How to Get Your Small Business Found on Google in 2025

As a small business owner, you may be wondering, how do I get my website to show up on Google? Getting found on Google might be simpler than you think. 

Ranking higher on Google doesn’t require a degree in marketing or years of experience — it just takes the right strategy and tools.

The top three organic search results capture over 68.7% of all clicks on each Google Search page. That means if you’re not ranking high, you could be missing out on valuable traffic that could turn into customers.

By following these 14 proven tips — and leveraging Durable’s built-in AI SEO tools — you’ll be on your way to improving your website's Google search ranking in no time. 

14 Ways to Make Your Website Show Up on Google

Here are 14 ways to get your small business found on Google in 2025.

#1. Index Your Website and Submit Your Sitemap to Google 

The first step in getting your business on page one of Google is ensuring Google is aware of your website content. 

One way to achieve this is through a sitemap. A sitemap acts like a blueprint. It provides search engines with a list of all the pages on your website, aiding them in crawling and indexing.

Your sitemap maps out exactly how your website navigation works so search engines understand what topic each page is related to. It looks a little something like this:

However, when you are trying to get your sitemap on Google, it has to be in Google’s language. If you have a Durable website, you can access your sitemap simply by adding /sitemap.xml to the end of your website URL.

Head over to yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml to find a sitemap that will look more like this:

There are various online tools, like XML-sitemaps.com, Yoast SEO, and SEMrush, that allow you to generate sitemaps. Once generated, you can add this sitemap to the Google Search Console. This lets Google know about the structure of your site, improving the chances of it appearing in search results.

Now, to index your Durable site on Google, follow these steps:

• Open Google Search Console and input your website's URL.
• To verify your website's ownership, copy the provided HTML tag and paste it into the Head Code section of your Durable website. Once added, click "Verify".
• Navigate to "Go to Property" and add your sitemap. After a brief wait — sometimes requiring a page refresh — your sitemap will be successfully added.
• You can then inspect your site's URL and request indexing.

After this setup, your website will appear on Google search within 24-48 hours. However, the duration might vary based on Google's server propagation times.

While the traditional method requires various steps and tools, Durable streamlines the process by automatically indexing your website for search.

#2. Master Your Internal Navigation

A well-organized internal linking structure makes it easier for visitors and search engines to navigate your site, find related content, and understand the relationship between different pages. 

If visitors find it easy to move from one page to another, they're less likely to leave your website quickly. A lower bounce rate indicates to search engines that your site is valuable to visitors.

Also, search engines like Google use bots to crawl and index your website. A strong internal linking structure ensures that bots can easily move from one page to another, helping in better and faster indexation of your content.

In their official documentation, Google says, “Make your links crawlable by using an <a> HTML element (also known as anchor element) with an href attribute, so that Google can find other pages on your site via the links on your page.”

When you create a Durable website, those crawlable links are automatically done for you, making the process much simpler.

To master internal linking, keep these tips in mind:

• Start with a clear and logical structure. Your main categories should branch out to sub-categories, leading to individual pages or articles.
• Instead of using generic terms like "click here," use descriptive anchor texts that include the page’s keyword or give an idea about the linked content.
• Rather than just linking to your homepage or main categories, link deeper into your site to individual articles or pages. This ensures even distribution of page authority.
• Overloading a page with internal links can overwhelm the user and dilute page authority. Find a balance.

#3. Use Clean and Descriptive URLs

A clean and descriptive URL offers clarity and context, aiding in understanding a page's content even before it's clicked on. 

Not only do long, complex, or unclear URLs make it harder for search engines to clearly understand your page’s topic, but it makes it nearly impossible for someone to type in the URL to access the page or post.

Short URLs easily convey the page's content, making it simple for your visitors to understand what to expect, improving their overall experience.

Search engines prefer URLs that are easy to crawl and interpret. Descriptive URLs can also contain keywords, which can positively influence rankings.

Here are a few tips for creating URLs optimized for search engines:

• Incorporate relevant keywords in your URL, but avoid keyword stuffing. This helps with SEO and also makes the URL more descriptive for users.
• Wherever possible, avoid numbers (unless relevant) and special characters, as they can be misinterpreted or cause errors.
• When separating words in a URL, use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_). Hyphens are treated as spaces by search engines, making the words in the URL distinct.

Durable auto-generates URLs based on your page titles, ensuring they're readable and relevant. And if they’re too long, you can easily shorten them to only include your focus keyword.

#4. Use Mobile Responsive Website Design

More people are accessing the web via mobile devices than ever before — over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile phones. In addition, 80% of top-ranked websites are mobile-friendly.

Ensuring your website caters to mobile users is crucial for the user experience and search engine ranking. In fact, it’s one of Google’s top ranking factors.

Durable automatically makes all generated websites mobile-friendly, so you don’t have to worry about making minuscule changes to appeal to search engines.

Here are a few mobile optimization tips: 

• Ensure your website adapts to different screen sizes and orientations.
• Mobile users often browse on the go. Quick loading times are crucial. Compress images, utilize browser caching, and consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up access for users globally.
• Mobile screens are smaller, which means navigation needs to be simplified. Use larger buttons, and ensure that clickable elements aren't too close together.
• Many mobile browsers don't support Flash. Using it hinders mobile users from accessing your content.
• Use tools like Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to check how well your site performs on mobile devices.

With Durable, you can go from an idea to a fully-functioning mobile-friendly website in under 30 seconds. 

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#5. Improve Your Page Speed

Google reports that 53% of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. If users have to wait, they might reconsider their decision to subscribe, purchase, or engage with your site.

Search engines, like Google, factor in page speed when determining website rankings. Faster websites tend to rank higher in search results.

Durable uses the global Content Delivery Network (CDN). This CDN stores copies of your website on servers around the world, meaning that users accessing your site are served content from the closest server, ensuring faster load times.

Use these tips to help improve your website’s load speed:

• Optimize images: Large, high-resolution images can slow down your website. Use tools to compress images without losing quality.
• Minimize HTTP requests: Reduce the number of elements on your page (like images, scripts, and CSS files), resulting in fewer HTTP requests and faster page loads.
• Use browser caching: Store parts of your website in users' browsers so they don't have to reload the entire page when revisiting.
• Minify resources: Use tools to reduce the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This can significantly improve load times.
• Implement content delivery networks (CDNs): CDNs distribute the load, saving bandwidth and speeding up access for users across the globe.

Durable uses the global Content Delivery Network (CDN). This CDN stores copies of your website on servers around the world, meaning that users accessing your site are served content from the closest server, ensuring faster load times.

#6. Optimize Your Meta Tags

While meta tags may not immediately be visible to your website visitors, they do communicate vital information about your web pages to search engines.

Search engines use meta tags to gauge the relevancy of your content to a user's search query. Properly optimized tags help your pages rank higher for relevant keywords.

When content is shared on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, these platforms use meta tags to display a summary of the shared page, enhancing user engagement.

Meta tags include the meta title and description, and are what is shown in a search engine results page listing. You can see below what a meta title and meta description look like:

When you generate a website with Durable, your meta tags and descriptions are all written for you. Durable’s AI writes all of your SEO copy with best practices and your target keywords in mind. 

The meta title is the main title of your page, as seen in search engine results. It should be concise, relevant, and include primary keywords. You have up to 60 characters for your meta title.

The meta description provides a summary of the page's content. It should be compelling, within the recommended character limit, and include relevant keywords. You can use up to 160 characters for your meta description.

#7. Create Fresh and Valuable Content

Search engines, including Google, prefer websites that regularly update their content. Frequent updates indicate a site's reliability and relevance, leading to better rankings.

Fresh content keeps your audience engaged, encouraging them to return to your site more often. This increases the chances of them taking desired actions, whether signing up for a newsletter or booking an appointment. 

Having a blog is a fantastic way to add new content. Discuss industry news, share company updates, or provide valuable educational content relevant to your audience.

Starting a blog can seem daunting — especially when juggling the responsibilities of running a business.

However, Durable simplifies this entire process for you. Setting up and populating a blog becomes very easy with our AI Blog Builder. 

In minutes, you can have a blog with posts tailored to your business and audience. What sets Durable’s Blog Writer apart is its blend of automation and personalization. While our AI efficiently generates content, you retain the freedom to inject your voice, make specific alterations to text, swap out images, and adjust the layout to resonate with your brand's identity.

#8. Incorporate Social Media Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

As of 2024, there are over five billion social media users worldwide. That's more than half of the global population. And this number is expected to continue rising to more than six billion users by 2028. Leveraging these platforms will vastly amplify your online visibility.

Online visibility can help drive significant traffic to your site. Google recognizes websites that receive a high traffic volume as valuable, potentially influencing your ranking. By incorporating social media into your strategy, you have another avenue to increase your website traffic.

Also, social media can increase user engagement. If users spend more time on your site after arriving from a social platform, Google interprets this as your site providing valuable content, which can help rankings.

Reviews and mentions on social platforms like Facebook can also benefit local businesses. Positive reviews and active engagement indirectly boost local search rankings.

Every social media platform has a unique audience and caters to distinct demographics and interests. Here's how you can effectively use the leading social media platforms:

• Facebook: Share posts regularly, engage with comments, and utilize Facebook Stories. Facebook Groups are also valuable for sharing expertise and directing users to your site.
• X/Twitter: Use it for quick updates, sharing articles, and joining trending conversations. Engage with influencers and use relevant hashtags to reach a broader audience.
• Instagram: This visual platform is perfect for sharing images, infographics, and short video clips. Use Instagram Stories for quick updates.
• LinkedIn: Especially crucial for B2B businesses. Share industry insights, company updates, and engage with other businesses.

While organic growth on social media is essential, paid advertising gives your brand the necessary push. To help you come up with attention-grabbing ads, at Durable, we have a tool called Google Ad Writer. 

Even though the tool is crafted for Google Ads, you can still use it to craft compelling Facebook, Twitter, and email marketing ads.

#9. Optimize Website Images for Search

Images break up text, provide visual context, and help illustrate complex ideas simply. But beyond their visual appeal, images are a powerful tool for SEO, provided they are optimized correctly.

With the rise of visual search tools and platforms, optimizing your images can drive traffic from image search queries.

With Durable, all the images on your website are automatically SEO-optimized for you. Durable’s AI Content Writer follows image SEO best practices and ensures they all have the proper descriptive naming, descriptions, and alt-tags.

If you want to do your own image SEO optimizations, keep the following in mind:

• Descriptive naming: When you upload an image, avoid generic file names like "IMG123.jpg." Instead, name the image descriptively, like "vintage-wooden-chair.jpg."
• Alt tags: Add alt tags to every image on your site. These are textual descriptions that search engines use to understand the content of an image. For our example, an appropriate alt tag might be "Vintage wooden chair with carved legs." Include keywords if they naturally fit, but the goal here is to describe what visitors see in the image for both search and accessibility purposes.

#10. Secure Your Website

Website security is more important than ever. A secure website protects the data shared between your visitors and your site, builds trust with your audience, and even improves your search engine ranking.

How do you know if a website is secure? Look for “HTTPS” at the beginning of the URL or a padlock icon in the address bar. HTTPS ensures that data is encrypted, making it much harder for hackers to intercept sensitive information.

Google also prioritizes secure websites, meaning HTTPS can give your site a slight ranking boost in search results. In fact, having a secure website could be the difference between landing on the first page or being buried on the second.

If this sounds technical, don’t worry. When you build your website with Durable, security is already taken care of. Every Durable website is 100% secure and is secured with powerful DDOS protection, SSL, firewall, and a global CDN. You can focus on growing your business without worrying about the technical details.

#11. Create a Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile (previously “Google My Business”) is a free business listing tool. It makes it easy for customers to find you online through Google Search and Google Maps, see your business information, and see how other customers rate you. 

Think of any business you’ve ever Googled. The little business block with photos, hours, and customer reviews you see is a Google Business Profile. 

A Google Business Profile will significantly boost your online visibility and attract more customers when it's set up and optimized for search, especially for local businesses. 

Here's how to do create a Google Business Profile:

• Create or claim your listing: Go to Google’s business website.
• Fill in your business details: Provide as much information as possible: business name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation.
• Verify your business: Google needs to confirm that your business is genuine and that you're its legitimate owner or manager. Depending on your type of business, you may be able to verify through various methods, including by phone, email, postcard, or instant verification.
• Optimize your profile: Add high-quality photos of your business, products, or services. This helps potential customers see what you offer.

#12. Have a Consistent Online Presence

Search engines prioritize businesses that have consistent information across the web. This consistency helps search engines determine authority, thus affecting your ranking in local search results.

Use these tips to ensure your online presence is consistent across the board:

• Regularly check all platforms where your business is listed. This includes social media profiles, business directories, and your website.
• Whenever you change your business details, make sure you update across all platforms. This could be a change in phone number, address, or even the business name.
• Consider using online tools or services like BrightLocal or Moz Local. They help in managing and maintaining consistent business information across the web. Some tools even notify you when inconsistencies are detected.

#13. Gather and Showcase Reviews

50% of consumers believe that online business reviews hold the same weight as personal recommendations from friends or family. This shows the influence reviews have on potential customers and the perceived trustworthiness of a business.

For instance, Google considers the quantity and quality of reviews when determining local search rankings.

A steady stream of favorable reviews can increase your chances of appearing higher in local search results, allowing more potential customers to discover your offerings.

With Durable, it’s easier than ever to highlight your Google Reviews. To add reviews to your website, press “Add Section”, select “Google Reviews”, and type in your business name.

If you have a Google Business Profile, your Google Reviews will automatically appear and generate on your website.

If you want to generate more Google Reviews for your website, follow these tips: 

• Proactively ask your satisfied customers to leave reviews. This can be done post-purchase, through follow-up emails, or even directly at your location.
• Engage with customers by responding to their positive and negative reviews. Thanking them for positive feedback and addressing concerns in less positive reviews can reflect a responsive and customer-centric business attitude.
• Highlight the best reviews on your website or in marketing materials. This builds trust and provides real-world testimonials to your product or service's efficacy.
• Offer incentives, like an entry into a giveaway, for customers who leave online reviews.

#14. Stay Up-to-Date

SEO is not a one-and-done task. Search engines, especially Google, frequently update their algorithms.

So stay informed about these updates. You can adjust your strategies and ensure your website remains optimized for search. The Durable Newsletter is a great resource to subscribe to for the latest SEO and small business tips.

Also, many experts in the field regularly host webinars and workshops. Participate in these to gain insights and learn about the latest best practices in SEO.

‍Tip: Tools like Google Analytics offer insights into how visitors interact with your website. Monitor these metrics to know what's working and what's not, allowing you to tweak your strategies accordingly.

Get Your Small Business Found on Google

Getting your business noticed on Google can feel like a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be! 

We’ve shared some key steps to help you stand out — like creating a sitemap, leveraging social media, optimizing for mobile, keeping your business info consistent, and encouraging genuine customer reviews.

Still feeling overwhelmed figuring out where to start? That’s where Durable comes in. Our AI Website Builder is designed to make your website look amazing and show up on Google.

With our built-in SEO features, we’ll help your business rank on search engine results pages. And the best part? You can start building your website with Durable for $0.