Get Found
Online presence that earns the click
Being good at what you do is not the same as being findable. Those are two different jobs, and most small businesses are only doing the first one.
This is the foundation everything else sits on. If people cannot find you, or find you and cannot tell what you do, nothing further down the line matters.
Get your free Presence CheckThis is probably your problem if any of this sounds familiar
- You get work through referrals and word of mouth, and almost nothing from people who found you themselves.
- You are not sure whether your Google listing is claimed, or you have never logged into it.
- Your website was built a while ago by someone you have lost touch with, and nobody has touched it since.
- When you search for the service you sell in your area, you cannot find yourself.
- You have a Facebook page doing the job a website should be doing.
- Someone described your business back to you recently and got it wrong.
What this actually involves
Working out what you should be known for
Most small businesses describe themselves the way they would to another person in the trade, not the way a customer would search. Before anything gets built, we work out what you want to be the obvious choice for — which usually means saying less, not more.
A website that answers the first three questions fast
Is this for someone like me, can I trust it, and what do I do next. If your site answers those above the fold on a phone, it is doing its job. If it opens with a slideshow and a welcome message, it is not. Often this is a rewrite and a rebuild of the top of the page rather than a whole new site.
Claiming and finishing your Google Business Profile
For most local businesses this sends more customers than the website does, and it is free. Claimed, categorised correctly, hours right, services listed, photos that are actually yours, and a habit for getting reviews that does not rely on you remembering to ask.
Making your details consistent everywhere
Your name, address area, and phone number should match everywhere they appear. When they do not, search engines get less confident about which listing is really you, and you quietly rank lower for it.
The technical basics that get skipped
Page titles that describe the page, a site that loads quickly on a phone on mobile data, headings in a sensible order, images that do not take four seconds to appear, and pages that search engines are actually allowed to index. None of this is glamorous and all of it is load-bearing.
Evidence that you are a real business
Photographs of your own work, your own name, your own face. Not stock photography of a meeting room. People are better at spotting the difference than most businesses assume, and the generic version actively costs you trust.
What you should expect to change
- People searching for the service — not just for your name — start finding you.
- A stranger can tell what you do and who you do it for within a few seconds.
- Your Google listing works as a second front door instead of sitting empty.
- Your details say the same thing everywhere somebody might check.
- The site loads quickly on a phone, where most of your visitors actually are.
- You stop losing people at the first impression before they have read anything.
Why local matters more than you would think
If you serve customers in Cleveland, Parma, Berea, Brook Park, Middleburg Heights or anywhere else in Cuyahoga County, you are not competing against every business in the country. You are competing against the handful that show up when somebody nearby searches. That is a much smaller fight, and a much more winnable one.
The businesses that win it are rarely the ones with the biggest budget. They are the ones with a claimed listing, consistent details, recent reviews and a page that plainly says what they do and where they do it. That combination is unglamorous and it works, and a surprising number of your competitors have not done it.
It also means the work compounds. Unlike advertising, a claimed listing and a page that ranks keep producing after you stop paying attention to them. That is why this comes first: it is the part of your presence that keeps working while you are busy doing the actual job.
None of this requires you to become a marketer or learn any software. It requires somebody to do it once, properly, and hand it to you in your own accounts with instructions for keeping it current.
What comes after this
Being found is only worth something if the people who find you get in touch. Once the foundation is right, the next question is whether your site gives a visitor an obvious reason and an obvious way to start a conversation — which is a different problem with a different fix.
Turn visits into conversationsQuestions about this specifically
Do I need a completely new website?
Usually not. More often the structure is fine and the wording is the problem, or the top of the page is doing the wrong job. I will tell you honestly which one you are looking at, and a rewrite is far cheaper than a rebuild.
How long before this shows up in search results?
The Google Business Profile side can start showing a difference within weeks. Ranking for competitive service searches takes longer — months, not days — and anybody promising you otherwise is guessing. I would rather tell you that up front than have you disappointed at week three.
I do not have a website at all. Is that a problem?
No, and in some ways it is easier — nothing to undo. For some businesses a well-built single page plus a properly finished Google listing covers everything they need for a good while.
Will I be able to update it myself?
Yes. Everything is set up in your accounts, in your name, and you get written instructions for the things you will want to change regularly. You are not required to use me for edits.
Not sure this is your problem?
The Presence Check takes about three minutes and tells you which of the three areas is actually costing you the most right now. It might not be this one.
Get your free Presence CheckOr email Dustin Myers directly at dmyers@myersdigitalservicesai.com