What actually determines findability in Google

Every page has one clear title and description, one main heading, a readable address and a reference to itself so duplicate addresses do not compete. There is a sitemap so a search engine knows which pages exist, and a robots file that blocks nothing important.

The site loads fast, works on a phone and is readable without scripts having to run. That last part sounds technical, but it comes down to the text being in the page itself rather than appearing after something has loaded.

This part is the least exciting and the quickest to arrange. It is also the part a move or rebuild can break the most: addresses that change without redirects cost in one night what took years.

One page per topic, with the visitor's question as the starting point and an answer complete enough that they need not look elsewhere. Anyone wanting to be found for ten services needs ten good pages — not one services page with ten paragraphs.

Write in the customer's words, not the industry's. The terms professionals use among themselves are rarely the terms people search with. Subheadings that repeat the question the way people ask it help both the reader and the search engine.

Local is a separate track and for many businesses the most important one: business details identical everywhere, a page per town or service area with content genuinely about it, reviews you reply to, and opening hours that are correct.

What does not work: stuffing copy with keywords, buying links, a hundred near-identical location pages, and chasing rankings without checking whether anyone clicks and calls.

What does work: pages that genuinely answer the question, a site that is fast, and enough patience to measure before overhauling everything. That is dull, which is exactly why few people do it consistently.

So measure not only positions but what follows: how many people click, how many of them do something, and which pages draw traffic without ever producing anything.