Almost everyone who is given your name searches it before calling. What appears is your website, your listing, review sites, directories you did not create, and occasionally something you would rather was not there. Most owners have never run that search deliberately, and it takes five minutes.
The search that decides more than you think
Referrals rarely go straight to the phone. Someone recommends you, the person searches your name to confirm you exist and look reasonable, and then decides.
That search is the last step before a call and it happens on almost every referral. It is also the one piece of your online presence you have never deliberately examined, because you have no reason to search your own name and every reason to assume it returns your website.
Running it properly
Not from your own machine while logged in, because personalisation shows you a version nobody else sees.
- Use a private browsing window, which removes most of the personalisation.
- Use a phone on mobile data as well, since the layout and what appears above the fold differ substantially.
- Search the name three ways: exactly as registered, the way customers say it, and with your town appended.
- Look at the whole first page, not just the top result.
- Then search the name with the word reviews, which is what a cautious customer does next.
What you are looking for
Whether your own site is first
It usually is, and where it is not the cause is normally a similarly named business or a directory outranking you. Both are fixable and neither is fixable if nobody has noticed.
What your listing shows
The panel beside the results carries your rating, hours, photographs, and description. This is frequently the largest element on a phone screen, and it is populated from your business profile rather than your website. If it shows old hours or a poor photograph, that is what a referral sees first.
Which directories appear
Expect several you never created, populated from aggregated data. Check the phone number and address on each, because entries carrying an old number are quietly sending people nowhere.
Whether anything unwanted is there
An old complaint, a listing for a business you closed, a former trading name, or a review site page you have never claimed. Better found deliberately than discovered when a customer mentions it.
Whether a competitor appears
Competitors are permitted to advertise against your business name, and some do. Seeing an advertisement for a rival above your own listing is unwelcome and it is legal, and the response is to make sure your own presence occupies as much of that page as possible.
The results you actually control
You cannot dictate what appears, and you can occupy more of the page. Each of these is a result you own.
- Your website, which should carry your business name in the homepage title.
- Your business profile, complete and current, which produces the panel.
- Review platform pages, claimed rather than left as auto-generated entries.
- Trade association and licensing listings, which carry weight and are frequently accurate already.
- Any social profiles you actually maintain, which tend to rank for a business name even with modest activity.
Five or six results you control is usually enough to fill what a person looks at, which is the practical objective. It is far more achievable than removing something you dislike.
If something unwanted is there
Removal is rarely available. A legitimate negative review, an old news item, or a directory entry someone else created generally stays.
What works is displacement rather than removal. Strengthening the results you do control pushes the unwanted item down, and most people never look past the first few. A single poor result on a page where everything else is yours and current reads very differently from the same result on a sparse page.
Where a review is genuinely inaccurate, most platforms have a process, and responding calmly in public frequently does more good than removal would. A measured reply is read by everyone who arrives afterwards.
Make it a habit
Twice a year, or after anything changes: a move, a new number, a rebrand, or a change of service area.
Ten minutes each time, and it catches the two things that quietly cost work, which are a listing showing details that stopped being true and a directory entry with a number that no longer rings. Both are invisible from inside the business and obvious to anyone searching.
Frequently asked questions
Why does searching my own business name matter?
Almost everyone given your name searches it before calling. That search is the final step before a referral becomes an enquiry, and most owners have never looked at what it returns.
How should I run the search?
In a private browsing window to remove personalisation, and on a phone using mobile data as well. Search the name as registered, as customers say it, and with your town appended.
What if my website is not the first result?
Usually a similarly named business or a directory outranking you. Both are addressable, starting with making sure your business name appears in your homepage title and your listing is complete.
Can I remove a negative result?
Rarely. Displacement works better than removal: strengthen the results you control so the unwanted one moves down, since most people never look past the first few.
What results can I actually control?
Your website, your business profile, claimed review platform pages, trade association and licensing listings, and any social profiles you maintain. Five or six is usually enough to fill what people look at.
How often should I check?
Twice a year, plus after anything changes such as a move, a new phone number, or a rebrand. Ten minutes each time catches listings showing details that stopped being true.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.
Never looked at what your name returns?
We audit the whole first page, fix the listings carrying wrong details, and build out the results you control.
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