Trust and contact details: what customers look for

Make it easy to get in touch

• Phone number at the top of every page, large enough to read on a phone. For most local businesses, the phone call is the sale.
• Tap to call. On a phone, visitors should be able to tap your number to ring you. Your editor can turn the number into a "tel:" link.
• Where you are, or where you work. Show your address, or if you work from home or travel to customers, the towns and areas you cover. Put it in the footer of every page.
• Opening hours in plain text, matching the hours on your Google Business Profile. Say if you take calls at weekends or out of hours.

Give people a reason to trust you

Customers choosing someone they have never met look for proof. State plainly, near the top of your home page, anything that applies to you:

• Insurance, and any licensing or registration your trade requires, with numbers where you have them.
• How long you have been trading, or that you are family run.
• Trade associations, schemes and memberships you belong to.
• Guarantees or warranties you offer.
• Real reviews and real photos of your own work and team.

Only include what is true and current. AI assistants often mention these details when they recommend someone, so they work for you in more than one place.

Your report may say your page "mentions" some of these things. We look for common words such as "insured" or the names of well-known trade bodies. If we have missed something that is clearly on your page, it may be written in a way our check did not pick up, so make it easy to spot.

The same details everywhere

Your business name, address and phone number should be written exactly the same on your website, your Google Business Profile and every directory you are listed in. When they differ, for example an old phone number on one directory, Google and AI assistants become less sure they are all the same business, and may show the wrong details or skip you.

Name, address and phone number, written the same way everywhere. The details here are made up.

If your report says your hidden business details give a different phone number or address, it means the structured data on your page (see copy and paste) does not match what the page shows. Update it so the two agree.

Your Google Business Profile

The free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in local results. Claim it if you have not already, and keep it complete: the right category, services, areas, hours, photos and a link to your website. Check it every few months, because Google sometimes adds details by itself, and they are not always right.

Reviews

Ask every customer for a review, not just the happy ones, and make it easy with a direct link. Never offer anything in return, never write reviews yourself, and never pressure people while you are still with them. Reply politely to every review, good or bad. Steady, honest reviews help with customers, Google and AI assistants alike.

Want to see how this part of a report reads? Look at the example report, or see how AI assistants choose who to name.