Waiting for Google – a cautionary tale

I am writing this post with the benefit of hindsight. I wrote a previous version of this post in 2022, and it was more of a rant, because at that time, things for us at Jigsaiz were very different.

Let me make one thing clear from the outset. Google is the best friend a small business can have. Bar none. However, and it’s a big however, if Google chooses not to want to be your friend, or if, no matter hard you wave, Google doesn’t notice you, the world is a very lonely place.

When we set up Jigsaiz in 2021, we did everything right, or so we thought. We bought our own URL, we designed a website, did a lot of work on search engine optimisation … then nothing. Nothing we did could persuade Google to notice us. It took months for jigsaiz.co.uk to be indexed, and about a year for more than a handful of product pages to be indexed. Everything we tried didn’t work, and then one day, it did. What did? I have no idea, and, regardless of what the dozens of spammy emails we get each week say, neither does anyone else. Once we had a few products indexed, more followed, and now we have about 80% of our 700 or so individual products indexed. When we add new products now, without tempting fate, they are almost always immediately indexed by Google. Has it made a difference to sales? Absolutely …

In the early stages, you can’t rely on Google, but you have to. And there’s the rub … Many businesses aren’t as lucky as we are – we had no investors, no staff and could rely on craft-market income to meet our costs. The lessons for us? Patience, patience and more patience. Google will, in time, become your best friend, but be ready to loose a lot of sleep in the meantime.