The Local Business Visibility Guide

Most local businesses don't lose customers because they aren't good enough. They lose them in the few minutes someone spends searching, comparing and deciding. This guide helps you see your business the way a new customer does. It takes about 20 minutes.

1. Can they find you?

• Search for what you do and your town, not your business name. For example, search “accountant Cheltenham”, not “Smith & Co”. Do you appear on the first page or in the map results?
• Check your Google Business Profile. Is the category right? Are your hours, photos and services up to date?
• Ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to recommend a business like yours in your area. Are you mentioned?
• Check that your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere they appear online.

2. Can they trust you?

• Look at your reviews. How many do you have, how recent are they, and do you reply to them?
• Open your homepage. Within five seconds, can you tell what you do, who it’s for and where you work?
• Does the site show real photos, real people and real examples of your work, or mostly stock images?
• Does anything look out of date, like an old copyright year, an expired offer or a blog nobody has updated in years?

3. Can they contact you?

• Open your website on your phone. Can you call or send an enquiry in one tap?
• Send a test enquiry through your contact form. Did it arrive? How long would it take you to reply?
• Does every page have one clear next step, or does the visitor have to hunt for it?

What to do with what you find

Fix things in reverse order. Start with contact, because the people you lose there already want to buy from you. Then work on trust. Then work on being found. There is little point sending more people to a website that doesn't turn visitors into enquiries.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes, the Digital Growth Deep Dive looks at all three areas in depth and gives you a clear list of priorities to act on.

Not sure what you need yet? Get in touch and we'll talk it through. It's an honest conversation about what will actually make a difference, with no hard sell.

Let’s talk →