You've built your website, paid someone to set it up, or spent a weekend doing it yourself. But when you type your business name into Google, nothing comes up. Or worse, a competitor appears where you should be.
This happens to thousands of small businesses across the UK. The good news is that getting onto Google is not mysterious, and most of it is free. Let's go through it properly.
First, does Google even know your website exists?
Google works by sending out automated software called crawlers (think of them as little robots that wander around the internet reading web pages and reporting back). If a crawler has never visited your site, Google has no idea it exists.
The fastest way to check is simple. Open Google and type site:yourwebsiteaddress.co.uk replacing that with your actual address. If results appear, Google knows about you. If you see nothing, you have some work to do.
Tell Google your website exists
The most reliable way to do this is through a free tool called Google Search Console, a dashboard Google gives you to see how your site is performing in search results and to send Google your web pages directly.
Setting it up takes about ten minutes. Go to search.google.com/search-console, sign in with a Google account, and add your website. Google will ask you to verify (prove) that you actually own the site. The easiest method is usually adding a small piece of code to your site, or connecting through Google Analytics if you already use that.
Our guide on what Google Search Console is and how to use it walks you through the whole setup if you want the full picture.
Submit a sitemap
Once you're inside Google Search Console, you want to submit something called a sitemap. That's an XML file, which is just a list in a specific format, that tells Google every page on your website and how they connect.
Most website platforms create this automatically. Look for a URL ending in /sitemap.xml by typing your web address followed by that. For example: www.yourbakery.co.uk/sitemap.xml. If a page of text appears, that is your sitemap. Copy that URL and paste it into the Sitemaps section of Google Search Console.
WordPress
Install a free plugin called Yoast SEO or Rank Math. Both automatically create and update your sitemap. Once installed, find the sitemap link inside the plugin settings and submit it to Google Search Console.
Wix
Wix creates a sitemap for you automatically. Go to Google Search Console, click Sitemaps, and enter sitemap.xml as the path. Wix handles the rest.
Squarespace
Squarespace generates a sitemap automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Submit that URL directly in Google Search Console under the Sitemaps section.
Make sure Google can actually read your pages
Here's something that catches a lot of people out. Sometimes a website is accidentally set to "disallow crawling", a setting that tells Google's robots to go away and not read anything. This can get switched on during a website build and never turned off.
Inside Google Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool to test your homepage. It will tell you whether Google can reach and read that page. If it says the page is blocked, that is likely your problem.
⚠️ If your web developer built your site and handed it over, ask them specifically whether crawling is enabled. It is a common oversight that can keep you invisible on Google for months.
Give Google something worth showing
Getting into Google's index, the giant database of web pages Google stores and searches through, is only step one. The next question is where you appear when someone searches for what you offer.
Google ranks pages based on how relevant and useful they are. If your bakery website just has your name and a phone number, Google has very little to work with. You need to give it content.
Each page should clearly describe what you do and where you do it. Your homepage might say something like "Freshly baked sourdough and celebration cakes in Norwich, delivered Tuesday to Saturday." That tells Google exactly what you offer and who you serve.
💡 Think about the phrases your actual customers use. They probably search "birthday cake Norwich" not "artisan confectionery Norfolk." Write like they talk.
Local search is your best friend
If you run a physical shop or serve a specific area, local SEO (search engine optimisation, meaning the work you do to help your site appear in relevant searches) is where you will see the quickest results.
Set up a free Google Business Profile at business.google.com. This is the box that appears on the right side of Google when someone searches for a local business, showing your address, hours, photos, and reviews. You do not need to rank highly in regular search results to appear there. It runs alongside your website.
Fill in every section of your Google Business Profile completely. Add real photos. Ask happy customers to leave reviews. This alone can put you in front of local people who are ready to buy.
Sort out the basics your site needs
Google takes a few technical factors seriously when deciding whether to show your site. None of them are complicated.
Your site needs to be secure. Look at your web address. It should start with https:// not http://. The "s" stands for secure, and Google actively prefers secure sites. If yours starts with http, speak to your web host, the company that stores your website, about getting an SSL certificate, a small file that enables that secure connection. Most hosts provide these free now.
Your site needs to work on a mobile phone. More than half of all searches in the UK happen on a phone. If your website looks broken or tiny on a mobile screen, Google notices and ranks you lower as a result.
Your site needs to load quickly. A page that takes more than three or four seconds to appear loses visitors, and Google knows this. Large uncompressed images are the most common cause of slow pages for small business sites.
If you are not sure whether your site has these issues, run a free check at website.auditmy.co.uk. It checks these fundamentals in seconds and gives you a plain-English report on what needs attention.
💡 If your site keeps appearing and disappearing from Google results, or you have done all of the above and still cannot be found, read our guide on why your website might not be showing up on Google for a deeper look at what might be going wrong.
Be patient, but not passive
Once you have done the above, Google typically takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to index your pages. New websites can occasionally take longer.
Do not sit and wait without checking. Go back into Google Search Console every week or two. Look at the Coverage report to see which pages have been indexed and whether any errors have come up. If a page shows an error, click on it to see what the problem is.
Building up your presence in search results is gradual. A three-year-old website with good content and a few links pointing to it from other sites will outrank a brand new one almost every time. Start the work now so that in six months you are in a much better position.
A quick checklist to get started
- Type
site:yourdomain.co.ukinto Google to see if you are indexed - Set up Google Search Console and verify your site
- Find and submit your sitemap
- Set up or claim your Google Business Profile
- Check your site starts with
https:// - Test your site on a mobile phone
- Make sure each page clearly describes what you do and where
None of this requires technical expertise. It requires a couple of hours and a bit of persistence. The businesses showing up at the top of Google are not necessarily the best at what they do. They are the ones who made sure Google could find them and understand them.
Now you know how to do the same.
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