Getting found: Google, WhatsApp and your own page
Set up the three places local customers find a business, in one afternoon.
6 min read
Most customers of a local business find it in one of three places: by searching on their phone, by being sent a link on WhatsApp, or by walking past. You control how you show up in the first two, and none of it costs money — only an afternoon.
1. Google Business Profile
When someone searches "tailor near me" or your shop's name, Google shows a box with a map pin, opening hours, phone number, photos and reviews. That box is your Business Profile, and you can create and manage it for free.
What makes one work:
- The right category. The main category decides which searches you appear in. Pick the most specific one that fits.
- Exact address and hours. A customer who arrives to a closed shutter does not come back. Update hours for festivals and holidays.
- Real photos. The shop front so people can find it, the inside, and your best work. Add new ones now and then.
- Reviews, and replies to them. Ask happy customers for a review — most will if you ask in person and send them the link. Reply to every review, especially the bad ones, calmly. Others read the reply more than the complaint.
2. WhatsApp Business
The free WhatsApp Business app gives you a business profile with your address, hours and a description, a catalogue of what you sell with prices and photos, and quick replies for the questions you answer twenty times a day.
- Put your WhatsApp number everywhere: the board, the bill, the bag, your Business Profile.
- Use the catalogue so a customer can see what you offer without asking.
- Use labels to keep track of new enquiries, orders and payments due.
- Send updates to customers who have saved your number — but sparingly. A message a week is useful; a message a day gets you blocked.
Ask every new customer to save your number. A saved number is how your updates and your status are seen at all.
3. A page of your own
A single page with what you do, where you are, your hours, what you offer and a button to message you on WhatsApp gives you a link to share — in a status, a bio, a printed card, or a reply to "do you have a website?"
It does not need to be elaborate. It needs to be accurate, and it needs a way to contact you in one tap.
Keep the three the same
Your name, address, phone number and hours should match exactly everywhere. A different phone number on your board and your Google profile looks careless, and confuses search engines about whether they are the same business.
Do not buy reviews or post fake ones. Platforms remove them, can penalise your listing, and customers have learnt to spot them.
A one-afternoon checklist
- Claim or create your Google Business Profile; add category, hours, photos.
- Install WhatsApp Business; fill in the profile and add five products to the catalogue.
- Make your own page with your offerings and a WhatsApp button.
- Put the same name, address, number and hours on all three.
- Ask your five best customers for a review this week.
The tool below makes that page for your business — a public link with your offerings and a WhatsApp button, that you can share once it is published.