How to get your business on the first page of Google

Nobody can promise you a spot on the first page of Google. Not us, not an agency, not anyone. What we can tell you is what genuinely helps a local business get found, because none of it is a secret. We sell the Google review NFC card, so to be upfront: it helps with one of the jobs below, collecting reviews, and the rest costs nothing.

Be suspicious of anyone who promises a spot

If an agency tells you they can promise you a place on page one, walk away. Google's results move around constantly, and no outsider controls them. What agencies sell as a mysterious dark art is mostly a checklist of ordinary jobs, and you can do the important ones yourself for free.

Fix your Google Business Profile first

For a local business, the map pack near the top of the results is the first page that matters. Getting into it starts with a complete Google Business Profile: verified, accurate opening hours, plenty of real photos, the right categories, and answers to the questions people ask. A half filled profile is invisible. A complete one can get found. Then keep it fresh, because a new photo or a short update every couple of weeks tells Google the business is open and busy.

Reviews do the heavy lifting

Reviews are about 20% of local rankings (Source: Whitespark local ranking survey), and businesses with 50 or more reviews are far more likely to show in map results (Source: published local SEO studies). They also decide what happens after you show up, because 93% of people read reviews (Source: BrightLocal).

So ask. Ask every customer, in person, at the moment they are happiest, and give them a way to do it in seconds, such as a Google NFC review card they tap with their phone. Never pay for reviews, and never filter out the customers you think might grumble. That is review gating, and businesses have had their review sections restricted for it. We never gate or pay, full stop.

Then be patient and consistent

The first page is not won in a week. It tends to go to a business whose details are correct everywhere, whose profile looks alive, and whose reviews keep arriving steadily month after month. Do those things and you give Google good reasons to show you. Pay someone to fake it and you give Google a reason to bury you.