Top the business name search ranking

Question

I built a small static website for my dad's business, but it's on the second page of Google search results when you search for the business name.

The business name is not common and it's not short, so there is no issue with the generics. The results that are appearing before his website are websites that serve as electronic versions of local business phone books (e.g. White Pages).

Obviously we would like our website to be on the top of the list, ahead of these directory website pages.

The problem is that our website has pretty much no text, it's mainly just images (showcasing my dad's work) with one page of text (a company profile).

I realise that text is really important for SEO, but there isn't really anything we can put up there without waffling on. The photos of his work speak for themselves.

I know we won't be able to rank highly for generic search terms (because of the lack of text), but can we at least top the search results for our full business name?

If so, how?

Update 1

I will be taking @closetnoc's advice, but then I realised that I can also get in contact with these directory websites who have pages on my dad's company and update their listings to include a link to our website.

The incoming links should help our SEO, as I'm pretty sure most search engines rank largely based on incoming links (from external sites).

Answer 1

We got a question like this recently where the OP gave the business name which consisted of highly competitive terms. Short of searching for the business name in quotes or using the site: search directive, there was no reasonable way for the business name to compete.

Given that, there are things you can do.

Use schema.org mark-up for the business contact information. Make it easily found by traditional means such as an About, Contact, or Company Info page. Of course you can also use this mark-up in the sites header or footer. This is step one for site branding.

You already said that content would also help and you are right. I created a single page for my Mom's weekend antiques sales events. It was one page and it included directions, lists of what can be found, etc. I understand not knowing what to say, however, there is plenty to say- it just has not occurred to you yet.

You could talk about the craftsmanship, process, finishes, the industry, who knows(?), but there is always something to say. The more appropriate content you can create the better. It does not have to be verbose, just enough to compete in search. And that is the important part.

Until you begin competing in search, Google is always going to find other sites that outperform yours for the SERP results even for searches you feel should be exclusively yours. The good news is that you do not need much, just enough.

Answer 2

You need more unique [pseudo]power in order to overtake the directory sites in rank. So with that in mind, some things you can do:

• Make a generic lower quality description that you want to fill out on all the directories. The idea is that you want to duplicate the content on all of them as much as you can. This content must be somewhat significantly different from that of your site. This will trigger Google SERP filters and knock many handfuls of the garbage directories out of rank, which will in turn move you up. The backlink in the lower quality desc/directories will still help.

• Facebook, Houzz, Manta, and Yelp are the big 4 that will probably outrank you initially. If you don't have profiles on these, don't make one. As you gain authority it's safe to make them and procure them since Google will hold your site as higher priority (esp within local results as noted below)

• Hook up with Google for businesses, verify the site, and make a profile. Curate it, add images and a bit of unique words (both different from your site and different from the lower quality desc in the first bullet), make sure the address/map/point stays correct since Google has a habit of changing it.

• As @closetnoc suggests, put full organization schema.org markup in there with as much logistical info as possible. This should be complete with contact point, sameas social stuff, and logo markup.

• Rename all the image files. Instead of something like pic1432.jpg change it to something descriptive and long tail such as custom-widget-hand-crafted-green-plated-finish.mydomain.com.jpg (note: make sure you include your domain in the name, right before the file extension). Use SEO friendly urls in general at all other places.

• Add image folders with good keywords and nest them a couple layers deep if you feel that your urls are lacking a bit of power. Example, instead of putting an image high up like example.com/images/pic1432.jpg do it specifically like example.com/images/hand-made/custom/pic1432.jpg. Combine this with the rename above for better chances of image rank.

• Alt tags can be extremely powerful for you too. Alt tag all the images with a decent amount of words that describe what is going on in the image. Don't spam here though since alt tags show up directly in the SERP in the same way your content does. It's like hidden content that IS indexed and will be displayed as words.

• While you're at it, might as well add a title= and small caption below each image. Make them different than the alt tag though. The title will fire as a tooltip for user and is not indexed per-say, but still has pull. The caption is an opportunity to add some human onboarding and drop some major keywords. The reason you need this onboarding is for users who may click in from image searches.

• Even if it seems dumb in the case of an image result, make sure every single page has a unique page title. Create pages for all the images individually where users can see a "larger view" within a page wrapper so you can get titles. These are the powerhouses of rank. So instead of a page title like pic1432 - Fidget Widgets LLC name it something like Hand Crafted Widget Model 1432 - Customizable By Color - Fidget Widgets LLC (888) 888-8888.

There are more things you can do too, but these might help most to beat down the spambizdirectories.