What I Learned Spending a Day With Google Digital Garage
Last week I attended the Google Digital Garage: Cities of London & Westminster event, run in partnership with Enterprise Nation.
A room full of small business owners. Trainers from Google, and a day of practical guidance on how to get your business set up and found online in the UK in 2026.
I went because I wanted to understand how to make Berhane & Co. more visible to the founders who need it and I came away with more than I expected.
What struck me as much as the content was the room itself. Founders at every stage, some just starting out, some already trading and some career changers trying to figure out the next step. Real conversations. Genuine connections. A reminder that building a business is rarely a solo endeavour, however much it can feel that way.
Towards the end of the day Rachel Blake MP (for Cities of London and Westminster) stopped by to address the group. A moment that felt like a quiet acknowledgement that what everyone in that room is building actually matters.”
Here is what Google actually told us.
How to optimise your Google Business Profile as a UK small business
This was the thread running through most of the day. Google’s own trainers walked us through exactly what an optimised Business Profile looks like and most small businesses are not using it fully.
If you have been wondering how to get your business on Google this is where you start. It is not just about having a profile. It is about four specific things:
Add essential info. Your business name, address, phone number, website, and opening hours. All of it. Consistent with everything else online.
Share photos regularly. Google favours active profiles. A profile with recent photos signals that your business is alive and worth surfacing in search results.
Create posts and offers. Yes, you can post directly on your Google Business Profile! Events, updates, offers. These appear in search results and on Google Maps. Most founders set their profile up once and never touch it again. That is a missed opportunity every single week.
Respond to reviews. Every review. Positive or negative. Google sees responsiveness as a trust signal. Founders who respond consistently rank higher than those who do not.
The takeaway: if you have not created and verified your Google Business Profile yet, that is step one. Before paid ads. Before anything else.
Google Search Console and Analytics: what they are and why you need them
Google gave the room a clear set of actionable steps for small business owners in the UK:
Review your Search Console data. Find out what search terms people are already using to find your website. This tells you what is working and where the content gaps are.
Regularly monitor Analytics. Understand who is visiting your site, where they are coming from and what they do when they get there. Without this data you are guessing.
Consider Google Ads. But only once the organic foundations are in place. Paying for traffic to a website that is not working properly is money wasted.
The honest truth, most aspiring founders either do not have Search Console or Analytics connected to their website at all, or have them installed but never look at them. Having the tool is not the same as having it working properly for your business. Both are part of every Founder’s Suite build we do at Berhane & Co. set up, configured and explained so you actually know how to use them.
How to find out what your customers are actually searching for: Google Trends and Keyword Planner
This was one of the most practically useful parts of the day.
Google Trends shows you what people are searching for right now and whether interest in a topic is rising or falling. Before you write a blog post, create a piece of content, or build a service page check Google Trends first. If nobody is searching for it, nobody will find it.
Google Keyword Planner shows you the exact monthly search volume for specific terms. “How to set up a business UK.” “Do I need a limited company.” “How to register a business UK.” “Business setup service London.” Real numbers. Real searches. Real people looking for exactly what you offer.
The takeaway: content without keyword research is hope. Content with keyword research is strategy.
Why consistency across platforms matters for your Google ranking
Simple but important. Google’s algorithm builds trust in a business by looking for consistency. Your business name, address, phone number etc. need to be identical across your website, your Google Business Profile, your social media profiles and any directory listings.
This applies whether you are a sole trader or a limited company, consistency matters at every stage of building your business in the UK.
If your business information is not consistent across platforms, that can quietly reduce your visibility in search results. Worth doing a quick audit to make sure everything lines up before you invest time and money into building your online presence.
For founders setting up a business in the UK from scratch, this is exactly why getting the foundation right from day one matters. It is much harder to fix inconsistency across ten platforms after the fact than to set it up correctly once from the beginning.
AI search is changing how small businesses get found in 2026
The session touched on something that is rapidly becoming critical, AI search.
When someone asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI overview, Claude etc. “how do I set up a business properly in the UK” the results that appear are pulled from websites that clearly, specifically and helpfully answer the question being asked.
This means the quality of content matters more than ever. Not generic content. Specific, question-answering, genuinely useful content. Blog posts. FAQs. and so on. Service pages that answer real founder questions rather than just describing what you do.
The businesses that appear in AI search results in 2026 are the ones that started creating that content now, not the ones planning to start eventually.
The honest take
Here is what struck me most about the day.
Everything Google covered, Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics, consistent information across platforms, question-answering content, all sits at the intersection of your business’ operations and getting found online. You need both. But the infrastructure for operations has to come first. You cannot pour water into a leaking bucket.
It is the same thing I explain to founders I work with. Before the content plan. Before the ads. Make sure the foundation is solid. Because visibility comes after the foundation, not before it.
Start before you are ‘ready’? Absolutely yes, don’t let chasing perfectionism procrastinate you. But build the foundation while you build the momentum. Because the goal is not just to start. It is to be still standing, and getting found, when that right moment arrives.
Not sure if your business has the digital foundations in place?
The Founder Readiness Assessment is the business setup checklist every UK founder needs. Answer twelve questions across the six core categories — legal, financial, digital, brand, client experience, and operations. Find out instantly where your gaps are and what to prioritise first.
It takes five minutes. And the results might surprise you.
Take the free Founder Readiness Assessment Here
Want to go deeper into your results? Book a free 20-minute Founder Infrastructure Review and we will work through exactly what your business needs and in what order.
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