the information on these directories periodically and keep engaging with your customers across these platforms.
Managing information across a vast number of local listings for each of your business locations is quite a headache. But only if you do it manually. Synup helps you list all major directories and create/manage content in a few clicks.
7. Verify your Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business)
For local businesses, the Google Business Profile is central to local SEO success. It’s the first thing your customers are likely to see when they search for your brand or relevant services/products. It also serves as a critical ranking factor in Google’s local pack. So make sure you have a verified Google Business Profile complete with the most up-to-date information about your business.
8. Use relevant and interesting titles and descriptions
You can grab a few coveted spots on Google’s first page. But how do you make sure the searchers actually click on your content and not someone else’s? That’s where metadata comes in.
Use compelling titles and descriptions that grab attention and highlight the value of your content at a glance.
For meta titles,
Get straight to the point. Convey what the page is about at the beginning of the title tag.
Include your most important, locally relevant keyword(s) in the meta tags, ideally towards the beginning.
Add some intrigue by using power words in the meta tags that capture attention like “unbelievable”, “surprising”, “challenging”.
Use numbers wherever it makes sense (10 tips to…, 25 sure-shot ways to…, etc)
Meta titles can be up to 65 characters but shorter titles around 50 characters tend to perform better on all devices.
Optimize for the user
For meta descriptions,
Lead with an interesting fact, stat, or question to draw readers in.
Focus on how the content will help, educate, or entertain the reader.
Incorporate strong verbs and adjectives like “discover”, “master”, “optimize”, “actionable”.
Work in relevant keywords naturally, ideally in the first sentence.
Keep the meta description length to about 160 characters.
Close by urging visitors to take action like “Learn more”.
Optimize for clicks
9. Optimize your media for SEO
If you’re using media such as images and videos (as you should) on your website pages, you need to make sure they are well-optimized for a good user experience. Keep the videos short and focused (1-2 minutes) and include keywords in the description/titles. Provide anchor texts or captions for both images and videos for easy accessibility (this is an important signal to Google).
Another important thing – optimize the size of your media files. Larger files will bulk up the page and it will load slowly. As we discussed, page speed is a critical factor, especially on mobile.
10. Use paid media
This is not an organic growth hack but rather a short-term plan for getting initial exposure for your business. You can run Google ads and local campaigns to target users searching for your services. Search campaigns are great for driving traffic directly to your business. And local inventory ads will help you get more foot traffic and consequently sales.
Please note: Running paid campaigns has no direct effect on your organic rankings. Treat it as a separate channel to get more leads and revenue.
11. Provide outstanding customer service
Happy customers are not as vocal on online review sites as unhappy customers. And disproportionately negative reviews on your local listings are a major red flag for Google.
We don’t need to go on and on about the importance of providing excellent service to your customers. But one thing where most businesses lag behind – collecting positive reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask your loyal & satisfied customers to leave good reviews on your listings. Incentivize them for speaking positively about your brand and the product/service they purchased from you.
And at the same time, manage negative reviews well. Be quick to respond and solve issues so it shows you really care.
Did you know? Synup helps you collect and respond to hundreds of reviews across all your listings in one place.
12. Be active on social media
Social media creates more opportunities for links and mentions of your brand, which search engines count as signals of popularity and authority. Sometimes social media content may itself show up on Google SERP, thus driving more traffic. You can also share content from the website directly on social to grab more eyeballs.
Regularly engage with your audience on local events/happenings
Promote your brand assets to be on top of their mind always.
Use it as a customer service channel, i.e. ask and answer questions relevant to your brand
And finally, don’t be boring. This is the best place to show the personality of your brand.
13. Create shareable content/assets
People love sharing content that is – current, relevant, and has a wow factor (humor, surprise, shock, etc).
At least 20-30% of the content you share across your website and other channels must be shareable.
Make sure you’re using social sharing buttons smartly with your website content.
If possible, allow your users to share your content in other helpful formats – guides, infographics, cheat sheets, and such.
Social shares not only give your brand more exposure but also drive direct traffic to your website.
14. Use local media coverage
Identify local newspapers, magazines, and blogs that cover news relevant to your business. Pitch them story ideas related to your expertise or profile pieces on your business. Get a link back from such coverage whenever possible. High quality backlinks especially from relevant sources including local reputable websites can do wonders for your online visibility. Local media features are a great way to show your local authority and also distribute local content related to your business.
15. Be your biggest fan
The deeper you get into local SEO, the more you realize there are thousands of cogs turning inside the wheel to make it all work. Your social channels make your website look better, your website affects your Google Business Profile rankings, and your rankings affect your bottom line directly.
Working on each channel in silos won’t get you the best results out of your marketing efforts. You need to do cross-channel promotion of every new content that goes out on your social or website or listings.
Got a new local media feature? Great, write a post on your website. Now, share it on your social. And then update it on Google Posts. In short – be the loudest voice for your brand in the room. This will also help Google gauge the authority of your brand and indirectly give more visibility to your site.
Summing up…
By improving your website’s presentability and usefulness to your end user, you can dramatically boost your rankings in Google search results. Monitor your progress in Google Search Console and keep fine-tuning pages for your target keywords.
Follow this mantra – First, optimize for your user. Then, think about Google.
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