Almost everyone who asks us this has already decided the answer. They think their website is bad, or that they need to pay somebody for SEO, or that Google has it in for them. Usually they are wrong on all three, and the real reason is duller and much easier to fix.
Before anything else, find out which problem you actually have.
Do this first
The ten second test
Search Google for site:yourbusiness.com.au
Type site: then your domain, with no space between them, and nothing
else. Use your real domain.
If pages come back: Google has your website. Your problem is where you rank, which is reason 3 or 4 below.
If it says it did not match any documents: Google does not have your site at all. That is reason 1 or 2, and no amount of SEO work matters until it is fixed.
This is the same test we run on our own site. It is not a trick and it costs nothing.
The four reasons
Which one is yours
| The reason | What it looks like | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Google has never seen it | The site: test comes back empty. Common with a site built in the last month, or one nobody ever told Google about. | Verify the site in Google Search Console and submit a sitemap. Free. Then wait, which is the part nobody likes. |
| 2. Something is blocking it | Also an empty site: test, but the site has been up for months. Usually a leftover "discourage search engines" setting, a noindex tag, or a robots.txt blocking everything. | A developer can find it in minutes. It is the single most common cause of a site that has been invisible for a year for no obvious reason. |
| 3. You have no Google Business Profile | You appear if somebody searches your exact name, but never in the map results for your trade and suburb. | Claim and verify a Google Business Profile. Free, and for most local businesses it brings in more than the website does. |
| 4. You are there, just not near the top | You turn up on page three for the searches that matter. | The slow one. Better pages for each service, a complete profile, real reviews and time. Anyone selling you a shortcut here is selling you a problem. |
The one people get wrong
Map results do not come from your website
This is the misunderstanding that costs small businesses the most. When somebody searches "plumber near me" and gets a map with three businesses pinned on it, those three are not there because their websites are good. They are there because they have a verified Google Business Profile and the searcher is near them.
If you have never claimed a profile, you will generally not appear in that map at all, no matter how much you spend on a website. And it is free. There is no version of this where a local business should not have one.
Claim it and verify it
Verification is usually a postcard, a phone call or a short video. It is the step people abandon, and an unverified profile does almost nothing.
Fill it in completely
Category, hours, service area, phone, website, photos. Google's own prompts tell you what is missing. A half-finished profile ranks like a half-finished profile.
Ask for reviews, properly
Real ones from real customers, asked for at the moment the job goes well. Never buy them. Fake reviews are against the ACCC's rules and Google removes them anyway.
Point it at a site you own
A profile linked to a real website does better than one linked to a Facebook page, and much better than one linked to nothing.
Expectations
How long a new site actually takes
If your site is new, nothing is broken and you do not need to buy anything. Google has to discover it, crawl it, and decide it is worth keeping. That takes time and it cannot be rushed, only started earlier.
| Roughly when | What you should expect |
|---|---|
| Days 1 to 3 | Nothing. The site: test comes back empty and that is normal. |
| Week 1 to 3 | Your own business name starts working, assuming the name is not shared with something bigger. |
| Month 2 to 6 | Longer, more specific searches start bringing people in. Trade plus suburb, that sort of thing. |
| Ongoing | Competitive searches, which depend on how many other people want the same spot and how long they have been at it. |
Bing is usually faster than Google for a new site, so do not panic if you turn up in one and not the other.
Worth saying plainly
Nobody can promise you the top spot
You will get cold calls promising page one. Some of them are convincing. Nobody outside Google controls Google's rankings, and the only guaranteed way onto page one is to buy ads, which are labelled as ads and stop the moment you stop paying.
What can be honestly promised is the groundwork: a site Google can actually read, correct markup, fast on a phone, a page for each thing you do, and a verified profile connected to it. That is the whole of what anyone can control. Everything after it is Google deciding, and anyone telling you otherwise has just told you something about themselves.
Fair questions
The things people ask
How do I check if I am indexed?
Search site: then
your domain with no space. Results means Google has you. Nothing means it does not.
Why does my competitor show on the map and I do not?
They have a verified Google Business Profile and you probably do not. That is it, and it is free to fix.
Does my Facebook page help?
A little, mostly for your exact name. It rarely competes for trade plus suburb searches. There is more on that here.
Should I pay someone for SEO?
Not until the basics are done and you have checked the site: test. Paying for SEO on a site Google has never crawled is paying somebody to wait.
Free mockup
Want us to look at yours?
Send us your business name and we will run the checks above and tell you which of the four it is, whether or not you ever buy anything from us. If a site is worth building we will also send you a mockup of yours, free.
0468 053 175 · [email protected]