Getting found
How people — and AI — find your business
Five things, in this order. Each one is a few minutes. None of them warns you when it is missing, which is exactly why they get skipped.
1 · Prove the site is yours
Search engines will not tell you what they know about a site until you prove you own it. Bing and Google each give you a token; paste it into your settings and press Verify. Nothing else on this page works as well until this is done.
Where: Settings → Analytics → Search engines
Why it matters: Do Bing first, even though it is smaller. ChatGPT searches through Bing’s index — so being in it is what lets an AI assistant recommend you at all.
2 · Say where you are and when you are open
Your address, your opening hours, and the country and postcode. Leave a field blank if you genuinely do not have it — an incomplete address is fine, a wrong one is not.
Where: Settings → Analytics → Business details
Why it matters: This is the difference between appearing in the map results and not existing in them. A business that claims to be a local business but publishes no address is treated as a mistake, and the whole description gets ignored — not just the missing line.
3 · Claim your profile on the big directories
A Google Business Profile first. Then whichever of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or your industry’s directory your customers actually use. Fill each one in properly before you move on — an empty profile is worth less than no profile.
Where: Off-site — you create these yourself, then come back to step 4
Why it matters: This is usually the single biggest thing a small business can do, and it is not on your website at all. A listing you control on a site people already trust is what turns "some website" into "a real business".
4 · List those profiles back on your site
Paste the full web address of each profile — one per line. Use the real URL, not your handle: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourname, not @yourname.
Where: Settings → Analytics → Business details → Your other profiles
Why it matters: This is how a search engine works out that the listing over there and this website are the same company. Without it they are two strangers, and neither one helps the other.
5 · Keep the same name everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should read identically on your site and on every profile. "St" in one place and "Street" in another is enough to weaken the match.
Where: Everywhere — it is a habit, not a setting
Why it matters: Consistency is the evidence. Every place the details agree makes the identification stronger; every place they disagree makes it weaker.
What to expect, honestly
None of this is instant. Verification takes minutes; a search engine deciding it trusts your details takes weeks. What these steps do is make you eligible — you cannot appear in a map result without an address, and you cannot be recommended by an assistant that was never allowed to read you. Eligibility first, then patience, then content.
Nobody can promise you a position in search results, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What is promised here is narrower and true: do these five things and you stop being invisible for reasons that have nothing to do with how good your business is.