The short version
- A missing or unverified Google Business Profile is the single most common cause.
- Google needs your name, address and phone number to match everywhere it finds them.
- Reviews are a ranking factor, not just a trust signal.
- A site with no location or service wording gives Google nothing to match a local search against.
Searching your own trade and town and finding everyone except yourself is a demoralising way to spend five minutes. The good news is that it is almost always caused by something specific and fixable rather than by Google having taken against you. Here are the usual suspects, roughly in the order worth checking.
1. You do not have a Google Business Profile, or it is not verified
This is the big one, and it is free. The map results that appear above everything else for local searches are drawn from Google Business Profiles. No profile means no map listing, no matter how good your website is. If you have one but never completed the verification step, it may as well not exist.
2. Your details do not match across the internet
Google cross references your business name, address and phone number wherever it finds them. If your Facebook page has an old mobile number, your website has a new one and a directory has the address from two units ago, Google gets less confident that all three are the same business, and confidence is what it ranks on. Pick one exact version of your details and make everything match it.
3. You have very few reviews, or none
Reviews are not just there to reassure customers. Volume and recency both feed into local rankings. A competitor with thirty reviews will usually outrank an identical business with two, even if the work is no better. Asking every happy customer, every time, is unglamorous and it works.
4. Your website does not say where you are or what you do
This catches out a lot of well designed sites. If the words Antrim, Ballymena or whichever town you serve barely appear, and your services are described in vague language, Google has nothing concrete to match against somebody searching for a specific trade in a specific place. Plain, specific wording beats clever wording every time here.
Search your own trade and town on your phone, then look at whoever is above you. Their Business Profile, their reviews and the wording on their site will usually tell you exactly what you are missing.
5. Your site is slow, or awkward on a phone
Most local searches happen on a phone. If your site takes several seconds to load or the text needs pinching to read, people leave, and Google notices people leaving. Speed and mobile usability are both ranking factors and conversion factors at the same time.
6. The site is brand new
A new site does not rank immediately. Google has to find it, crawl it and work out what it is about, and that takes time. If your site went live a fortnight ago, some of this is simply patience. Submitting a sitemap through Google Search Console speeds it along.
7. You are competing for the wrong search
Ranking for a broad, national term is hard and often pointless. Ranking for your trade plus your town is achievable and brings people who can actually use you. Narrower searches convert better anyway, because somebody typing a town name is looking to buy locally.
What to fix first
- Claim and fully verify your Google Business Profile, with the right category and real photos.
- Make your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online.
- Start asking for reviews consistently, and reply to the ones you get.
- Make sure your website plainly states what you do and the towns you cover.
- Check the site loads quickly and works properly on a phone.
- Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console so Google knows the pages exist.
That order is deliberate. The first three cost nothing but time and usually move the needle fastest for a local business.
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