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My learningBuild Your Dream Website in 2 DaysChapter 7

Chapter 7 of 8

Get found

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Congratulations! You built your own website. Take a moment to let that sink in: not long ago, this was the project that kept sliding down your to-do list. Now it is live, on your own domain, and you planned, designed, wrote and launched it yourself. (If you feel slightly unstoppable right now, that is entirely justified.)

One thing is left before it starts working for you: people need to find it. A new website doesn’t appear on Google by itself, at least not quickly. In this chapter, you tell Google and Bing that your website exists, put your business on Google Maps, and, if you like, set up a simple way to see how many people visit and get in touch.

What you’ll have at the end

Your business on Google Search and Google Maps, so the people looking for what you offer can find you.

What you’ll do in this chapter

Getting found takes three steps. The first matters for every business. The second is for businesses that meet customers in person, and the third is optional for everyone.

  1. 7.1Get on Google and BingAbout 45 minutes, plus a few days of waitingYou choose how each page shows up in search results, and tell Google and Bing about your website, so it appears in days instead of weeks.
  2. 7.2Your Google Business Profile optionalAbout 30 minutes, plus a few days for verificationThe box with your map, opening hours and reviews that appears when people search for you or for what you do nearby. For a local business, it often brings in more customers than the website itself.
  3. 7.3Visitor statistics optionalAbout 15 minutesA simple way to see how many people visit, where they come from and how many get in touch.

What you need

  • Your address, phone number, opening hours and services with prices
  • Five to ten good photos: outside, inside, your work and your team
  • A few days of waiting while Google verifies your business

7.1Get on Google and Bing

About 45 minutes, plus a few days of waiting

What this is for

Google finds new websites by following links from other websites, which can take weeks for a website nobody links to yet. You can speed that up by telling Google directly, with a free tool called Google Search Console. Bing, which also supplies the results for several other search tools, has the same.

Before you do, you decide how your pages show up. In a search result, Google shows four things from your website: your icon and name, the address, the page title and a short description. The icon is the favicon from 6.2. Together they decide whether someone clicks on you or on the business below you.

A Google search result for peakxapp.com, labeled: the icon and name at the top, the address below it, the page title PeakX | Your Skydiving Community as a blue link, and a two-line description.
A search result, and where each part comes from. You choose the title and the description in step 3.

The words you use matter too. People search with their own words, not yours: a salon may call it “color correction”, while its customers search for “fix bad hair dye”. Using their words in your titles and descriptions helps the right people find you.

By the end of this section, you know which searches you want to be found for, every page has a title and description you chose, Google and Bing know your website, and Google can show your business details, such as your opening hours.

Know-how

How search results work

Google works in three stages:

  1. Finding. Google’s programs visit websites and follow every link they find. That is how Google discovers new pages, and why telling it about your website speeds things up.
  2. Storing. Google reads each page and stores what it is about in its index, a huge catalogue of the web. A page that isn’t in the index can’t appear in results.
  3. Ranking. When someone searches, Google picks the pages from its index that best answer the search, and puts them in order.

For a small business, a few things decide where you end up in that order:

  • Relevance: whether your pages use the words people search for. Someone searching “balayage Dubai Marina” finds the salon whose page says it does balayage in Dubai Marina, not the one that only says “hair services”.
  • Location: for local searches, how close you are to the person searching, and how complete your Google Business Profile is (7.2).
  • Trust: reviews, other websites that link to yours, and the same name, address and phone number everywhere.
  • Experience: a website that loads fast, works on phones and is secure, which yours already does.

Two things are worth knowing. Results marked Sponsored are ads: you can pay for those, but not for a higher place among the normal results. And a new website takes time: expect weeks, sometimes months, before you show up for searches other than your own business name.

Step by step

  1. Note how your customers describe what they want. Think of the words customers use in their messages, emails and questions, including the questions you gathered in 4.1. Write down a few phrases, such as “fix bad hair dye” or “blonde highlights near me”.
  2. Get your website ready for search. Send prompt P22 to Claude Code, with your customers’ phrases filled in. Claude Code searches the web for you: what people look for around your services and your area, the questions they ask, and how the businesses that rank well describe themselves.

    Copy-paste prompt P22

    Get my website ready for search

    What this prompt does: Claude Code researches what people search for, proposes a title and description for every page using those words, checks your image descriptions, adds the files search engines read, and adds your business details in a form Google understands.

    Get my website ready for Google and Bing. The words my customers use when they ask about my services: [A FEW PHRASES YOUR CUSTOMERS USE, FOR EXAMPLE: FIX BAD HAIR DYE, BLONDE HIGHLIGHTS NEAR ME].
1. Search the web for what people look for around my services and my area: the searches Google suggests, the questions people ask, and how the businesses that rank well describe themselves. Combine this with my customers' words into five to ten search phrases I should be found for. Show them to me, with one line on why each one matters, before you use them.
2. For every page, propose a title of at most 60 characters and a description of at most 155 characters. Use the search phrases where they fit naturally. The title says what the page offers, with my business name and, if I serve a local area, the place. The description gives a reason to click. Show them to me as a table before you change anything.
3. Check that every image has a description, its alt text, that says specifically what it shows, such as "Colorist applying balayage to a client's hair" rather than "woman in a salon". Use a search phrase only where it truly describes the image. Improve any that are vague, and show me the list.
4. Suggest where the text on my pages could use the search phrases more naturally, but don't change my text without asking. Never repeat a phrase so often that the page reads badly.
5. Make sure the website has a sitemap, the list of all pages that search engines read, and a robots.txt file that lets search engines in.
6. Add my business details as structured data, the hidden labels that let Google show my opening hours, address, phone number and reviews in search results. Use the details from my website, and never add anything that isn't on it.
7. When I have approved the titles, descriptions and image descriptions, publish a preview. Then tell me the address of my sitemap.
  3. Choose your search phrases, titles and descriptions. First check the search phrases: are these the people you want to reach? Remove any that don’t fit your business. Then read the table of titles and descriptions. Would you click on each one? Change any that don’t sound like you or don’t give a reason to click. Check the image descriptions too: each one should tell someone who can’t see the image what it shows. Accept the suggestions for your page text only where they still read well: write for people first, and Google second. When you are happy, check the preview, then ask Claude Code to publish the live version.
  4. Add your website to Google Search Console. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your business email address. Choose Domain, enter your domain without “www”, and click Continue. Google shows a TXT record to prove you own the domain.
  5. Add the record and verify. In your Squarespace DNS settings, add a record as in 6.1: type TXT, name @, and the value from Google as the data. Back in Search Console, click Verify. If it doesn’t work yet, wait an hour and try again.
  6. Submit your sitemap. In Search Console, click Sitemaps in the menu, enter the sitemap address Claude Code gave you, and click Submit.
  7. Ask Google to visit your homepage. Paste your homepage address into the search bar at the top of Search Console, and click Request indexing.
  8. Add your website to Bing. Go to bing.com/webmasters, sign in, and choose to import your website from Google Search Console. Allow access, select your website and click Import. Bing copies everything, including your sitemap.
  9. Check after a few days. Search Google for site: followed by your domain, such as site:studioluna.com. If your pages show up, Google has found them. If nothing appears after two weeks, open Pages in Search Console: it says why a page isn’t on Google yet.

7.2Your Google Business Profile (optional)

About 30 minutes, plus a few days for verification

What this is for

When someone searches for your business name, or for something like “hair salon near me”, Google shows a box with a map, your opening hours, photos, reviews and buttons to call or get directions. That is your Google Business Profile. It is free, and for a local business it is often the first thing customers see, before they ever reach your website.

Google only allows a profile if you meet customers in person: at your premises, or at theirs. Working from home is fine if customers visit you or you visit them. If your business is entirely online, such as an app or online coaching, you can’t have one: skip this section. Your website and profiles on platforms such as Instagram or LinkedIn do that job instead.

By the end of this section, you have a verified profile linked to your website, and the same details on Apple Maps and Bing.

Step by step

  1. Create or claim your profile. Go to business.google.com and sign in with your business email address. Search for your business name. If it already appears, for example because a customer added it, claim it. If not, add it.
  2. Choose your main category carefully. It is the most important choice on your profile, because Google uses it to decide which searches you appear in. Pick the most specific one that fits, such as “Hair salon” rather than “Beauty”. You can add more categories later.
  3. Choose a location or service area. If customers come to you, add your address. If you go to your customers, choose the areas you serve and hide your address.
  4. Add your contact details and website. Use exactly the same business name, address and phone number as on your website. Google trusts businesses whose details match everywhere.
  5. Verify your business. Google chooses how. Often it asks for a short video: record it in one take, showing your sign or premises, your work or tools, and something that shows you run the business. Verification can take a few days.
  6. Complete your profile. Add your opening hours, services with prices, a short description (you can reuse the text from your homepage) and your photos.
  7. Add a review link to your website. In your profile, find the option to ask for reviews and copy the link. Ask Claude Code to add a “Review us on Google” link with it, for example in the footer, and send the link to your happiest customers.
  8. Copy your details to Apple and Bing. iPhone users find businesses through Apple Maps. Add your business at businessconnect.apple.com, with the same details. Then go to bingplaces.com, which can import your Google profile.

7.3Visitor statistics (optional)

About 15 minutes

What this is for

After a few months, you will want to know what works: how many people visit, where they come from, and how many get in touch. The simplest way costs nothing: ask every new customer how they found you.

You also already have a free source of numbers from 7.1. Once Google has stored your pages, the Performance report in Search Console shows which searches you appeared for, how often people saw you and clicked, and which pages they found. It only covers Google searches, though. It doesn’t show visitors who come through Instagram, WhatsApp or Google Maps, or how many visitors send a message or book. That is what a statistics tool adds.

ToolCostCookie banner needed?Good to know
Google Search ConsoleFree, and you set it up in 7.1No: nothing is added to your websiteOnly Google searches: what people searched, how often you appeared, and clicks
PlausibleFrom about $9 a monthNo: it uses no cookiesA simple, clear overview, and easy to track messages and bookings
Cloudflare Web AnalyticsFreeNo: it uses no cookiesVisits and where they come from, but no tracking of messages or bookings
Google AnalyticsFreeYes, for visitors from the EU and UK (see 6.3)Very detailed, but complex. Mainly worth it if you advertise on Google.

For many small businesses, Search Console and asking customers is enough. If you also want to know how many visitors get in touch, Plausible is the best balance: it counts messages and bookings without a cookie banner. If basic visitor numbers are enough, Cloudflare is a good free choice.

By the end of this section, you know where to see how people find you, and, if you add a statistics tool, how many get in touch.

Step by step

  1. Ask how people found you. Ask every new customer, in person or in your booking confirmation. If you like, ask Claude Code to add an optional question to your forms, such as “How did you find us?”, with a few choices: Google, Google Maps, Instagram, a friend, other.
  2. Look at your Search Console Performance report. In Search Console, click Performance. After a few weeks, it fills up. Look for searches you appear for but that rarely get clicked: a better title or description, as in 7.1, often changes that. If this is all you need, you can stop here.
  3. If you want more, create your statistics account. Sign up with the tool you chose, add your website, and copy the code or site ID it gives you.
  4. Ask Claude Code to add it. Send prompt P23 with your details filled in.

    Copy-paste prompt P23

    Add visitor statistics

    What this prompt does: Claude Code adds your statistics tool to every page, counts every message, booking and tap on your contact buttons, and keeps your privacy policy up to date.

    Add [THE TOOL YOU CHOSE] to every page of my website, using
this code or site ID: [PASTE IT HERE].

1. If the tool can track goals, count these: every form that
is sent, and every click on a Book, WhatsApp or call button.
Name each goal so I can recognize it.
2. Don't add anything that sets cookies, unless the tool
needs them and I have a cookie banner.
3. Update privacy-overview.md and my privacy policy to
include the tool.
4. Publish a preview, and tell me how to check that it
works.
  5. Check that it counts. Open the preview on your phone, click around and send a test message. Your visit should appear in the tool’s dashboard within a few minutes. Then ask Claude Code to publish the live version.
  6. Look once a month, not every day. Numbers from a single week say little. Once a month is enough to see what is working.

Your website can now be found: on Google, on Bing, and on the map. Google takes a little while to show it everywhere, so give it a few weeks before you judge the results.

In chapter 8, the last one, you look at what comes next.

See you on Google!

Sources, checked October 2026. Google Search Console: Search Console Help. Importing into Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing Webmaster Blog. Google Business Profile: Business Profile Help. Apple Business Connect: Apple. Bing Places: Microsoft. Plausible plans: plausible.io. Cloudflare Web Analytics: Cloudflare.

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