If you run a business that serves customers in a specific area, local SEO is usually the fastest way to grow organic leads. The good news: most of the work is in your control, and you don’t need a big budget to get it right.
This checklist covers what we review first for every local SEO client.
1. Google Business Profile
- Claim and verify your profile
- Choose the most specific primary category, then add relevant secondary categories
- Add every service you offer, with short descriptions
- Upload real photos of your team, work and location, and keep adding them
- Post updates, offers or project photos at least a couple of times a month
- Answer common questions in the Q&A section
2. Name, address and phone consistency
Your business name, address and phone number should be identical everywhere they appear: your website, Google, Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and industry directories. Small differences, like “Ste” vs “Suite”, are fine, but old addresses and phone numbers confuse customers and search engines.
3. Reviews
- Ask every happy customer for a review, ideally with a direct link
- Reply to every review, positive or negative, within a few days
- Never buy or fake reviews. It violates Google’s policies and can get your profile suspended
4. Your website
- A dedicated page for each main service
- Location pages for the cities you serve, each with genuinely unique content
- Your address, phone number and service area visible on every page
- LocalBusiness schema markup
- Fast, mobile-friendly pages with a clear call to action
5. Local authority
Mentions from local news sites, chambers of commerce, sponsorships, suppliers and community organizations all signal that you’re a real, trusted local business.
Where to start
If you only have an hour this week, complete your Google Business Profile and ask five recent customers for a review. Those two steps alone often make a visible difference.
Want a professional review? Our local SEO services cover all of this, and you can request a free SEO audit to see where you stand today.