109: Back to Basics: How to Get Your Website Showing Up on Google

In this episode, Jules White takes it back to basics - guiding beauty, health, and wellness business owners through the foundations of how to actually get found on Google.

Key Takeaways:

• Why Google still matters: Despite the rise of AI search, Google still handles over 90% of search traffic.
• Start with clarity: Decide what you want to show up for and which page should target each search term.
• Structure is everything: Use proper H1, H2, and paragraph formatting so Google can read and rank your content easily.
• Optimise your content: Include keywords naturally in headings, image alt text, and meta descriptions.
• Use the right tools: Set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 to understand how people find your website.
• Boost local visibility: Make sure your Google Business Profile is optimised and linked to your website.

Learn step-by-step, how to set up Google Analytics & Search Console in this short course & get the essentials in place fast.

Book a free Website Potential Discovery Call with Jules to uncover where your biggest opportunities lie.

Related Episodes:
🎧 Episode 012: Own Your Content - Why Creating for Your Domain First is Key to Long-Term Marketing SuccessWhy Creating Content You Own First Matters

🎧 Episode 108: Why Your Website Feels So Overwhelming - and How to Make It Easier

🎧Episode 087: What Beauty & Wellness Brands Must Know About Getting Found by AI Search Tools

Free Resource:
📘 Download the Quick Start SEO Guide

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Website Success Show for more clear, practical advice on

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Website Success Show
• 2:52 The Importance of Clear Messaging
• 6:31 Why Your Own Website Matters
• 8:47 Why Google Still Dominates Search
• 11:46 Setting Up Your Page Structure
• 16:57 Structured Data and Schema Markup
• 20:37 Using Google Search Console
• 24:39 Small Strategic Changes Make a Big Difference

Transcript

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Introduction to the Website Success Show

hi, it's Jules. Welcome back to the Website Success Show, where I teach beauty, health, and wellness business owners simple strategies to help you get more traffic and sales through your existing website.

With my content and programs, I'm focusing on solving four core problems that hold many business owners back.

Number one is visibility.

Getting your business to show up when people are searching for what you offer, whether that's on Google in Maps, or even through AI tools.

Number two is turning website visitors into real bookings and sales.

Number three is breaking free from social media dependency and marketing your business in a calmer and more sustainable way.

And number four is knowing exactly what to focus on first so you stop wasting your precious time and start building visibility that really lasts for your business.

So if that sounds like what you need, you're in the right place.

So let's get started.

So today I am gonna talk about problem number one.

I'm gonna go back to basics.

It's a while since we've talked about some basics of getting your business to actually show up on, on Google.

So I thought we would dive into that today and just hopefully it's a good little refresher for you around this.

If you've you know, if you've heard this before, if you've never heard this before, if this is your first time listening, then welcome.

Um, hopefully this will just give you some ways to, or some points that you can get started really on actually getting more visibility for your business.

So last week in episode 1 0 8, we talked about the three brain modes that we use when we're building websites and the three different parts of of our brain, which we often try and cram all in together.

And we try and end up doing all three things at once.

So we start off with the strategy where we need to know what we need to do to make our website better.

We need to. Think about our messaging.

We need to think about what we're actually, what problems we're solving for our customers and clients, and need to get really clear on that.

On on, on what needs to happen and how and everything.

Then we have creator mode, which is where we actually create the content for our website.

So we start writing copy, we start gathering images, creating visuals, all of those kind of things.

We actually are doing that, using that creative part of your brain.

And then the third part is when we actually go into our website builder and build it all out.

And if we can keep that all separate, it makes things so much easier.

So head back and listen to that episode for me to really dive deep in, into that for you.

But. This part of it.

This part of today is really we're talking about the strategy.

The Importance of Clear Messaging

So we're talking about how you can actually make the most of your visibility, make sure that you are actually showing up on, on Google, and, and actually getting some traffic through to your website.

So before we start thinking about this, before you start thinking about how can I actually make edits to my website and show up on Google, we need to be really clear on our messaging.

So we need to know. Exactly who we're selling to.

We need to know what problems we solve for them, and we need to know what we want, we actually want to show up for on Google.

This is something that comes up quite a lot when I'm working with clients, where I'll ask them actually, you know, what do you wanna show up for?

What do you think you should be showing up for?

And they don't always necessarily know.

And I think if you don't spend some time. Thinking about this then it isn't always obvious.

What do I actually want to show up for?

Unless you are if like, if you're a salon or something and you know you have a particular type of facial and you want to show up for that type of facial in your area.

And even with this, often salons haven't thought about that.

They haven't necessarily thought, or just even taking some time to. Get that into something like a Google sheet or, um, get that written down somewhere so that you know what you're trying to achieve.

It's a bit like setting goals, I suppose.

Really this is setting goals for your website.

These are the things that we want it to do for us.

This is what we want to happen.

And I think if you don't do that. And you dunno what you're actually aiming for.

You don't know what you are, what you're trying to show up for.

So you don't know when you've actually got to that point where, where it's working for you.

So we decide that.

We decide what search terms we want to show up for.

And then we decide what page of our website is the most appropriate page to show up for that search term.

And We are.

We are at a better situation now where we don't actually have to specifically align every page with one keyword.

Yes, we try and have a focus keyword or a key phrase, the things that people are actually typing into Google when they're looking for businesses like ours or they're looking to solve a problem.

But everything is so much smarter now.

Google is so much smarter.

I'm gonna come on in a minute to back to how Google actually works.

so it can understand the context of things.

So it can understand that if you are talking about facial treatments, then probably if something is mentioning hydration for facials or or for faces or skin rejuvenation techniques, those kind of things, Google will understand.

That those two search terms are related to each other, so mentioning those on your page, you could still be showing up for things that you aren't actually mentioning on your pages if they're closely related, and if Google understands that relationship between them really.

So we'd think about that.

We'd think about a target that we want to show up for, and then we would think about what page of our website is most appropriate for that.

And if you're not sure, if you think, okay, I know I want to show up for hydrating facials in my location.

But you're not sure which page of your website is most appropriate?

What I would suggest doing is go to Google and type that search term in, and see what kind of pages show up.

If you're seeing mostly services pages there, then.

That means one of your services pages would be the best one to optimise for this.

If you're seeing loads of other salons homepage there, or loads of blog articles or something like that, that might suggest that Google thinks this search term's got a different search intent.

So people are looking for something different than what you maybe are thinking that particular search time should show up for on Google.

And that really gives you a good idea of what kind of content you need to be creating on your pages, what kind of page you need to be selecting as wanting to show up for that keyword.

Why Your Own Website Matters

And then when you do that, then you need to optimise that particular page.

And that's as simple As it is.

It is.

It's not easy necessarily, but it is simple in terms of what do I wanna show up for which page on my website is the most appropriate for that search term how can, like, how do I optimise that page really and go, go through and actually optimise it?

So. actually something I feel like I wanna mention here before I dive into the, the kind of, the how to do to actually do that is why our own website matters.

This is something I went to, I've, I've mentioned this a lot over all of the episodes of the podcast.

I've mentioned this a lot, but episode 12 I talked specifically about why owning your own content first and creating content that you, you own first is so important for success in your business and for marketing your business.

I was on a strategy call with Adam from Podcasting Business School.

He does free calls once a month.

They're really good.

If you've got a podcast, I definitely recommend following him.

I've learned so much from him about podcasting, but he had a situation this week where his Threads account got shut down.

He had about 3,500 followers.

He was really active in there multiple times a day.

He was actually posting in there.

Yeah.

Very engaged.

Very engaged with other people as well, and a bot decided that his account was a bot shut it down and he's not been able to this point.

He's, he's not been able to get it back yet.

He was very determined that he's gonna keep trying and keep, you know, slogging away at it, trying to get it back.

But it just shows our vulnerability if we are creating content that isn't on, on our own domain, isn't content that we own our website.

Our podcast is something that you, that you own.

Obviously he's got his own podcast, he's got an email list as well, which is the most valuable thing that you own.

Your email list is your direct line to your customers.

And if everything goes away, if everything else goes away, you know, if you, if your social media goes away, if you've got an email list and you've got a place where people can know, they can find you, IE your website, then that does make you in a much less vulnerable position with this kind of thing really.

Let's talk a little bit about. Like why, why we focus on Google.

I think this is something that's really important when we're go, coming back to basics, really important to understand why Google is, is like why we talk about Google so much.

Why Google Still Dominates Search

Why we, why there's the phrase of I need to go and Google it rather than I need to go and.

Bing it or Yahoo it or whatever.

And I think there's lots of rumors that Google is dead and the SEO is dead.

And actually it's still, it is not true.

We are still at the point now where Google has over 90% of search traffic.

When people are searching for something, they're searching to find an answer to something, find a solution to their problem google is still the main player in search.

And if you optimise your website for Google you, that will help you to show up in the other places as well.

So if you optimise for Google, you're much more likely than to show up in Bing in AI searches as well.

There is definitely some nuances in AI searches, and I've talked about this in a few episodes.

I'll link it in the show notes.

But we realistically, we need our website to be set up in the way that it would show up on Google to stand a chance of it showing up in AI search as well.

So Google wants to deliver the best search results for its customers.

So Google's customers are the people that are doing the search.

And the way Google makes its money is by selling advertising space.

So Google's little robots go out and they crawl through all of the internet pages.

They go through, crawl through all the different websites, and then they put them into a, a big catalogue, essentially, which is Google's index.

They decide where, where these pages should go in, and the most appropriate search terms that these pages should be aligned with.

And the words that you use on your website are what then helps Google to decide where you actually should, should fit into the index.

And the more you can align with what people are actually searching for, the more relevant you are.

The more authority you show through your website, the more likely Google is to trust your website and to actually put you in the right places in the index.

And

Google's robots are very smart.

They, they know more and more and they, they are so much more able to understand the content of our website now than they ever have been in the past.

But they still need the content on our website to be arranged in ways that are logical and make sense to them, and that they can read it ultimately, it's a machine that's going through and reading.

It's not real robots sitting there, but it's a machine that goes through and reads your website.

And this is one of the big things that I think a lot of business owners miss out on really.

It's making sure that your content on your website is set up. In a basic way that helps Google to understand it better.

Setting Up Your Page Structure

We want to make sure that our pages aren't competing against each other as well.

So Google knows if it goes to your website and reads through all your content.

If it can read the content well.

We don't want to then have two pages where Google's not sure which one of these pages is the most appropriate for the search term.

Otherwise, that's then neither of those pages is going to do well, and Google will go over, go off and choose another page that has much stronger signals about. It being relevant to that particular search term.

So when we're talking about page structure, the things that we need to do, this is what we need to do as we're actually adding content into our website.

As we are building things out in our website builder, we need to lay it out in a structured way.

If you think of it like an English essay, so when we were back at school, if you were writing an English essay, you would have one heading, and then you'd have subheadings within that, and then maybe you'd have sub.

Points within those subheadings and their main sort of paragraphs.

And this is what we want our page structure to be about.

So we've decided what we want this particular page to show up for on Google, the main H one heading.

So when you look at your website builder. You'll see little boxes that allow you to set H one, H two, maybe a, um, bullet point list or paragraphs, or a quote or something like that.

This is something you'll find in your website builder.

And unfortunately they kind of set us up to fail with this a little bit.

So they set us up and we tend to use it for styling most, a lot of websites that I see.

And I, and it's a way I can often tell if a website's had any SEO thought at all or has been set up in an SEO friendly way because quite often the styling and the, and the page structure and the heading structure is a real mess.

And it is, you can definitely see that it's not been given some thought how to actually make the most of it really.

So rather than using it to make some of your words look bigger on your website, some of them smaller, different styles, those kind of things.

This actually should be something that you think about the structure and the content on your website first.

This comes from when websites were, were completely coded, and this is telling.

The whatever, whatever bot is reading through your website, the browser or Google's bots, AI bots is telling it what the order of the page is, is telling it what the most important parts of the page are.

It's telling it how the context all fits together as well.

I definitely would recommend planning this out on paper.

This is part of that thing of actually planning your website before you dive in and start building it.

Making sure that you then know it's, it's a logical structure, so you're never gonna have a H four at the top of the page, followed by a H two.

Then you've got a H one, then you go back to another H four.

It should always fall like form that hierarchy, a logical hierarchy down the page, which sounds quite technical.

It's actually really not.

When you think of it that way, and you take it back and just think of this is all, all your website is, is a, is a.

A, a document on the internet, really, each individual webpage.

Is one particular document, and if you just lay that out logically, that makes a big difference.

And as I say, this is something a lot of business owners don't do and don't think about, and you can check this yourself as well.

So if you're not sure whether your pages are laid out in a structured and logical way, then you can download a Google Chrome plugin called A-I-O-S-E-O.

It is one I use daily.

Use it multiple times a day.

You can just really click quickly. like, go to your website, click on the on the plugin, and it will open up a box and it will tell you the structure of your site.

So it will tell you what your page titles and descriptions are.

It'll give you an idea of whether they're the right sort of length as well. 'cause that does make a difference with your SEO.

It will tell you what heading tags you've got on your page.

So whether you've got H ones or whether you've got, I think the, the my record I've ever seen is something like 36 H ones on a website, and actually that was when FEA create updated or high level updated their, um, website builder.

And it automatically changed, changed a lot of stuff in the backend.

Luckily I spotted it.

Luckily I could change it myself easily.

But yeah, that's the, that was the record for the most I think that I've ever seen.

But quite often I'll see websites that have got at least 10 H one headings, and that's not really telling Google.

Then this page is about this particular thing that H one heading is one of the strongest signals that you can send to Google about the, about what you, what this page is about really.

So make a, make a nice logical structure of your page, and then whatever you are actually trying to show up for.

So those key words that you're trying to show up for on Google, ideally you want those to be in the first 250 words of the page and the last 250 words, and ideally about every 250 words you wanna be bringing it back to that topic or back to that main theme.

It doesn't mean that you have to repeat it like.

Verbatim, every time you have to repeat the same thing exactly.

You can use similes and related terms, but you're basically just bringing it back to that topic of what this is, this page, what this page is all about.

Behind the scenes with this you.

Then that's where you would also include that in your page title and your page description as well.

Structured Data and Schema Markup

You can also include structured data or schema markup, which is a little bit more technical, but it's something that.

Again, see some, see this missing on a lot of websites that can really help.

What it essentially is, when the internet first came about, the people that were in charge basically for a better way, way of saying it.

Of actually coding websites and trying to make it sort of a bit easier and a bit more structured and a bit more universal, came up with this system that.

It's basically code that you put on your site and it helps Google and the other, anything else that's set, that's going to re-ranking websites helps them to actually understand the context of your website.

So you can add things in there like that.

You are, you are a business.

Um, you've got a location that you've got, reviews what your business is about.

Those kind of things are in there.

But it helps just to make it much more easy for pe, for the bots to understand your website, essentially.

So it's really important.

It's something that you can do yourself.

A lot of website builders have this built in.

So I do this manually on websites when you get your head around it, it's

quite simple and actually adding it into your website is quite simple to do as well, really.

So with besides that, besides besides structured data, you can also add those keywords into your, at least one of your image alt texts.

So when you're adding images to these pages, make sure that they do actually make sense for the context of the page as well.

I often give the example of if you are, if it's a salon page and you are writing a section about facials then don't have a picture of somebody having a pedicure next to it.

'Cause it's an immediate disconnect.

You wouldn't then be able to put in that alt text hydrating facial located in wherever, town you're in or those kind of things, which then supports the SEO.

It's actually then just confusing everything, really.

Make sure that you set up Google Search Console.

So once you've actually, optimised your pages and made sure that you've got 'em set up, you're targeting those keywords, your, your actually talking about what you want this page to show up for in those important places on the page.

Make sure you've got Google Search Console set up.

This is something else that a lot of people don't do, so Google Search Console and Google Analytics are free tools from Google that can help you understand where people are coming from to actually arrive on your website.

That's more like Google Analytics, really.

So whether people have come through.

Social media through organic search, through paid ads, through uh, email marketing, those kind of things.

You can see that in Google Analytics and you can see how long they've actually spent on your website and what pages they've visited.

And then Google Search Console, I think is actually more important and more helpful when you are thinking about how to actually show up on Google.

Google Search Console tells you what people have actually typed into Google that has led them through to either your website being shown in the search results pages, even if it's being shown on page three or four or five.

As well as what has actually encouraged them to click through to your website.

It tells you the average position that your website is showing up for in Google as well for that particular search term, which I think is really helpful because it helps you to know where to focus first, and it shows you the things that Google is associated with your website, as I say.

And more importantly, I think it shows you what it's not associating.

So if you've got a really important search term that you know, your website should be showing up for your customers and potential customers should be able to find you on Google for this particular thing.

And if that's not showing up in Google Search console, that Google is associating that with your website, that's a really good, um, reminder that you need to focus on that.

Using Google Search Console

You need to work out which page of your website should be showing up for that or is the most appropriate to show up for that, and then make sure you've optimised that page for that particular search term.

What you can also do with Google Search Console is you can submit your site map in here.

So a site map is something that just helps Google to understand the pages of your website, helps it, and not just Google, as I say, any search engine to understand the structure and the pages of the, of your website.

And without that it's quite hard for Google to crawl through your website pages and understand, you know, that this page leads to that page and this is an important page of your website.

So it is a simple thing.

You can, you can go to your website builder and generate a site map.

It's normally really easy to do.

A lot of website builders do this automatically.

If not, if you don't know how to do this, you can Google it.

How do I generate a site map for.

FEA create, how do I generate a site map for Squarespace?

But whatever you, you know, your website builder is in, and then you can go into Google Search, consult, and actually submit your site map there.

And that really helps Google to understand your website better.

I do have a course that can help you with both of these tools.

So on my website, it's just a short course and it's all about how to set up and use both Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Really helpful, and it will just allow you to actually go through and get it set up.

Even if you're thinking, I don't wanna do anything with my website, or I'm not ready to tackle my analytics, or to think about Google Search Console.

If you set it up, then when you are ready, that data will have been gathering in the background.

And you know, the, the sooner you do this, the sooner that Google can understand your website, the sooner you can start actually getting some visibility with your website.

Something else you can do if you're a local business as well.

And I'm really passionate about this is set, making sure that your Google business profile is set up.

This can really help with local visibility, help with getting more traffic through to your website, but you do need to have a website obviously for that.

And I was talking to somebody yesterday who wants to show up on local maps, but she hasn't got a website.

And she was asking that question of, do I really need to have a website?

And the answer is, yes, you do.

I'm afraid you can't.

I mean, you can just have a Google business profile, but it's unlikely that Google is going to be showing you in one of those top positions for it.

If you don't actually have a website to link to that because it's a strong signal to Google that your business is legitimate, it's a proper business.

It's something, you know, where Google is gonna gonna trust to actually send people through to .

So definitely doing that, making sure that the pages and the.

Context and the content that you put on your website aligns with what you're putting on your Google business profile as well.

So that's another way you can really help to get some quick wins and some real visibility through your, through your website as well, So there's a lot more obviously that can be involved in SEO strategy, but I think by understanding and implementing.

Basics and thinking about the pages that are closest to the sale, first and foremost as well.

I think that's really important.

We can end up blogging, we can end up creating a ton of content for our website and then neglecting our sales pages, neglect, neglecting our homepage.

Even your about page can be a really strong page that helps Google understand about you and your business, and it could just start helping you to make progress.

Can start, go helping as I say, helping Google to know.

What you do, how you help people, and not just Google people as well.

These people that are, ultimately, it's the people that we want helping them to understand more about you.

And so many websites don't.

So, so many website owners, don't worry about this, don't think about this.

So many people kind of treat their, treat their website as a tick box that once they've done it, they don't ever then go back.

But it's so valuable.

It can make such a big difference to your business and it's content that you own.

And if that content is sitting there anyway, then even just taking a little bit of time just to think about it a bit more strategically, think about how this can support your business.

Small Strategic Changes Make a Big Difference

Think about how you can make sure the, the content that's already there is structured in the best way that you're gonna have the best chance to actually make the most of it really.

And you just need to be doing a little bit more than your competitors to, for this to have a real effect in your business.

So if you would like help with this, head to the website success hub.com, and you can book a website, potential discovery call, and we'll have a chat about where you are, where you're trying to get to, and if there's anything that I can do to help you with that.

And. I can help you to get there faster, then great.

We can have a chat about it.

So I hope this has been helpful and given you a few things to check this week.

Thanks for listening.

And don't forget, social media is optional.