How to Get Your Business Found Online in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Swarthmore is a tight-knit community of about 6,500 people, anchored by Swarthmore College and a charming downtown with local shops, restaurants, and services. For a small business owner here—whether you run a bakery on Dartmouth Avenue, a landscaping service, or a tutoring center—your customers are your neighbors. But here’s the problem: when someone in Swarthmore searches for “coffee shop near me” or “plumber Swarthmore,” your business often doesn’t show up.
Why? Most small businesses in Swarthmore rely on word-of-mouth and foot traffic, but they haven’t set up their online presence for how people actually find things today: Google. If your business isn’t on the first page of search results, you’re invisible to people who are ready to buy. And with so few businesses competing in a small town, the ones that do show up get all the attention.
Here are four things you can do yourself to fix that.
1. Claim and fill out your Google Business Profile. This is the single most important step. Go to Google Business Profile (it’s free), claim your business, and fill in every field: address, phone number, hours, website, and a short description. Add photos of your storefront, your products, or your team. Google wants to see that you’re real and active. If you skip this, you’re handing customers to your competitors.
2. Ask for reviews—and respond to them. Reviews are like online word-of-mouth. After a sale, send a simple text or email: “If you enjoyed our service, would you mind leaving a quick review on Google?” Don’t offer anything in return (that’s against the rules). And when you get a review, reply to it—even a simple “Thanks, Sarah!” shows Google you’re engaged.
3. Make your website work on phones. Most people in Swarthmore search on their phone while walking down the street. If your site takes more than three seconds to load or looks tiny on a mobile screen, they’ll leave. Use a tool like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check. If it fails, talk to your web developer or switch to a modern template.
4. Use local keywords on your website. Think about what your customers actually type into Google. If you’re a dentist in Swarthmore, don’t just say “gentle dentistry.” Say “gentle dentistry in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania” or “dentist near Swarthmore College.” Use those phrases in your page titles, headings, and text. It tells Google exactly where you are and what you do.
One more thing: backlinks. A backlink is simply a link from another website to yours. Think of it like a referral. When a trusted site—like the Swarthmorean newspaper or the Swarthmore Chamber of Commerce—links to you, Google sees that as a vote of confidence. The more quality links you have, the higher you can rank. Getting them takes time, but it’s worth it.
At BacklinkUSA.com, we help local businesses like yours get those referrals. We publish articles about your business on high-authority websites, so Google sees you as a trusted local resource. It’s a simple way to boost your rankings without needing a degree in SEO.