Being found for your business name

This is quite feasible where you don’t have a generic or very common business name. For example “John Smith Bath” doesn’t have any top search result, and so it would be quite easy to create a website that came top on the results. However, if you were “Bath Plumbing”, you would be mixed up with all the other plumbing companies not only in Bath City, but also around the world.

To achieve a good ranking for your business name requires commonly used practices which most website designers would incorporate in their work without additional fees:

• Choose a website address (domain name) with your business name in it (eg www.johnsmithbath.co.uk or www.johnsmithplumber.co.uk
• Register the site in your own proper business name, which will confirm its authenticity.
• Ensure that your name and related keywords are included in the website title. This appears at the very, very top of your screen (white text on a blue bar background), and often states “Home” or something similar by default.
• Ensure that there is a reasonable amount of text on your home page, so avoid any splash screens or very simple pages that say “Click here to enter site”. You should present a brief outline of your business, what it does and what it's called so viewers can quickly establish if they have the right sort of site they were looking for. Its also a good idea to have a “call to action” on your site, such as a phone number with clear instructions of when to call (and how helpful you will be if they do).
• You should repeat your keywords a few times (say 2-3 times) on the front page, and aim to have these marked as headings (ie like paragraph headings).
• If you have a few pictures on your front page, make sure they have a title which can also be your same keywords. This is known as the “Alt Text” field when creating your site, and will be seen in a small pop-up box with yellow background when you hover your mouse over the picture for a few seconds.
• Ensure you have some links from other websites which link through to your home page. Typically, this can be done from business directories. If you already have a listing in Yellow Pages (and thus yell.com), then you can ask them to include a link to your site (usually for no additional cost).
• You don’t need to submit your website to the search engines anymore – they will find it via the links from any good business directory – and this can even be counter productive.

Allow at least 4-6 weeks for the search engines to be updated to include your website and return it in the results. If you are keen, you can check what Google thinks of your site by entering into the google search box:

• “site:www.joebloggs.co.uk” which will list all the pages and their short description on your site, if Google knows about it

• “link:www.joebloggs.co.uk” which will list many (but not all) of the external websites will link through to your site that Google has recognised.

Lastly, its always worth searching for your own business from time to time, to see how easy it is to find you and what information is published. We have often seen businesses listed with out of date address/contact information that could potentially be losing them customers.