Oakpress Studio Teesside Found Index
The Teesside Found Index: well-reviewed businesses Google doesn’t show.
I searched for 42 well-reviewed Teesside businesses the way their customers do. 25 weren’t in the Google Maps top 5 for their own town. Here’s what they had in common.
· by Jack Thomas
The headline number
Between 12 and 24 October 2026 I checked 42 Teesside businesses rated 4.7 stars or more on Google. 25 of them (60%) weren’t in the Google Maps top 5 for their own search, made from their own town the way a customer makes it. 15 weren’t in the top 10. Of the 21 with a perfect 5.0, 13 still sat outside the top 5.
Great reviews clearly aren’t enough on their own. Google also needs to understand what a business does and where, and most of these businesses never tell it.
Town by town
- Middlesbrough (including Eston, Normanby and Linthorpe): 11 of 16 outside the top 5.
- Redcar and the coast (Redcar, Saltburn, Skelton): 6 of 13.
- Billingham: 4 of 5.
- Stockton (including Norton, Thornaby and Eaglescliffe): 3 of 7.
- Guisborough: 1 of 1.
The samples per town are small, so read these as a pattern, not a league table.
What the hidden businesses had in common
- No website of their own. 39 of the 42 had none linked on their Google profile.
- A Website button that opens Facebook. 13 of them. Google reads very little from a Facebook page.
- Reviews in the wrong place. One had about 1,400 reviews on a booking app, which Google doesn’t count.
- The wrong Google category. One aesthetics clinic with a real website was listed as “Cosmetics industry”, and the website wasn’t linked from its profile.
How I checked
Each business was searched on Google for “[what it does] [its town]”, with the search set to that town, not to a ranking tool somewhere else. I read the first 40 results and matched each business by name, phone number or street, and where two searches disagreed I used the better position. I never make a business look worse than it is.
An honest caveat: these were businesses I looked at as possible clients, mostly because they had no website of their own. So this shows what happens to well-reviewed businesses without a proper website. It isn’t a survey of every business on Teesside.
This batch includes businesses that already ranked well, which I didn’t then contact. After 24 October I mostly kept the ones that didn’t, so I’ve left those later checks out rather than let them inflate the number.
Prices
Where your business shows up in your own town on Google, the Maps top 3 and ChatGPT, plus the 3 things I’d fix first.
Your Google profile, listings and website basics fixed. 5 things or your money back.
Want to know where your own business stands? The Found Check is free and done within 1 working day.
Why would a 5-star business not show up on Google Maps?
Reviews are only one part of it. Google also weighs how relevant your profile is to the search and how close you are to the person searching. A profile with the wrong category, few services and no website to back it up can sit below businesses with fewer stars but clearer information.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes, please credit Oakpress Studio and link to this page.
Come in.
Send me your business name and town, and within one working day I’ll show you where you come up on Google, Google Maps and ChatGPT, plus the 3 fixes that would move you up. Free, with no obligation.