The 10-minute Google checkup every small business should do

You don't need an SEO agency to find out how you look on Google. Grab your phone and give it ten minutes. This is the same quick checkup we'd run before giving anyone advice, and you can do it right now.

Minute 1–2: Search for yourself like a customer would

Don't just search your business name. Customers who already know your name will find you either way. Search the way a new customer would:

• "[what you do] near me" (for example, "dentist near me")
• "[what you do] in [your town]"
• "best [what you do] [your town]"

Note where you show up, if at all, both in the map section and the regular results below it. Then look at who's showing up above you. That's your real competition on Google, and it's not always who you'd expect.

Minute 3–4: Check your Google Business Profile

Search your business name and look at the panel that appears (on the right on a computer, near the top on a phone). Ask yourself:

1. Are the hours right, including holiday hours?
2. Is the phone number the one you actually answer?
3. Is the address right, and does the map pin land on your door?
4. Are there recent photos, or is it a blurry picture from 2017?

If anything's off, sign in at business.google.com and fix it. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to lose a customer for good.

Minute 5–6: Read your own listing

Look at your website's listing in the regular results. Read the gray text under your name. Is it a clear sentence about what you do and where? Or is it something random, like a cookie notice or "Welcome to our website!"?

That text is often pulled from your page's description setting. If it's missing, Google grabs whatever text it finds. Writing a good one, a simple sentence or two about what you do and where, is one of the easiest wins there is.

Minute 7–8: Use your site on your phone

Tap through to your website on your phone, on cellular data. Try to do the three things a customer usually wants:

• Call you
• Find your hours
• Get directions

If any of those take more than a couple of taps, or you have to zoom in to read anything, make a note. That's friction, and friction loses customers.

While you're there, look at the address bar. If you see "Not secure," your site needs a security certificate. Your web host can usually turn this on for free.

Minute 9–10: Check your details match

Open your website, your Google Business Profile, and one other place you're listed (Yelp, Facebook, or a local directory). Is the business name, address and phone number written exactly the same way on all three?

It sounds picky, but Google uses these to confirm you're legit. Matching details build trust. Mismatched ones create doubt.

What you probably can't see

There's one thing this checkup can't show you: whether Google can actually read your business details from your website's code. That's a behind-the-scenes layer called structured data, and it's where a lot of small business sites quietly fall short. We explain it in what Google reads on your website that you can't see.

If you'd like a second set of eyes, our free visibility report checks that part for you, along with speed, mobile setup and security, in a few seconds.