How to Get Your Business Found Online in Essex, Vermont
Essex, Vermont, is home to about 22,000 people and a mix of small shops, restaurants, contractors, and service businesses. You’ve got the Essex Outlets drawing visitors, a growing tech scene near the IBM campus, and a strong local community that prefers to spend money close to home. But here’s the problem: when someone in Essex searches for “pizza near me” or “plumber Essex VT,” most small businesses never show up on the first page of Google.
Why? Because Google ranks businesses based on signals it can trust. If your website is slow, your Google listing is incomplete, or nobody links to your site, Google assumes you’re not worth showing. And for most small business owners in Essex, that’s exactly what’s happening. You’re too busy running your business to worry about Google. But the result is that your customers are finding your competitors instead.
Here are four things you can do yourself to fix that.
1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
This is free and it’s the single most important thing you can do. Go to google.com/business and claim your listing. Fill in your address, phone number, hours, and services. Add photos of your storefront, your team, and your work. If you’re a contractor, include the towns you serve. Google uses this to decide if your business matches what someone is searching for.
2. Ask for reviews — and respond to them
Reviews are like votes of confidence. When you have 20 reviews and your competitor has 2, Google notices. Ask every happy customer to leave a review. Don’t offer anything in return — that’s against Google’s rules. Just ask. And when you get a review, reply. Thank them. If it’s negative, apologize and offer to make it right. This shows Google you’re active and trustworthy.
3. Make your website work on a phone
More than half of local searches happen on a phone. If your site is hard to read or slow to load, people leave. Google tracks this. Use a tool like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check. If your site fails, ask your web developer to fix it or switch to a modern template.
4. Use local keywords in your website text
When you write about your services, mention Essex and nearby towns. For example, instead of “We fix roofs,” write “We fix roofs in Essex, Jericho, and Williston.” This helps Google connect your business to local searches.
What about backlinks? Why do they matter?
Backlinks are simply links from other websites to yours. Think of them like referrals. If the Essex Reporter links to your business, Google sees that as a sign you’re worth knowing. The more quality referrals you get, the higher you rank. But getting those links is hard — you can’t just ask anyone.
That’s where BacklinkUSA.com comes in. We publish articles about local businesses on high-authority websites, creating those valuable backlinks for you. It’s a simple way to give Google the trust signal it needs to put your business in front of more customers.