5 Reasons Your Business Doesn’t Rank on Google

If a business does not show up on Google, it is usually one of these: Google cannot tell what the business does, the Google result looks broken, the Google Business Profile is incomplete, a competitor has more recent reviews, or the website is hard to use on a phone.

Frontpage’s SEO review of 100 local sites found that every site failed at least one basic search check. The typical site already passed 74.6% of those checks. 29% were missing five or more. This article covers the five problems that explain most of those misses.

Those three searches usually point to one of the five reasons below. Fix that one first. For the step-by-step list, see How to rank on Google for a small business.

Reason 1. Google cannot tell what the business does

Google ranks pages based on the words on the page. A homepage that starts with a slogan, a coupon, or a slideshow does not tell Google the service or the city. Searches like “roofer in Independence” or “tacos downtown” then go to someone else.

In the Frontpage set, 17% of homepages never named the service in the first sentence. 15% only used huge words such as “tires” or “pizza,” which national brands already rank for. Google’s starter guide says to write titles and text that describe the page. Text inside a photo of a menu does not count.

What to do: cover the logo. If a stranger cannot say the service and the city, write one clear sentence at the top of the homepage and each service page.

Reason 2. The Google result is cut off or missing

When someone searches, they see a blue title and a short description. If those are cut off or filled with leftover website text, they tap someone else’s result.

Titles and descriptions were the weakest search area in the 100-site set. 72% of sites used a title or description Google could not show in full (about 60 characters for the title, 160 for the description). 44% left the description blank on at least one page, so Google pulled random text from a menu or a cookie banner. 26% of sites with more than one page used the same title everywhere. 11% left the business name out of the title, which makes it harder to find the business by name.

What to do: search the business name and look at the bold title. If it cuts off or says “Home | Home | Home,” fix the titles. Examples are in the SEO basics guide.

Reason 3. The Google Business Profile is weaker than nearby shops

For a local search, Google often shows three businesses on a map first. If the profile is missing hours, photos, or categories, those other shops show up instead, even when the website is fine.

Think with Google has reported that 76% of people who run a nearby search on a smartphone visit a related place within a day, and 28% of those sessions include a purchase. Uberall’s Near Me Shopping Report (covered by Search Engine Land) put “near me” use at 82% of smartphone shoppers. Those people pick from the map results. They are not reading a blog.

Google’s Business Profile help pages say a complete, verified listing with current hours, categories, and photos is the starting point for showing up in Search and Maps.

What to do: open the three businesses next to yours. Count photos, categories, posts, and whether they reply to reviews. If they look more complete, finish the listing at business.google.com.

Reason 4. A competitor has more recent Google reviews

Google and customers both use reviews to choose. A business can do good work and still lose because the reviews are old, or because they only appear on Maps and not on the website.

BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey has put the share of people who read reviews for a local business at about 97%. Northwestern’s Spiegel Research Center reported that moving from zero reviews to five can raise purchase likelihood by about 270%. Harvard Business School’s Michael Luca study of Yelp and restaurant revenue found a one-star lift associated with 5–9% more revenue for independent restaurants.

Frontpage’s trust review of the same 100 sites found proof was the weakest area overall. Where named reviews applied, 71% (69 of 97) had no named reviews on the page. 62% of those sites showed no reviews at all. Reviews or other proof next to a button were missing on 78% of sites in the conversion review.

What to do: count reviews from this year on the listing versus the businesses that show up first. Then open the homepage. If reviews are only on Google and not on the site, add them. Here is how Frontpage puts live Google reviews on a page.

Reason 5. The name, phone, or website does not match, or the site is hard to use on a phone

Google checks that the name, phone, and address match across the website, the Google listing, and other directories. Different spellings create confusion. Then people open the site on a phone and cannot tap the call button.

Ahrefs’ study of billions of pages found that 96.55% of pages get no Google search traffic. A local business does not need to win the whole web. It does need the same contact details everywhere, and a page people can use on a phone.

Frontpage’s speed and technical review was the strongest area: about 12% of those checks failed, and the typical site passed about 87%. Even so, only 5% of sites passed every technical item, and 50% failed three or more. The most common problem was large images that all load at once (59% of sites where that applied). See the speed and technical guide.

On phones, 75% of the 100 sites had buttons that were too small to tap. The mobile guide covers that finding. Getting people to call was worse: about 98% of sites failed three or more conversion checks, 73% had no click-to-call in the header, and 53% had no single main button.

Carleton University researchers showed people form an opinion of a page in as little as 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard et al., 2006). Stanford’s Web Credibility Project found design look in about 46% of comments when people explained why they trusted a site. A cramped page that is hard to tap loses the visitor, and Google notices people leaving.

What to do: tap the phone number. Check that the hours match the door. If either fails, fix that even if the Google listing looks fine.

Which problem to fix first

These problems add up. An incomplete Google listing, a cut-off title, and a phone number nobody can tap will hide a business that does good work. Fix the matching problem. That costs less than a redesign or more ads.

For the step-by-step list, see How to rank on Google. For a scored report on the current website, run the free website audit.

Frontpage percentages in this article come from the same 100-site review used across the education guides. Outside figures keep their original authors.

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