5 Things Killing Your Google Ranking (And How to Fix Them)
Most local business websites make the same avoidable mistakes. Here's what's holding yours back and what to do about it.
You've got a website. But nobody's finding it. You're not ranking for your town, your service, or anything useful — and you're not sure why.
Usually it's one of five things.
1. Your site loads too slowly
Google measures how fast your site loads and uses it as a ranking signal. Slow sites rank lower. They also lose visitors — most people leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Common causes: unoptimised images, cheap shared hosting, too many plugins (especially on WordPress), and bloated themes.
The fix: Compress your images before uploading, use a reliable host, and strip out anything your site doesn't actually need.
2. Your Google Business profile is incomplete
For local searches — "café near me", "plumber Hull", "hair salon open now" — Google Business is often more important than your website. An incomplete profile means you show up lower, or not at all.
The fix: Fill in every field. Add photos (real ones, not stock). Get your opening hours right. Post an update at least once a month. Respond to every review — good and bad.
3. You're not using local keywords
"We offer high-quality plumbing services" tells Google nothing useful. "Emergency plumber in [your town]" tells Google exactly who should see you.
Most local business websites don't mention their location anywhere except the contact page. That's a missed opportunity.
The fix: Use your town or area naturally throughout your homepage copy. Your page title, your hero headline, your about section. Don't stuff it in awkwardly — write for humans, but be specific.
4. Your site isn't mobile-friendly
Over 60% of Google searches happen on a phone. If your site looks broken on mobile, Google knows — and it hurts your ranking. More importantly, the people who find you on their phone have a bad experience and leave.
The fix: Test your site on your own phone right now. Does it look good? Can you read the text without zooming in? Does the contact form work? If not, it needs fixing.
5. You have no backlinks and no authority
Google ranks sites partly based on how many other sites link to them. A brand-new website with no links has no authority — it's hard to rank even for less competitive searches.
The fix: Get listed on local directories (Yell, Yelp, FreeIndex, your local Chamber of Commerce). Ask suppliers or partners if they'll link to you. If you do anything newsworthy locally, get in touch with local press.
This takes time. But it compounds — every link you earn today helps you rank better in a year.
Most of these fixes are straightforward, but doing them properly takes a few hours of focused work. If you'd rather someone handle it, our SEO Boost service covers all of the above on an ongoing basis.
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