Starting a business in Richmond upon Thames gives you access to one of London’s most attractive and commercially active areas – but it also means plenty of competition.
Whether you’re opening a shop, launching a professional service, starting a trades business or working independently, one of your first challenges will be making sure local customers can actually find you.
These days, that means getting your online presence right from the beginning.
From your website and Google Business Profile to local SEO and customer reviews, here’s our online checklist for giving a new Richmond business the best possible start.
1. Secure Your Domain Name
Ideally, your domain name should be secured before you start promoting the business.
For most UK businesses, a .co.uk domain remains a great choice, although .com can work equally well depending on the business and your longer-term plans.
Try to keep the domain:
- Short
- Easy to remember
- Easy to spell
- Relevant to your business
- Free from unnecessary hyphens or numbers
It’s also worth setting up a professional email address using your domain rather than relying on a personal Gmail or Outlook address.
An address such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk immediately makes a new company feel more established.
2. Create a Professional Website
Your website is often where somebody decides whether or not they want to contact you.
It doesn’t necessarily need dozens of pages. For many new Richmond businesses, a well-designed website covering your main services, about information, previous work and contact details is more than enough to get started.
What’s important is that the website looks professional, works properly on mobile devices and makes it extremely easy for someone to understand what you offer.
Your location should also be clear.
If Richmond is an important market for your business, don’t leave Google – or your potential customers – guessing where you operate.
For businesses looking to establish a stronger local presence, our web design in Richmond service focuses on creating professional websites that are built with both customers and search visibility in mind.
3. Set Up Your Google Business Profile
For a business trying to attract local customers, your Google Business Profile can be one of your most valuable online assets.
It’s the business information that can appear within Google Maps and local search results when somebody searches for a service nearby.
Make sure you complete as much information as possible, including:
- Business name
- Correct business category
- Telephone number
- Website
- Opening hours
- Services
- Business description
- Photographs
Your details should also remain consistent with the information shown on your website.
If you work from home or travel to customers rather than receiving them at your premises, Google also provides options for service-area businesses.
4. Think About How Richmond Customers Actually Search
One of the fundamentals of local SEO is understanding that customers don’t necessarily search for your business in the same way you describe it.
Someone looking for an accountant might search for “accountant Richmond”.
A homeowner could search for “electrician near me”.
Someone planning a garden redesign might search for “landscape gardener Richmond upon Thames”.
Think about the products or services you provide and combine them with the locations you genuinely serve.
Those searches can then help determine the pages and content you create for your website.
5. Make Sure Google Can Understand What You Do
You don’t need to repeat “Richmond” in every sentence to rank locally.
In fact, you shouldn’t.
Instead, create useful pages that clearly explain your individual services and the areas you cover.
Your website’s page titles, headings, written content, internal links and overall structure all help search engines understand what your business is about.
For example, rather than putting six completely different services onto one page, businesses can often benefit from creating a dedicated page for each important service.
It gives potential customers more useful information and gives search engines a much clearer picture of what you offer.
6. Get Listed in Relevant Local Directories
Business directories might sound a little old-fashioned, but reputable listings can still play a useful role in establishing a new company’s online presence.
Look for respected national directories as well as relevant Richmond and South West London business organisations.
The important thing is consistency.
Wherever your business appears online, try to use the same business name, website, telephone number and address information.
Don’t feel that you need to submit your business to hundreds of random directories. Quality and relevance are far more important than sheer quantity.
7. Start Collecting Genuine Customer Reviews
Reviews can be enormously valuable to a new local business.
They provide reassurance to potential customers who haven’t dealt with you before and can strengthen the overall presence of your Google Business Profile.
Once you’ve successfully completed work for a customer, make asking for a review part of your normal process.
Keep it simple and never be tempted to purchase fake reviews.
Five genuine reviews describing real experiences are considerably more valuable to your business than dozens of suspicious-looking ones that appeared overnight.
8. Create Useful Local Content
Your website doesn’t have to remain static after it’s launched.
Publishing genuinely useful articles gives you opportunities to answer the questions potential customers are searching for and demonstrate your expertise.
The key word there is useful.
Don’t publish hundreds of short articles simply because somebody told you blogging was good for SEO.
Instead, think about the questions customers regularly ask you.
A Richmond estate agent might write about preparing a property for sale in Richmond. A local landscaper could publish seasonal garden advice. An accountant might explain tax considerations for people starting their first business.
Useful content can attract visitors much earlier in their decision-making process – before they’re necessarily ready to request a quote.
9. Don’t Forget the Surrounding Areas
Richmond doesn’t exist in isolation.
Depending on your business, potential customers may also come from nearby areas such as Kew, Twickenham, Teddington, Ham, Petersham, Mortlake and Barnes.
If you genuinely provide services across these areas, make that clear on your website.
However, avoid creating dozens of almost identical pages where the only difference is the place name.
Location pages work best when they’re useful, relevant and written with the customer in that particular area in mind.
10. Track What’s Actually Working
Once everything is live, don’t simply forget about it.
Tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you understand how people are discovering and using your website.
Over time, you can start answering questions such as:
Which pages attract the most visitors?
What searches are people using to find you?
Which services generate the most enquiries?
Are people finding you from Richmond and the surrounding areas?
This information can help you decide where to focus your marketing next rather than simply guessing.
Building Your Business in Richmond
Building a strong local presence doesn’t happen overnight.
But getting the fundamentals right from the beginning – a professional website, properly configured Google Business Profile, clear local SEO strategy and genuine customer reviews – gives your business a much stronger foundation to build upon.
Richmond is home to an enormous variety of independent businesses, professional services and established companies. Standing out means making sure that when potential customers go looking for what you offer, your business is there to be found.
At Kingston Web Design, we help businesses across Richmond upon Thames, Kingston and South West London create professional websites and improve their visibility online.
Starting a business in Richmond or looking to improve your existing online presence? Get in touch with Kingston Web Design to see how we can help.