“We’re number one on Google.”
New clients tell us this a lot, and it’s usually true. Type their business name into Google and there it is, top of the page.
The trouble is who’s doing that search. Someone who types your business name already knows you: an existing customer, a referral, someone who drove past your sign. Ranking for your own name is a bit like being able to find your own house. Handy, but it doesn’t bring anyone new to the door.
New customers search for what you do, not who you are. “Dentist in Somerset West.” “Family lawyer Johannesburg.” “Day tours from Cape Town.” Those are the searches that grow a business, and plenty of sites that are “number one on Google” don’t appear for any of them.
Check it in five minutes
Open a private browser window so your own history doesn’t skew the results. Search for five things a new customer might type, including your area. Note where you appear, if at all. Very few people click through to page two.
If you have Google Search Console set up, go to Performance and look at the searches that brought clicks. If nearly every one includes your business name, you have a visibility problem, however good your name ranking looks.
Why it happens
It’s rarely one thing. These are the causes we come across most often.
The website doesn’t say what you do. Brochure-style lines like “Excellence in care since 1998” read well, but Google needs to know that you’re a physiotherapy practice in Bellville that treats sports injuries. If those words aren’t on the page, you won’t rank for them.
Everything is on one page. A single “Services” page has to compete for dozens of different searches and usually loses all of them. A page per main service gives Google, and the customer, an obvious match.
Location is missing. For a local business, your suburb, town and the areas you serve need to appear naturally on the site and on your Google Business Profile.
Competitors have done more. SEO is relative. If three competitors have detailed service pages, lots of reviews and useful articles, and your site was built in 2019 and left alone, they’ll outrank you. Google doesn’t dislike you. They’ve just given it more reasons to trust them.
The site is slow or awkward on a phone. Most South Africans browse on mobile, often on data, so speed matters more here than in many markets.
You’re using your words, not theirs. A practice might describe its work as “musculoskeletal rehabilitation” while patients search “back pain physio”. Keyword research is how you close that gap.
Fixing it
Start with the money. List the three to five services that bring in the most revenue, and the searches people use to find them. Those are your priorities, not a long list of every service you offer.
Give each one a proper page: what the service is, who it’s for, where you offer it, roughly what it costs or how it’s priced, and the questions people usually ask. The aim is for it to be the most useful page on that topic for your area.
Then get your Google Business Profile complete and current, because for local searches it often shows up before any website. Build reviews steadily by asking for them as part of how you finish a job. And make sure the site loads quickly on a phone.
Content comes next: articles that answer what customers genuinely ask before they buy. They widen the range of searches you can appear for and show you know your field.
How long it takes
Expect months, not weeks, for competitive searches. Less competitive local terms can move faster. Unlike ads, though, the work keeps paying off after you’ve done it. Be wary of anyone promising page one in a fortnight. They’re either targeting searches nobody makes, or taking shortcuts that can get your site penalised.
If you’d like a clear picture of where you stand, our free keyword ranking scan checks up to 10 searches that matter to your business, by hand, and shows you who’s ranking ahead of you.
