Why isn't my business on Google?

Try searching for your business in a few different ways. Start with your business name. Then try the service you provide and your location.

For example:

Joe Bloggs Plumbing

then:

plumber in Whitley Bay

These are two very different searches. You might appear when someone searches specifically for your business but not appear near the top when someone searches for a service. That's not unusual.

So there isn't really one single "Google ranking". The important question is: Can the right people find you when they're looking for what you offer?

If you've got an old or incomplete profile, fix that before spending money on more complicated SEO work.

If your website is full of vague marketing language but doesn't actually explain what you do, that's a problem. You don't need to stuff keywords everywhere. You just need to be clear.

If you offer several services, make sure your important ones are properly explained. Don't just have a paragraph saying: "We provide a range of professional services." What services? Spell them out.

If you're a builder, talk about the building work you actually do. If you're a photographer, explain the photography you provide. If you're a web designer, explain the websites and services you offer. Google can't understand what you haven't clearly explained, and neither can your customers.

If you're a local business, location matters. Tell people where you're based and the areas you actually serve.

For example: "I'm based in Whitley Bay and work with businesses across North Tyneside and the wider North East" is useful. What isn't useful is creating a page for every town within a 50-mile radius and changing one word on each page. Keep it natural and write for real people.

This catches people out. If you're a local business in Whitley Bay, you shouldn't necessarily expect to appear at the top of Google for someone searching from Sunderland. Local search takes things such as relevance and distance into account.

Your visibility can therefore vary depending on where someone is searching from and exactly what they're looking for, and tat's completely normal. That's how it's supposed to work.

Genuine reviews are useful for two reasons: they give potential customers confidence and they help establish your business's reputation online.

Ask genuine customers for reviews when appropriate, but don't buy them. Definitely don't write fake ones yourself or obsess over having hundreds. A smaller number of genuine, recent reviews from real customers is much more useful than a pile of suspicious-looking ones.

You don't need to submit your business to every directory you can find. In fact, if it was my business, I wouldn't bother. Look for places where your business genuinely belongs.

• Don't stuff keywords into your business name: Use your real business name.

• Don't create dozens of almost identical local pages: If you don't actually operate in an area, don't pretend you do.

• Don't buy fake reviews: They're not worth the risk.

• Don't believe guaranteed number-one rankings: Nobody can honestly guarantee that Google will put you at number one for a particular search.

• Don't fill your website with awkward SEO copy: If it sounds like a robot wrote it for a search engine, you've probably gone too far.

It's an ongoing process rather than a button you press.

This is worth remembering. Perhaps your website isn't clear enough. Perhaps your Google Business Profile is incomplete. Perhaps your services aren't explained properly. Perhaps your website is fine but there simply isn't much competition for the searches you're targeting. Or perhaps you're already doing most of the important things right.

That's why I don't believe in throwing random SEO tricks at a website. I'd rather look at what you've already got and work out what's actually worth doing.

I can take a look at your website and online presence and give you some straightforward advice.

You might need some SEO work, or you might need some improvements to the website. You might need to sort out your Google Business Profile or better still, you might not need to spend any money at all. If something isn't worth paying for, I'll tell you.