Nobody just arrives
A website is not a shop on a busy road. Nothing walks past it. Every single visitor arrives through one of a small number of routes, and once you can name those routes you can stop guessing about where attention should go.
The five routes
- Google search. Someone types a need, not your name. “Paediatrician near Kalyan Nagar”, “GST return filing consultant Surat”, “bridal makeup Kochi price”. Google shows pages that appear to answer that need.
- Google Maps and the local pack. The box of three businesses with stars and distances that appears above the normal results on a phone. This is fed by your Google Business Profile, not by your website, though the two support each other.
- Direct. Someone already knows you. They type the address, tap it in your WhatsApp signature, or scan the QR sticker at your counter.
- Referral. A link forwarded in a WhatsApp group, a listing on a directory such as Practo or JustDial, a partner site, a press mention.
- Social. The link in your Instagram bio, a Facebook page button, a YouTube description.
Notice that four of the five end at your website. Your profiles are doorways. Your site is the room people walk into, and it is the only doorway you fully control.
What search engines need from a page
Search engines are matching a typed phrase against pages. To be matchable, a page needs to plainly contain the thing being searched for, in the words a customer would use.
- One clear subject per page. A page about root canal treatment, and a separate page about braces, will each be matchable. A single “Our Treatments” page listing fourteen items in one line each is matchable for none of them.
- The place name, written naturally. Indian searches are overwhelmingly local. Your city and locality should appear in your text because they are true, not stuffed in twenty times.
- A title tag and a meta description. The title is the blue clickable line in search results, the description is the grey text under it. Your site includes SEO fields for both on every page. Left blank, search engines invent something from your text, which is usually worse than what you would write.
- Speed and mobile layout. Most of your traffic is a phone on 4G. A page that takes eight seconds is abandoned before it is judged.
Writing a title and description that earn the tap
Open any page in the dashboard, scroll below the content, and you will find the SEO section. Two fields matter.
| Field | Length | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| SEO title | Around 55 to 60 characters | The service, then the locality, then the business name |
| Meta description | Around 150 to 160 characters | One plain sentence on what the page covers and what to do next |
A worked example for a physiotherapy clinic in Pune. Title: Sports Injury Physiotherapy in Baner, Pune - Aarambh Physio. Description: Assessment and rehabilitation for sports injuries at our Baner clinic. Book a slot online or call the front desk between 9 am and 7 pm. That description makes no promise about outcomes. It describes what exists and what happens next, which is honest and gives the reader something concrete to act on.
Consistency is the whole game locally
Your business name, address and phone number must be written identically everywhere they appear: your website footer, your Google Business Profile, your directory listings, your invoices. Not “Shop 4” in one place and “Unit 04” in another. Search engines use these three details to decide whether two listings are the same business, and inconsistency splits your identity in two.
Knowing which door people used
Guessing is expensive. Two free tools tell you the truth. Google Search Console shows the actual phrases people typed before your page appeared, which is often startling and always more useful than your assumptions. Google Analytics shows how many people arrived, from which route, on which pages, and whether they came from a phone.
There is also the offline version, which costs nothing: ask. When an enquiry comes in, ask how they found you, and write the answer in a notebook for a month. Thirty answers will tell you more about your business than any dashboard.
This week
- Search your own main service plus your locality on a phone, in an incognito window, and see what actually appears
- Fill in the SEO title and description on your home page and your two most important service pages
- Write your name, address and phone in one note and make every listing match it exactly
Discussion