If you’ve ever had a sleepless night worrying about something, chances are you’ve reached for your phone at 2 am to Google a solution. Whether you’ve had a sleepless night because your toddler won’t sleep, or you’re worrying about money, or how to get your business off the ground, you’ll have typed the words that describe to you what you need help with.
Punctuation and industry terminology won’t be at the forefront of your mind.
If you’re a small business that can help with the things that keep people awake at night, you need to make sure you’re using those words in your website copy and content. If you don’t, the people who need your help the most won’t find you.
This blog post looks at some of the common mistakes small business owners make when it comes to website visibility and how you can fix them.
Not using clear enough keywords
Are you using the words and phrases that the people you can help, type into Google or AI to find the answer to their problem?
These won’t be technical words, medical terms or perfectly formed sentences. They’re the words they’re frantically typing at 2am when they’re still awake, worrying about the problem you can help them with.
If you’re not using those words across your website content and copy, and in the key places Google and AI go to find out what your site is about, the people who need your help won’t find you.
Your page description is missing
Just like your keywords tells Google and AI what your site is about, your page or meta description tells them what each page covers.
I see so many meta description sections left blank when I’m auditing websites.
This small paragraph is like gold dust.
It’s your elevator pitch that describes in a few sentences exactly what the page is about, and is your chance to entice people to click on the link to find out more.
You’ve got less than a second to impress so your words should stand out above all the others, otherwise you’ll not catch the attention of the people you can help and they’ll scroll to the next website.
Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
Think about what you reach for when you want to search for something online. Unless you’re sitting at your desk at work with your laptop or desktop in front of you, it’s likely to be your phone.
It’s estimated that around 60-70% of all daily Google searches are done on a mobile phone which could equate to around 6 billion.
That’s a lot of searches.
Clearly, they won’t all be searching for what you sell.
But some will be. And if your website isn’t set up to be read easily on a mobile phone, they won’t find you.
So, make sure you use short sentences and paragraphs, break up longer content with images and don’t slow the load time with pictures that take up a lot of memory. We’re impatient and if a site doesn’t load in a second or two, people will look elsewhere.
You’re not using internal links
One of the key things Google looks for when it’s assessing the quality of a website, is how easy it is to navigate. Things like how long people stay on the site help it to assess that.
If it’s difficult for people to find their way around, they won’t stay long and will bounce off to your competitor’s website.
Internal links help to keep people interested and staying on your page for longer.
Spend 20 minutes this week looking at your homepage and adding in internal links to other pages. These could be blog posts, sales pages or your about page.
Why Google can’t find your small business website: You don’t have enough content
This is a big factor in whether the people you can help, find your website. Google and AI both use your website content to decide who to show your site to.
AI uses quality blog posts to formulate its response and overviews. Google uses things like blog posts to quality assess your site which determines how high in search results you appear.
So, if you’ve only got 3 blog posts and haven’t published anything for 6 months, your site won’t get found.
Regular, good quality blog posts that showcase you, your business and your expertise, are what will help you appear in AI responses and at the top of search pages.
If you haven’t published anything for a while, spend some time making a list of topics you can write about, ideally things your clients keep asking you, and then allocate time to write. Update and republish old blog posts so you’re getting fresh eyes on your content.
If you don’t have a blog section on your website, you need one. Allocate some time to research how to do it, or contact your web developer and ask them to add it in for you. Then spend some time planning what to write about.
SEO Jumpstart
I created SEO Jumpstart because I know not everyone has the budget to get someone else to work on their website’s visibility for them. It’s the resource I wish had been around when I pulled my head out of the sand and started learning about SEO and why it was so important if I wanted the magazine to reach the people I knew needed to read it.
Jumpstart is a recorded, self-paced course that shows you the exact steps you need to take to create strong website foundations. It shows you how to put right the mistakes I’ve talked about in this post, and lots more too.
But it’s not just a course you buy and forget about. I want to make sure you actually do the work. So, as well as getting access to the 5 recorded lessons, you get support and accountability for 3 months in The SEO Club Membership.
You can join the fortnightly accountability sessions, or, if you can’t join live, we can do accountability via email. You also get access to the learning library with videos covering topics like the basics of Google Analytics and Search Console, creating links that build authority, and how to write a blog post that attracts the right attention.
The lessons in SEO Jumpstart cover:
✅ Keywords – how to find them and where to put them
✅ On-page SEO – links, page and image descriptions, page names
✅ Creating content that attracts attention
✅ How to build your authority
✅ How to create a simple strategy that works for you
Join SEO Jumpstart today and as a thank you for reading this blog post, use code SUBSCRIBER to get 20% off either the full price of £249, or one of the payment plans, and get started for as little as £65.
FAQs About why Google can’t find your small business
There are several common reasons your website might not be appearing in search results. You may not be using the words and phrases your potential customers actually type when searching for help, your pages might be missing descriptions, your site may not be mobile-friendly, or you might not have enough fresh, regular content for Google and AI to assess.
Keywords are the everyday words and phrases people type into Google or AI tools when they’re looking for help. They’re not technical terms or perfectly formed sentences, but the real language people use when they need a solution. Using these words throughout your website copy and in key places helps Google and AI connect your site with the people who need you most.
A meta description is a short paragraph that tells Google, and the person searching, exactly what a particular page on your website covers. It’s your chance to stand out in search results and persuade someone to click through to your site rather than a competitor’s. Leaving it blank is one of the most common and easily fixable SEO mistakes.
There’s no magic number, but consistency matters. Google and AI both use your website content to decide who to show your site to. A handful of blog posts published months ago won’t be enough. Regular, quality posts that demonstrate your expertise help you appear higher in search results and in AI-generated responses.
Internal links are clickable links within your website that guide visitors from one page to another, from a blog post to a sales page, for example. Google uses signals like how long people spend on your site to judge its quality, and internal links help visitors explore further rather than leaving quickly. Adding them to your homepage is a quick win you can tackle in under half an hour.
Head to the SEO and Copywriting tips section to readmore articles about simple SEO strategies.
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