june 2026

how to actually get ur business found on google

every business owner wants to show up on google. very few understand how it actually works. most of what people think they know about SEO is either outdated or was never true to begin with.

let me give u the simple version — what actually matters, what doesn't, and what u can do right now.

what google actually wants

google has one job: show people the best answer to whatever they searched for. if someone searches "best pizza st. louis," google wants to show them the best pizza places in st. louis — not the ones that paid for ads, not the ones that stuffed keywords everywhere, but the ones that actually seem like good pizza places.

how does google figure out what's "best"? a few signals:

relevance: does ur site actually talk about pizza in st. louis? or does it just say "welcome to our restaurant"?
quality: does ur site load fast? work on mobile? have real content or just a homepage with a phone number?
trust: do other sites link to urs? do u have reviews? is ur business listed consistently across the web?

that's it. three things. everything else is details.

what actually works (the basics)

1. google business profile

this is free and it's the single most important thing for local businesses. go to google.com/business, claim ur listing, fill out everything — hours, photos, services, description. businesses with complete google profiles show up dramatically more often in local searches.

2. title tags

every page on ur site has a title tag — it's the blue link u see in google results. it should say what the page is about, naturally. "Home | Your Business Name" is weak. "Your Business — Best Pizza in Shaw, St. Louis" is strong. don't keyword-stuff. just be honest and specific.

3. meta descriptions

the text under the blue link. google doesn't use this for ranking directly, but it does influence whether people click. a good description tells someone what they'll find: "Stone-fired pizza, live music, and local art in the historic Shaw neighborhood. Open for dinner Wednesday–Sunday."

4. fast site, mobile friendly

google measures how fast ur site loads and how well it works on phones. if ur site takes 6 seconds to load, google notices. if it's impossible to use on mobile, google notices. over half of all web traffic is mobile — if ur site isn't mobile-friendly, ur losing half ur potential customers before they even see ur content.

5. real content

google reads ur site. if ur homepage has 14 words on it, that's not enough for google to understand what u do. if u have pages that describe ur services, answer common questions, and show ur work — google has more to work with and ranks u for more searches.

6. consistent info everywhere

ur business name, address, and phone number should be identical on ur website, ur google profile, yelp, facebook, and anywhere else u're listed. mismatches confuse google and hurt ur ranking.

what doesn't work anymore

keyword stuffing: writing "best pizza st. louis pizza restaurant pizza near me pizza" a hundred times doesn't help. google got smart about this 15 years ago. it makes ur site look spammy and can actually penalize u.

buying links: there are companies that will sell u "backlinks" — links from other sites to urs. most of these are garbage. google can tell. if u get caught buying links, ur ranking can drop to basically nothing. not worth it.

"SEO experts" who guarantee page 1: nobody can guarantee a specific rank. anyone who does is either lying or using tactics that will eventually get u penalized. good SEO takes time and is never finished.

going viral on social media (for SEO): social media helps ur business, but it doesn't directly help ur google ranking. facebook likes and instagram followers don't translate to search position. social is for reach, not ranking.

local SEO: why "near me" matters

when someone searches "plumber near me" or "hair salon near me," google looks at their location and shows businesses close to them. to show up for these searches:

• ur google business profile must be complete and accurate
• ur website must mention ur location — city, neighborhood, street
• ur name, address, and phone number must be consistent everywhere
• reviews help — especially google reviews

these "near me" searches have increased over 900% in recent years. if ur a local business and ur not optimized for local search, ur invisible to people who are actively looking for u.

how i handle SEO

every site i build comes with SEO baked in. not as an add-on. not as an upsell. it's part of the build:

• fast: sites built on cloudflare's global network. loads in under 2 seconds.
• mobile-first: every site works on phones. google tests this and rewards it.
• structured: title tags, meta descriptions, sitemaps, schema markup — all the technical stuff google looks for.
• readable: real content, properly structured, that google can actually understand.

i don't sell "advanced SEO with backlinks and keyword strategy" as a separate product because most small businesses don't need it. u need the basics done right, and u need them done from the start.

the honest bottom line

SEO isn't magic. it's not a one-time fix. it's not a marketing campaign. it's the long-term effect of having a well-built website with real content that answers real questions.

the best time to start was when u launched ur business. the second best time is now.

"good SEO is invisible. u don't notice it when it's working. u just notice the customers showing up."

📖 related reads:
why every st. louis business needs a website →
how much should a small business website cost? →