Get found on Google: 8 steps for a local business

How do you get found on Google?

You get found on Google by making it easy for Google to see what you do, where you do it, and that others trust you. Take the steps in this order:

1. Create or claim your Google Business Profile, and fill it in completely.
2. Add the website to Google Search Console, and submit your sitemap.
3. Give every page a title and a description that say what you do, and where.
4. Make one page per service and area, with text that answers customers’ questions.
5. Add structured data, so Google can read your name, address and phone directly.
6. Make sure the website is fast and works on a phone.
7. Ask happy customers for a review on Google, and reply to them.
8. Get links from local sites: clubs, trade bodies, suppliers and partners.

What does it cost, and how long does each step take?

You can do nearly all of it yourself for free. The times are our estimate for a small business with five pages:

If you’d rather pay for it, a freelancer costs DKK 500–900 an hour excluding VAT. Work out the whole website’s price in our website cost calculator.

How do you use Google Business Profile?

You use it as your business card on Google Maps and in the local results, so fill in everything Google asks for. The profile is free, and Google has to verify that the business is yours before it shows.

• Choose the category that best fits what you do.
• Enter your address, or the area you cover if you travel to customers.
• Add opening hours, phone and the link to your website.
• Upload real photos of your work, your shop or your team.
• Write your name, address and phone exactly the same on the profile, the website and everywhere else.

Google itself names relevance, distance and how well known the business is as what decides the local results, and reviews count towards the last of those.

What should the website say for Google to find you?

It should say what you do, and where, in the words your customers search for. Write “roof renovation in Viborg”, not just “our services”.

• A title on every page of around 60 characters, so it doesn’t get cut off. See how it looks in our Google preview.
• A description that makes people click: what they get, and where.
• One page per service, and a page per area if you have something specific to say about each place. Don’t copy the same text with a new town name.
• Prices, opening hours and answers to the questions you get on the phone.
• LocalBusiness structured data. Our LocalBusiness tool makes it for free.

How long does it take to get found on Google?

Weeks to months. A new website first has to be found and read by Google, and then it finds its place against the competition. Search Console shows when your pages are in Google’s index, and which searches they appear for.

Nobody can guarantee a top spot, including us. If someone promises you first place in no time, ask how, and what happens if it doesn’t work. The only way to buy your way to the top is ads, and they disappear when you stop paying.

What does Striive do for your SEO today?

Striive handles the technical basics on every page, so you can spend your time on the texts:

• A title and meta description on every page, and a separate SEO title and description for blog posts.
• A sitemap, robots.txt and a canonical address on every page.
• Open Graph tags, so links show the right title and text when shared.
• LocalBusiness data with company name, CVR number, address and contact details, once your company name and CVR number are filled in.
• An automatic redirect when you change the address of a published blog post.
• Fast pages in plain HTML and CSS that work on a phone.

A full set of SEO tools with share images, redirects you set up yourself and an AI check of the whole website is planned, but not ready yet. See the roadmap.

How do you get found in ChatGPT and other AI search?

With the same building blocks as on Google: clear facts on the website that an AI can read and quote. AI services such as ChatGPT often draw answers from the web, so what’s written clearly on your website is what they can repeat.

• Write your name, address, phone, area and prices as plain text, not only in images.
• Answer the questions customers ask, with the question as the heading.
• Keep the details the same on the website, Google Business Profile and elsewhere.
• Consider an llms.txt file that describes the website to AI tools. It’s a proposed standard that not every AI service uses yet. Our llms.txt generator makes one for free.

To see what AI search can find about you today, try our AI visibility check.