How to get your Melbourne business found on Google

To get a Melbourne business found on Google, focus on four things: a complete and accurate Google Business Profile, a page on your website for each service you want work for, a site that is fast and easy for search engines to read, and honest reviews from real customers. Nobody can promise a position or a date, but these are the foundations every local business needs.

This guide walks through each one in plain English. It is the same checklist we use when we set up local search for Situs clients.

1. Set up and complete your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears on Google Maps and in the panel beside local search results. It is often the first thing a customer sees. Claim it, verify it, and fill in every section that applies to you.

• Use your real business name, exactly as customers know it.
• Choose the main category that best describes what you do, then add secondary categories where they are accurate.
• Add your opening hours, phone number and website address.
• List your services and write a short description in plain language.
• Add real photos of your work, your premises or your team.
• If you travel to customers and do not want your street address shown, set it up as a service-area business.

Keep the details identical everywhere they appear: your website, your profile and any directories. Mismatched phone numbers or names make it harder for Google to trust the listing.

2. Give each service its own page

A single page that lists everything you do rarely competes well. If you want to be found for a particular service, give it a page of its own. Say what the service is, who it is for, where you work and how to enquire.

Write each page for a real person first. A customer searching for a service in Melbourne wants to know quickly whether you do what they need and how to reach you. Avoid copying the same page for every suburb with only the place name swapped, because search engines treat that as thin, repetitive content. Write a location page only when you can say something genuine about working in that area.

3. Get the website basics right

These are the technical foundations search engines use to understand your site. They are not glamorous, but missing them holds good content back.

• A clear page title and meta description on every page, written around what the page is about and the place you serve.
• One main heading per page that matches the title, with subheadings that follow the structure of the content.
• A site that loads quickly and works properly on a phone.
• A sitemap, so search engines can find every page.
• Structured data that tells search engines your business name, address, phone, services and area.
• Internal links between related pages, so visitors and search engines can move through the site.

Add your site to Google Search Console. It is free, and it shows which searches bring people to your site and whether any pages have problems.

4. Ask for honest reviews

Reviews help customers decide, and they are part of how local results are judged. Ask customers who were genuinely happy, make it easy by sending them the direct review link from your profile, and reply to every review. Never pay for reviews, offer rewards in exchange for them or write your own. Google can remove them, and it can penalise the profile.

How long does it take?

It depends on how competitive your service and area are and how complete your starting position is, so any firm promise of a date should make you cautious. A sensible way to track progress is to check Search Console each month and see which searches are growing, rather than chasing a single ranking.

What to do first

1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile.
2. List the three services you most want more work from.
3. Make sure each has a page on your website that answers the questions customers ask.
4. Check titles, headings, mobile speed and your sitemap.
5. Add the site to Google Search Console.
6. Start asking happy customers for reviews.

If you would rather have someone do the setup, Situs offers a one-off Google Business Profile setup with no ongoing commitment, and local SEO as a separately agreed service with a monthly report based on your own search data.