Nearly every customer Googles you before they call. They check whether you look legitimate, whether other people rate you, and whether anything makes them hesitate. Which means the search results for your business name are effectively a shopfront you didn’t design and mostly never look at.
Most business owners either never check it, or check it in a way that tells them nothing. Both are a problem. Here’s how to do it properly.
Why a quick glance lies to you
You type in your business name, your own site pops up first, everything looks fine, and you close the tab reassured. The trouble is you just saw your results, not your customer’s.
Google personalises what it shows based on your location, your history, and the fact that you visit your own website constantly. So it flatters you. A stranger in your target suburb, who has never clicked your site, sees something different, and that version is the one that matters.
How to see what customers actually see
The fix is to strip away everything Google knows about you and search as a stranger would.
Open a private or incognito window so your history isn’t in play. Search your business name, then search the way a customer would, using the service and the place rather than your brand, like “plumber Fremantle” or “bookkeeper near me.” Do it on your phone as well as your computer, because most people find you on mobile and the results aren’t identical. Then read past the first result and look at the whole picture: your listing, your reviews, the map, and whatever else shares the page with you.
What to actually look for
You’re checking for the things that quietly cost you customers before they ever make contact.
Look at whether your basic details are correct and consistent, because a wrong phone number or an old address does real damage. Check your reviews, both what they say and whether you’ve responded to them. Notice what’s sitting alongside you, since competitors and directories often outrank businesses on their own name. And watch for anything outdated, like a long-closed location or a service you dropped years ago still floating around out there.
Fixing what you find
Most of what turns up is fixable, and a lot of it is free.
Claim and complete your Google Business Profile, because it’s often the first thing people see and it’s entirely within your control. Correct wrong information wherever it appears. Respond to reviews, the good ones and especially the critical ones, since a calm, helpful reply to a complaint reassures the next reader more than a wall of five stars. And if your own website is being outranked on your own name, that’s a sign the site needs some attention.
Make it a habit, not a one-off
Your search results aren’t fixed. Reviews arrive, competitors move, information drifts. Checking in as a stranger every few months takes ten minutes and keeps that shopfront honest.
It’s one of the cheapest pieces of marketing research available, and unlike most things, you can act on what you find the same day.
Want to know what customers really see when they search for you?
Auditing your search presence and cleaning up what’s driving customers away is exactly the kind of thing we help with. No lock-in contracts, no jargon, no bullshit.
Book a free 20-minute call. You’ll leave with at least one thing you can act on this week, whether you work with us or not.
