Why Your Business Isn’t Showing Up on Google (And How to Fix It)

If your business isn’t showing up on Google you’re losing customers.

In this episode of Chamber Amplified from the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, Doug Jenkins sits down with Steven Shultz of Marketing Caffeine to break down what small businesses need to know about getting found online in 2026.

They cover:

•  Why your business might not be appearing in search results 
•  The importance of claiming your Google Business Profile 
•  How AI is changing the way customers find businesses 
•  Common SEO mistakes that are costing you leads 
•  Simple steps you can take right now to improve your visibility 

Whether you're just getting started or you've had a website for years, this episode will help you understand what matters, and what to fix first.

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

Welcome And Marketing Focus

Doug Jenkins 0:05

Hello everyone and welcome back to Chamber Amplified, brought to you by the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host, Doug Jenkins. Each week on the podcast, we're talking about things that matter the most to local businesses and organizations, from workforce and leadership development to marketing, IT issues, just the everyday realities of running something that serves our community. Now, every time I open up this show, I start with that little spiel there, and I always say marketing, and then I looked at our episodes for 2026 so far and realized we haven't talked about marketing. So we're gonna fix that today. This one is all about people finding you on the internet. If people search, are they finding you? And you might say, Yeah, I searched my business name and it comes up the number one result. Well, yeah, you're searching your business name. What if someone searches for the service you offer or the industry that you're in? Then where are you showing up in the area? That's what really matters. We're going to talk about that today. I think a lot of business owners assume, well, I've got a website, I've got Facebook, I'm good. You gotta go a little bit further than that. And this conversation will challenge that just a little bit. Stephen Schultz from Marketing Caffeine will join us to talk about search engine optimization, Google listings, AI, that's a big one going forward, and some simple things that you might not be doing, but you might want to look into. And there are a couple of points in here that if you fix them, I think that they can really show immediate improvement in how people will find you. And of course, one or two things that you might be doing right now that are actually hurting you. Steven's gonna tell us all about that too. If you enjoy the podcast, don't forget to leave us a rating and review. You can do that on Spotify, you can do that on Apple Podcasts, there might be a few other places. That really does help get the word out to others. We're also on YouTube now, so if you want to see a video of the podcast, you can see the light glaring off my head. I suppose if that's your gem, you can do that too. It's over on YouTube. Just search for the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce or Chamber Amplified. Now, let's get into it. So let's start with the problem. If you are not coming up near the top of a search result for your business, or if someone searched for your particular industry or business type in Findlay, what could be amiss for that business?

Steven Shultz 2:17

Well, so one of the one of my favorite jokes I've heard, at least it's funny to an SEO guy is where's the best place to hide a dead body on the second page of Google. So um well one thing that's amiss on that is it's I just had this issue actually, is where your site might be hosted. Um, a lot of these web designers would agree with me is some of those bigger name ones might actually be kind of blocking your site popping up, or um they're triggering Google just automatically kind of has a uh scammy website filter and it'll stop the sh site from popping up. Um another real simple explanation is some people don't even claim their business on uh their Google business profile, which is like your Google Maps listing. So when you search restaurants near me and um you know you get 10 options that pop up, that's your Google Maps, your Google business profile. And uh I know when I first started, it was something like 50% of small businesses didn't have their Google Maps listing claimed. And honestly, that's a lot of times, especially with AI, that's like the first impression of your business on Google nowadays.

Hosting And Security Issues

Doug Jenkins 3:20

We're going to dig into all of that because you brought up three very interesting points. But I want to go back to the uh where your site is hosted. Um certainly there are the larger platforms that are out there, but are there any specific ones without getting yourself into trouble with uh with anybody? Uh, are there any specific ones to watch out for? Because I think a lot of times, you know, if you were just doing your website yourself, you're like, oh, this website gave me an I've I've seen their commercial, so I'm gonna put my website up there. Can that be an issue?

Steven Shultz 3:50

I I've started kind of saying if you've seen their commercial, don't use them. Uh GoDaddy is one you will see people consistently have problems with GoDaddy. It's get charged a lot, but your site's down or not secure, things like that. Just so if you're gonna avoid one, avoid GoDaddy. And there's a ton of them out there, and there's a ton of info of different people saying where their favorite is, but just boils down to at least don't go to GoDaddy.

Doug Jenkins 4:17

I am so upset to hear that Danica Patrick lied to me in those commercials all those years ago.

Steven Shultz 4:22

I know she seems so trustworthy.

Doug Jenkins 4:24

So uh and it's again, it's maybe not necessarily the service, but it's the security on the back end of that that you need to have taken care of. Uh it seems like maybe that's where the problem lies there.

Steven Shultz 4:37

Yeah, it can be it can be sending signals to Google when people click on your link that, hey, this isn't a good site, so don't go here. And it that image, it always has the bypass where I want to go, anyways. And so sometimes I go to those sites because I know where I'm trying to go. Right. Um, like I know the business, so I know their site itself isn't bad. But if I was a random person that was looking for a concrete company and that flashed up, then I would be like, well, I'm not risking that. Why would I go there? And it just consistently costs you costs you leads.

AI Reshapes Search Visibility

Doug Jenkins 5:07

Definitely something you want to look into. Uh, the other thing you mentioned is AI. And I want to get into that. And we we may go all over the place with this, uh, but I don't think a lot of people realize how much your search rankings are impacting AI answers regarding your business now.

Steven Shultz 5:26

Yeah, and it's hard to not go all over with this answer because AI itself is all over. So, and that and that's kind of a thing is AI is majorly affecting your search ranking, but they're also coming out with all these tools that are like, hey, here's an AI tool that helps with your search ranking. So it's really it's tough because the other side of that is yes, AI is making a lot of these things that typically weren't available to small businesses or were available to small businesses, but at an outrageous price, more affordable or sometimes even free. But AI is consistently changing as well. And so it's just it's easier, but also more difficult in other in other aspects.

Doug Jenkins 6:05

I definitely would be wary of any business that for free is going to offer to help with your search rankings or making sure you're optimized for AI. Because in that case, then you're the product, and I would be really, really worried about where that data is going.

Steven Shultz 6:20

Yeah. And and the thing is, is it it has helped. I I know several small business owners that when I first meet them is when they're first starting, and all of their money is dedicated to surviving or just now getting into their new building or something like that. And so they have those tools that allow them to, you know, have a nice designed website that AI built for them and things like that. But once you get past that point of needing to account for every penny that you've got, then it is a good idea to start looking at someone who can handle it.

Doug Jenkins 6:50

So maybe the jumping off point, but don't live there forever.

Claim Your Google Business Profile

Steven Shultz 6:55

Yeah, and and don't put all your eggs in that basket either.

Doug Jenkins 6:58

So you also mentioned not claiming your Google page or your Google listing, which is huge. We've done some workshops on that here at the chamber. Uh it's I think certainly when you first look at that, especially if you're just a startup or you're just getting started with your web presence, that can feel intimidating. But if you decide, well, I'll get back to it and you never get back to it, you're really, really leaving money on the table.

Listings Beyond Google That Matter

Steven Shultz 7:22

Yeah. And the one thing I tell people as well is never avoid at least taking the things that are free. A Google business profile is free to any small business that's out there. I could create 10 for businesses that don't exist yet if I wanted to, because it costs nothing to have it. So always go in. Sometimes they're already created. If your business has been around 10 years, they Google can kind of figure out that your business exists. So they at least have marketing caffeine sit in there, even though I've never put the address in there or anything like that. I wasn't even the one that set it up. And it can start kind of collecting some of that data. So if you if you search your business and it's out there, you can go in and claim that. I've done that for uh a couple people, is I just say I own this and it gives me access to it. Um, so that's another good reason to make sure you claim it before someone decides they want to take it. Right. Um, and then go through every single step that's in there, every single field that they have that's an option for you to fill out info. Fill out that info because that's way that it's not just Google listings that find you, but it's when people are searching for phone numbers, that AI overview and different search engines. Chat GPT is like, here's the phone number of a local bakery in Findlay and things like that. So fill out every single detail that you can, and then it provides way more points of contact and points of info for you to be found on online.

Doug Jenkins 8:40

Obviously, you want to do the Google one, and it's funny because we just said be wary of the free services and Google's gonna do this for you for free, but it's Google, you just kind of have to. Um, regardless of your feelings on that. Uh, but is it worth doing the same situation for Bing as well, or does Bing have an equivalent of it? Because again, it's another place where AI might be able to find you.

SEO Basics Organic Vs Paid

Steven Shultz 9:02

Yeah, and any anywhere you're listing can be set up. So that that's actually a big point of the SEO world. There's a couple hundred different places across the internet that your business can be listed. You know, the obvious one is Google and Google Maps, but then there's Apple Maps, is a big one. Oh, yeah. Um, there is Yelp is still big, believe it or not. That actually matters for a lot of businesses, but there's hundreds more of that. That most of them, I couldn't name them all off to you. I've got the whole list sitting there, but I couldn't name them. But the reason they're super important is they actually feed different things, even though you've no one's ever visited this site, that info feeds another site, and that actually kind of webs weaves this web that's super important to um to your search rankings. So anywhere you can set that up, absolutely do it. But the important ones um would be Google and Google Business Profile. Apple Maps is also really important nowadays as well.

Doug Jenkins 9:52

You mentioned search engine optimization or SEO, and that's uh a place I wanted to dive into a little bit here today as well. You've been working in SEO for a little while now, and uh let's just first set the table for I think most people are familiar with SEO, but if you're if you're not, let's just talk a little bit about what that is.

Steven Shultz 10:11

Yeah, so like if to give a basic definition of what it is, is there's something called organic traffic and paid traffic. Organic traffic is if I searched for Chamber of Commerce near me and the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce popped up and I clicked on the website and visited it, that is organic traffic because I didn't I didn't know what I was looking for. It organically popped up and I went in there. If I searched for Chamber of Commerce Findlay and the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce was running an ad and I clicked on it, that's your paid traffic, right? So that's the difference. So your search engine optimization is working on your website and your digital presence, reworking that so you are appearing at the top of those searches roads organically without having to run any ads, and people are clicking on that and visiting your site, getting that organic traffic.

What Modern SEO Rewards Now

Doug Jenkins 10:54

All right, so that's it in a nutshell. In your uh time in doing this, how much has it changed? Because it seems I can remember the early days of SEO, and I know probably a lot of the principles still apply, but at the same time, it feels like this whole field has shifted to not just SEO, but AI optimization and everything in between.

Steven Shultz 11:15

Yeah, and it's I mean, it's totally different from how it's changed. I think back to two years before I started making marketing caffeine and I was in college, and then when marketing caffeine started, it had changed in just that two years. But it's really when I first started, you used to be able to type a paragraph that said, I'm looking for a contract, uh, a concrete contractor near me. If this is your search, then I might be the concrete contractor near you that you're searching for when you search for a concrete contractor. Like you could just jam keywords in there, keyword stuffing is what they called it. And nowadays, if you if you had tried that, it would you could be the best concrete guy in Findlay, and your website will just plummet because now Google uses AI to review your sites. That's where those AI overviews come from. And what Google AI is looking for now is they're looking for answers to questions, they're looking for real content, they're not just looking for someone that says the exact search term a thousand times. And people aren't searching for concrete contractors near me anymore. They're searching for what should I expect to pay for concrete in Findlay, Ohio? Things like that. That's it. That's the easy change.

Doug Jenkins 12:21

It's interesting. Maybe I'm putting words in your mouth, I don't want to do that, but that almost seems like a change for the better because the the keyword stuffing, one, would be annoying to do on your end, but two, almost feels like a way to cheat the system is if you can find, hey, I've got the best cheesecake in Findlay, so if you want cheesecake in Findlay, you should come see me for the best cheesecake in Findlay because we like cheesecake here in Findlay. Yeah, it's that seems like gaming the system.

Steven Shultz 12:48

It it absolutely is it's a change for the better for sure. Um, because you you think back how it used to be is I could have one of my competitors could go on to their website, have a white background, and have a white box of text that just said marking caffeine a thousand times, no one would see that's there except you know, the algorithm would see it's there. And so that would pull it up. So, you know, that was kind of a scamy way to do things, but now how the shift has changed is it it values authority on a topic. Um, and so the biggest thing on that is, like I said, answering questions on your website, providing valuable information, and also you know, things like Google reviews and and people backlinking to your website, things like that. That proves your authority on a subject.

Doug Jenkins 13:28

Do things like header tags and and everything like that that uh you have to fill out still matter as much as they used to as well?

Steven Shultz 13:35

Yeah, absolutely. The header layout and the schema markup on your website is still extremely important because it's still how the computers read your website. You have no idea looking on my website which one's the H1 tag, which one's the H2, and things like that. And 99.9% of people don't use the alt text on images and things like that. But those pillars still stand true as important foundations of SEO.

Doug Jenkins 13:59

So there are fundamentals that that people should still be following. Now, if those terms that we just used made your head spin, that's probably where you want somebody to be looking after that for you for SEO. Uh, I can't imagine if you're doing a business that isn't focused on this, that you want to be spending a whole lot of time in your website dealing and learning what uh the schema is and what header tags are and what you need to put in there. That is why there is an industry for SEO. Uh, and that's when people need to talk to someone like you, Stephen.

Steven Shultz 14:31

Yeah, it it's funny you say that. When we first, so it me and uh Eric Leskowitz, who I I think you've met before as well, um, when we first started marketing caffeine together a couple years ago, originally was we're gonna do mark digital marketing education. So I'm gonna go into a business, I'm gonna teach them how to run their Google ads, how to optimize their website and things like that. And we when we were kind of getting things set, figuring out what exactly we should do, we talked to several business owners, then they're like, I don't want to learn it. I want someone else to handle it for me. So we're like, all right, we're never mind then.

Quick Wins Mobile And Analytics

Doug Jenkins 15:01

So it's it's one thing to I I get it. I don't like I I'm interested in all this and I don't want to learn all of that. Uh so I imagine running a business, you don't want to learn all that. It's good to have someone running it for you. But if you're just getting set up, what are maybe you don't need to worry about the the headers and all of that type of stuff because that's getting into the back end of your website and getting lost in the weeds. But I I imagine it goes back to the beginning of our conversation. It's taking care of those fundamentals, your Google page, making sure that you have that taken care of, making sure you're hosted on the right site, uh, and making sure that you're kind of ready for AI to crawl over your website and find what it wants.

Steven Shultz 15:38

Yeah, just take care of the basics, like the few the things you mentioned, all that we've talked about this whole time, Google Business Profile, things like that. Get your Google Analytics set up. That's free as well. And that's also provides extremely important info. Um, and then when you're building, if you're building your own site, a lot of small business owners first when they first start, they build their site. My advice is always build it with mobile in mind as well, because there's a 99% chance that your most of any business's traffic is going to be on a mobile version from a huge giant business all the way to the smallest business. Most of their traffic typically comes from mobile, mobile users. And there's outliers to that, but that's typically so as you're sitting there fiddling around on Squarespace or Wix or whatever you decided to build your website on. Um, as a someone who doesn't have the web design skills, those are good platforms to start on. I would we usually move them away from that. But anyways, build it with mobile first and make it easier for people scrolling on your site.

Doug Jenkins 16:35

What would you say to people who are like, I don't need my own website? I I've got my Facebook page, I update it once a month, and usually it's a picture of something that's not relevant to what they do. Uh, because I run into a surprising amount of that uh and it always makes me worry for that business. But what would you tell them?

Steven Shultz 16:54

Yeah, it's the first thing is you want somewhere to send people that you can display all of your information all at once. If you tried talking, if I try talking about everything my company does on a couple social media posts all the time, then that's gonna be super painful. That post is gonna be ugly and no one's gonna want to look at it. So your website at least gives you a place to house your information so people can get their questions answered as well, and then also provides a landing spot for your potential leads to be going to and putting their information on a contact form or a call button. Social media is is fantastic, but what social media needs to be is it needs to be um kind of the shovel that scoops you up and then tosses you into into the website, is what it needs to do for you.

Doug Jenkins 17:40

You ultimately want people going there. And I I think one thing people think about is cost uh when it comes to hosting a website. And that's actually pretty affordable, I think, for most businesses. And I would just cost it up to that's just the cost of being in business these days. You have to have a website, but you can do it pretty cheap.

Steven Shultz 18:00

Yeah, it also builds a little bit of credibility, yeah, I think, as well, to have your website. Have a simple, clean website is better than having no website from a credibility standpoint. Because if you're like, I want to hire this guy, he only has a only has a Facebook and posts every couple weeks. That's it, that's just nowadays that feels weird, that feels sketchy to m most people. Even it's not even a generation thing anymore. It's most people would be like, that's weird that you're nowhere on the internet. That's and anyone I've interacted with, or most people, I won't say anyone, but a lot of people I've interacted with that just have a Facebook and post every once in a while, their services kind of match that, you know.

Doug Jenkins 18:36

It's yeah, you you're going to you want to look like a well-oiled machine, and you know, you might be an operation of one, but you want to look like you have an army of 20 people behind you, and then you have this. Look at our marketing department and this website they put together. Yeah, it was just you. You put it up together, you worked with one other person to put it together, but you need to feel bigger than you are a lot of times.

Getting Help With An SEO Audit

Steven Shultz 18:57

Yeah, yep. It's absolutely just it's sometimes it is just an image thing.

Doug Jenkins 19:02

So, Steven, if uh if somebody wants to look over their web presence, uh maybe they want to have a conversation with you, what's the best way to get started on that?

Steven Shultz 19:11

Yeah, so absolutely visit my website, marketingcaffeine.com, or you can email me at Steven at MarketingCaffeine.com. Um, a couple things we typically do for um someone that we're just meeting for the first time is they can have an SEO audit of their site where we run it through and it actually shows them how their SEO is doing. Um, or if they just have some questions, I'm always happy to sit there and email back and forth, or they can call us from our website as well. That'd be awesome.

Doug Jenkins 19:37

100% worth the conversation. Uh, get that audit done because I think I think just I don't know, rip that band-aid off and get your web presence up to speed. It's not going to get any less important. We're now, I always try and explain to it now, Steve. People, we are about 20 years into the internet as we currently know it. We've had the internet since I was 16. Actually, before that, but I got the internet when I was 16. I'm gonna be 46 in a couple of weeks. So we're talking about 30 years of having the internet. It's it's not going away. You gotta be there.

Steven Shultz 20:10

Yeah, there's no use in denying it anymore. It's it honestly, you probably should have stopped denying it about 15 years ago.

Doug Jenkins 20:16

Yeah, yeah, but now it's definitely time to stop. So, Stephen, thanks so much for taking part in this today.

Nonnegotiable Takeaways And Closing

Steven Shultz 20:21

Yeah, I thank you for having me, Doug. I appreciate it.

Doug Jenkins 20:24

So I think the biggest takeaway from today is that this isn't optional. You really have to take care of this. You've needed to take care of it for years. It's not going anywhere. If you don't have your web presence really dialed in, it can really be costing you. It's your first impression, it's been your first impression for a while. But with AI pulling answers instantly, now you need to be even more dialed in. And I understand if there's an apprehension about it, but it's something that you really just have to take that leap and get done. So if you don't take away anything else from this episode, make sure that you're claiming your Google Business profile. Make sure you figure out everything or fill out everything that's on that profile, like Steven said to do, and make sure your site is clean and mobile friendly. You do those three things, you're probably headed in the right direction. Uh, but don't just rely on social media. Your website matters a ton, especially in those search rankings. If people search for an industry in that area, and all you have is a Facebook page, you are not going to be the top result. You might not even be on that first page of results, and then you pretty much might as well not be listed anyway. So if your entire strategy is we're gonna post on Facebook once in a while, you gotta you gotta up your game. Sorry, that's what you gotta do. Uh, if you don't want to learn all this the hard way, or you just don't feel like tackling it all yourself, I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to either. Don't ignore it. That's where companies like Steven and Marketing Caffeine come in. Talk to someone you trust on this issue and uh and get that taken care of. At the very least, getting on it just to see where you stand, and then maybe you'll know where to move forward. It's not getting any less important, it's only going to get more important. As we go on. And by the way, thinking about having the internet for 30 years, which is well over half my life at this point, that's a little crazy too. But that's really an aside that's apropos of nothing. Well, that'll do it for another edition of Chamber Amplified. This is a free podcast available to the community, made possible by the investment of our members right here at the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. If you're looking at ways to get your business involved in the community, a lot of times the chamber is the best place to get started. And if you'd like to learn more, you can send me an email, D Jenkins at Findlay Hancock Chamber.com, and we can talk about how an investment in the chamber not only helps your business, but the community as a whole. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.