How to Get Your Business Found on Google: Practical Tips for Small Business Owners
You can have a fantastic business, a beautiful website and an amazing service – but if your potential customers can’t find you when they search online, you could be missing out on a huge amount of business.
At our COCO Women Founders Thame networking event in September, COCO owner and digital marketing specialist Vicky White delivered a practical session on How to Be Found on Google, sharing straightforward actions that founders can take to improve their online visibility.
With more than 12 years’ experience supporting founders and SMEs with their marketing, Vicky specialises in SEO, Google Ads and Meta Ads and helps businesses create marketing campaigns aligned with their goals.
The session covered everything from SEO and the growing importance of AEO to Google Business Profiles, keywords and some of the changes happening within Google search.
Here are some of the key takeaways.
First Things First: What Is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
Put simply, it’s about making sure your website and its content are structured in a way that helps them appear prominently when people search on Google.
Think about the way your customers search.
They might not know the name of your business. Instead, they’ll search for the product, service or solution they need.
If you’re a local business, they may also include a location, such as:
“Business coach in Marlow”
“Accountant in Thame”
“Wedding photographer Buckinghamshire”
If your website isn’t optimised around the terms your potential customers are using, there’s a much smaller chance of them discovering you.
And that brings us to one of the most important points from the session:
Words have power.
SEO Isn’t the Only Thing We Need to Think About Anymore
Search is changing.
We no longer only use traditional search engines to find information and businesses. People are increasingly asking questions through tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
This has led to another term businesses need to understand:
AEO – Answer Engine Optimisation
AEO is about creating your online content so AI tools can easily understand your business and potentially recommend it when people ask relevant questions.
The important thing to remember is that AEO doesn’t replace SEO.
The two work together.
AI-powered search tools draw information from established online sources, so businesses still need strong SEO foundations alongside content that’s easy for AI systems to understand.
In other words, don’t abandon everything you’ve learned about SEO because AI has arrived!
Don’t Overlook Your Google Business Profile
One of the simplest ways many local businesses can increase their visibility is by paying more attention to their Google Business Profile.
For many potential customers, this could be their first interaction with your business.
They may see your photos, reviews, services, contact details and other information directly in Google’s search results – and could call, request directions or make a booking without ever clicking through to your website.
Yet it’s something many business owners set up once and then forget about.
Your profile should be treated as an active part of your marketing.
At the event in Thame we talked through all the areas that should be looked at and reviewed:
- Business description
- Services
- Opening hours
- Contact details
- Photos and videos
- Reviews
- Posts
- Offers and events
Keep it accurate, relevant and up to date.
Reviews Are About More Than Your Star Rating
We all know reviews can help potential customers decide whether they trust a business.
But there’s another reason they’re important.
As search becomes increasingly conversational, the words customers use to describe their experiences can provide useful information about what your business does and who it helps.
That’s another reason to develop a consistent process for asking happy customers for genuine reviews rather than waiting and hoping they’ll remember to leave one.
And when somebody does take the time to review your business?
Reply to them.
It doesn’t need to sound corporate or be stuffed with keywords. We discussed how responding like a human shows that there’s a real person behind the business.
Keywords: Think Like Your Customer
One of the practical areas we explored during the COCO session was how to find and use keywords.
A keyword is simply a word or phrase someone might type into Google when looking for what you offer.
The trick is not to think purely like the business owner.
Think like the customer.
What would they actually type?
There are several tools you can use to research this, including Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Google Search Console and SEO platforms such as Ahrefs and Semrush.
Once you understand the terms people are using, those keywords can inform much more than your website.
They can be used naturally across your website URLs, headings and copy, as well as metadata, image alt tags, Google Business Profile, social profiles and relevant directories.
The key word here is naturally.
You’re writing for people first, not trying to squeeze the same search phrase into every other sentence!
Search Is Becoming More Conversational
One of the interesting developments discussed during the session was the move towards more AI-powered, conversational search.
Rather than someone simply searching for something broad like “restaurants near me”, searches can become much more specific and conversational.
This makes it increasingly important for businesses to clearly communicate:
Who do you help?
What exactly do you offer?
Where are you based?
What makes you different?
The presentation also explored Google’s developing Ask Maps experience. The material highlighted three areas businesses should pay attention to: the completeness of their Google Business Profile, what customers say within reviews, and their wider web presence, including their website, directories and local mentions.
The takeaway for small businesses is simple:
The clearer and more consistent your online presence is, the easier it is for search platforms to understand what your business is about.
Don’t Forget Your Website FAQs
Another simple way to improve your visibility on Google is to add useful FAQs to your website based on the questions your potential customers are actually asking.
For example, for COCO Women Founders, these might include:
- What happens at a business networking event?
- Where can I find women’s business networking near me?
- Are there business networking groups for women in Buckinghamshire?
- Can I attend a business networking event before becoming a member?
- What should I expect at my first networking event?
- Where does COCO hold business networking events?
- Is business networking suitable for new business owners?
- What are the benefits of joining a women in business networking group?
Rather than keeping the answers to these common questions in emails, messages or conversations, turn them into useful content on your website.
During our Google visibility session, we discussed how FAQs can give Google more information about your business and provide useful source content for answering customer searches. Here’s a great example of how we use FAQs on our website.
They’re also particularly useful as search becomes more conversational. Instead of typing just “business networking Buckinghamshire”, someone might ask Google or an AI search tool:
“Where can I find a friendly business networking group for women near Marlow?”
Creating genuinely helpful content that answers these kinds of questions gives search engines and AI tools more context about what your business offers, who it is for and where you operate.
For COCO, that means making it very clear that we offer supportive business networking for women founders and women in business, with regular opportunities to meet, learn, mastermind and build relationships with other local business owners.
The 15-Minute Google Visibility Challenge
Perhaps the most important takeaway from the session was that improving your Google visibility doesn’t always require hours of work.
Vicky challenged attendees to identify actions they could take straight away.
If you’ve only got 15 minutes, start here:
- Add a new photo to your Google Business Profile.
- Check your opening hours, phone number and services are correct.
- Create a simple process for asking customers for reviews.
- Replace generic stock imagery with real photographs of your business.
- Publish a Google Business Profile update.
- Respond to your most recent reviews.
- Add some useful FAQs to your website.
These were the practical actions recommended during the session for businesses wanting to give their online presence a quick refresh.
You Don’t Need to Become an SEO Expert
One of the biggest misconceptions about Google visibility is that everything needs to be highly technical.
SEO certainly can get technical – from page speed and on-page optimisation to backlinks and many other factors.
But that shouldn’t stop small business owners from doing the basics well.
Start by making sure Google can clearly understand:
Who you are.
What you do.
Who you help.
Where you operate.
Why customers choose you.
Then make sure that information is consistently reflected across your website, Google Business Profile and wider online presence.
Small, regular improvements can add up.
Learning and Sharing at COCO Women Founders
Our Thame networking & mastermind session on how to be found on Google was a great example of what our COCO meet-ups are all about.
Yes, they’re an opportunity for women in business to network and develop genuine relationships, but they’re also a space to step away from the day-to-day running of your business and learn something that can help you move forward.
Through our networking events, masterminds, workshops and speaker sessions, members share their knowledge and experiences so we can all learn from one another.
And this session ended in exactly the way we like our COCO sessions to end:
Not just with ideas – but with actions.
So, here’s your challenge.
Take 15 minutes today, Google your own business and look at what a potential customer sees.
What one thing could you improve?
Then go and do it.
The Speaker: Vicky White
Digital Marketing Expert
Vicky is a marketing specialist, results-driven strategist, Google Ads expert & SEO whizz. She is best known for her ability to develop and implement results-driven strategies and marketing campaigns that increase brand visibility and generate leads. With over 14 years’ experience running her marketing business, she works with rapidly growing businesses looking to outsource their marketing.
Vicky is also the owner of COCO Women Founders – a community of women who want business and personal growth in a safe space, masterminding with other like-minded women as feeling alone while running your business, just isn’t the vibe anymore!
