Why your business isn't showing up on Google

You searched your own name on Google. Nothing showed up. Your stomach dropped a little. You thought, "How are customers ever going to find me?"

Take a breath. This happens to good, busy business owners all the time. You are out there doing the work, not sitting around managing a search listing. Let's walk through the real reasons it happens, and exactly what fixes each one. We cover the big picture in our guide to getting found on Google in Las Vegas, but here is the plain version.

You don't have a Google Business Profile yet (or it's not verified)

This is the number one reason, by a mile. That little box that shows up on the right side of Google with your hours, phone, and map pin? That is a Google Business Profile. It is free. But if you never made one, or you made one and never finished the verification step, Google has nothing to show.

Verification is Google making sure you really own the business. Usually they mail a postcard with a code, or call you. If you skipped that, your profile is basically invisible.

Your main category is wrong or missing

Google needs to know what you actually do. If you are a plumber but your category says "contractor," or worse, it is blank, Google does not know to show you when someone searches "plumber near me."

Pick the most exact category that matches your main service. Not a vague one. If you do drain cleaning, there is a category for that. The closer the match, the better Google understands you.

• Set your primary category to your main money-maker.
• Add a few extra categories for the other things you do.
• Skip categories that don't really fit, even if they sound nice.

Your profile is half empty

A bare profile tells Google you might not be active or trustworthy. A full one tells Google you are a real, open business worth showing.

Fill in everything:

• Hours, so people know when you're open.
• Your service area, so the right neighborhoods see you.
• Real photos of your work, your truck, your team.
• A short, honest description of what you do.

You don't need to be fancy. You just need to be complete.

You see yourself, but your customers don't

Here is a sneaky one. When you search your own business, Google often shows it to you because it knows it's you. Your phone, your location, your past searches all tell Google, "show this person their own business." So you see it and feel fine. But a customer across town might not see the same thing at all.

This is not a reason to panic. It just means the search you did on your own phone was a little rigged in your favor.

You show up nearby, but not across the valley

Google leans heavily on distance. You will almost always look strong to people near your shop and weaker to people on the far side of the valley. Someone searching from Summerlin may see different results than someone in Henderson.

This part is normal, and honestly it is not something anyone can flip a switch on. Google is trying to show each person what's close to them. The move here is to be so complete and well-reviewed that you stretch your reach as far as it can go. Nobody can promise you the top spot everywhere, and you should be careful of anyone who does.

Your website is brand new

If you just put up a website, give it a minute. Google has to find it, read it, and decide it can be trusted. That takes time. A site that went live last week is not going to outrank one that's been around for years, at least not yet.

The fix is patience plus a little help: make sure your site is clear about what you do and where you serve, and that it links up with your Google Business Profile. Then keep showing up. Trust builds.

Your name, address, and phone don't match everywhere

Your business probably lives in a lot of places online: Google, Yelp, Facebook, old directories you forgot about. If your name, address, and phone number are spelled differently or out of date across those spots, Google gets confused about which one is right. Confused Google shows you less.

• Pick one clean version of your name, address, and phone.
• Make every listing match it, word for word.
• Fix the old ones, don't just add new ones on top.

You have too few reviews, or they're stale

Reviews are like a busy restaurant: a full one looks better than an empty one. If your competitors have a wall of recent reviews and you have a handful from two years ago, Google notices, and so do customers.

You don't need to game anything. Just ask. After a good job, ask the customer to leave a quick review. Make it easy, send them the link. A steady trickle of fresh, honest reviews does more than a big pile of old ones.

So where does that leave you?

Most of the time it's one or two of these, not all of them. Claim your profile, pick the right category, fill it in, line up your name and phone everywhere, and ask for a few reviews. Do that and you'll start showing up for the people who matter.

And if all of this sounds like one more thing on a plate that's already full, that's exactly what WebVegas is for. We can just handle it for you. You never have to log in to anything or learn a single setting. But if you'd rather do it yourself, these fixes work. Either way, you deserve to get found.