Getting found on Google as a local business

First thing to understand: there are two Googles

When you search for “pizzeria Padua”, your phone shows you two different blocks. At the top is the map with three businesses (the so-called local pack): you get in there with your Google Business Profile, not your website. Below are the blue links: you get in there with your website.

For a local business, the first block is worth far more than the second: it's the one people tap. That's why the work starts with the profile, not the website.

1. Claim and sort out your Google Business Profile

It's free and takes half an hour. What matters, in order:

• The right primary category. “Pizza restaurant” and “Restaurant” bring different results. Choose the one that describes what you do most of the time, and add secondary ones.
• Your exact business name. No keywords squeezed in: “Pizzeria da Mario”, yes; “Pizzeria da Mario, the best pizza in Padua”, no: that gets penalised.
• Accurate opening hours, public holidays included. Showing as open when you're closed is the quickest way to get a one-star review.
• Photos: lots of them, and real. Interior, dishes, exterior, sign. Profiles with recent photos get far more enquiries.
• The link to your website. To the home page, not some random page.

2. Ask for reviews, and reply to all of them

Reviews are the second biggest factor in local search, and the only one you can work on every day. Two practical rules: ask for them in person, at the moment the customer is happy (when you bring the bill, not by email the next day), and always reply, negative reviews included, especially those. Readers look at how you reply, not just at what people wrote.

Don't buy reviews. Google spots them, and when it removes them it also takes away the credibility you'd built up.

3. Get the basics right on your website

Four things, in order of importance:

1. Speed. A site that takes four seconds to open loses half its visitors before it even appears. Test it with PageSpeed Insights, and on your phone using mobile data.
2. Clear titles. Every page needs a title that says what you do and where: “Wood-fired pizzeria in Padua | Da Mario”.
3. Consistent NAP. Your name, address and phone number must be written exactly the same everywhere: website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, TripAdvisor. Even “Via” versus “V.” makes a difference.
4. Structured data. The code that tells Google “this is a restaurant, these are the opening hours, this is the menu”. You can't see it, but it's what gets the information into the search results.

4. Write a page for each thing you do

It's the most common mistake: a single “Services” page with everything crammed in. Google shows pages, not businesses: if you only have one page, it can only show you for one search.

A garage that does servicing, tyres, vehicle inspections and air conditioning should have four pages. A salon that does colour, extensions and treatments, three. Each page written to answer one specific question, in your own words, not the same page copied and renamed, which Google spots and ignores.

Better five well-written pages than twenty identical ones with only the town name changed.

5. Name your area the way customers do

Not “the north-east of the province”: the names of the towns, one by one, wherever it makes sense to put them: on the contact page, on the services page, in the descriptions. If you cover ten towns, say so. It's the information Google uses to work out where to show you, and that customers use to work out whether you'll come all the way out to them.

6. Get mentioned on other local websites

Local citations still count: the pro loco (the town's tourist association), the local consortium, the local paper, your trade association, the town council's guide. You don't need bought links (they do damage): you need to exist in the places where your area talks about itself.

7. Keep your profile active

Add a photo now and then, post your events, update your hours at unusual times (August, holidays, closures). A profile left untouched for two years looks like a business that's stood still for two years.

8. Watch the right numbers

Don't obsess over your ranking. In your Google Business Profile, look at three things: how many people called, how many asked for directions, how many opened your website. Those are the three numbers that turn into people walking through your door.

What's a waste of time

• Stuffing your site with keywords. It hasn't worked since 2012.
• Paying to be “number one on Google”, guaranteed. It can't be guaranteed.
• Starting a blog you then don't update. Two abandoned posts are worth nothing.
• Chasing every social network. Better one well-kept account than four dead ones.

What order to do it in, if you're short of time

Google Business Profile (half a day) → reviews (every day, forever) → site speed and titles (one day) → service pages (one a week). Within three months, you'll see the difference in searches in your area.

If you'd rather someone did it for you, this part is included in all our packages: we set up your Google Business Profile along with your website.