How a small business gets found on Google
Felix Hellström
Founder, Klarhimmel
A website does not get you found on Google by itself. I say that first because it is the most common surprise. Owners build a page, wait, and wonder why nothing happens. The work that makes you findable is mostly a handful of free jobs, and you can do all of them yourself. Here they are, in the order I would do them.
First, Google Business Profile. This is the card that shows up on the map and beside your name when someone searches for you, with your hours, phone number, address and reviews. It is free. You sign in with a Google account, enter your details and verify that the business is real. Google offers several ways to verify, such as a phone call, a text, an email, a short video or a postcard, and you are shown the ones that apply to you. Allow up to five working days for Google's review after you have done your part. A postcard can take about two weeks, and while it is on its way, do not edit the name, address or category and do not ask for a second code. That is the mistake that sends people back to the start.
There is a trap for businesses without a shop. Google will not accept a virtual office, a post box or a mailbox address. If you travel to customers, such as a plumber or a cleaner, you can set up a service-area profile and hide your address. Check the rules for your case before you start.
Second, Google Search Console. It is also free, and it tells you whether Google can see your site at all and what people searched to reach it. You prove you own the site, and then it shows you the real searches. For a small business the most useful early signal is simply this: does Google know my page exists? If your site does not appear when you search your own business name, Search Console is where you find out why.
Third, keep your name, address and phone number accurate and the same everywhere. Google asks for accurate, complete details on the profile itself (Google's help page); keeping them identical elsewhere is common advice from local-search agencies. The same spelling on your page, your Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and any directory. "Maja's Bakery", not "Majas Bakery" on one and "Maja's Bakery AB" on another. Google compares them, and small differences make it less sure they are the same business. Write the exact text once in a note and copy it each time.
Fourth, give each thing you do its own page, or at least its own clear section with its own heading. If you are a plumber who does boilers and bathrooms, one page that says "plumbing services" is weaker than a section for each, in the words a customer would type: "boiler service in Västerås", "bathroom renovation". People search for a job, not for a trade. One short page per service, with the town and the price or a "from" price, tells both visitors and Google what you do.
Fifth, ask your customers for reviews. Reviews on your Business Profile are one of the clearest things a stranger sees. Ask people who have actually bought from you, when they are happy, and make it easy by sending the link. Do not buy reviews, do not write them yourself, and do not ask family. Google treats reviews from relatives and friends as a conflict of interest and can remove them. It is better to have eleven real ones than forty that vanish.
Other directories can help locally. In Sweden, Hitta has a free account for updating your listing, and Eniro runs a similar directory, so check what each one charges. Apple has a free business listing for Apple Maps. Bing can import your Google profile. Ignore phone calls and mails offering to list you for a fee; there are reports of callers pretending to be Hitta or Eniro to sell paid listings. None of these is a guarantee. I have not seen independent figures that say how much any of them lifts traffic, and I will not make one up.
So where does a Klarhimmel page fit? It is where your page lives, and the thing your profile and your posts can point to. We do not get you found, and today we do not do the Google work for you. Getting found is not something the product does yet. What it does is let you make a clear page with your hours, prices and phone number, free, at a Klarhimmel address, so that when someone does find you there is something good to land on.
If you do not have the page yet, that is the place to start. Describe the business in the box on our Business Launcher page, read what comes back and fix it. Then do the five jobs above with that address on your profile.
