Local search rewards a small number of unglamorous things done consistently. Here they are in the order we would do them, with the honest note that the first two account for most of the result.
One: the Business Profile
- Claim it, and check nobody else has claimed a duplicate
- Set the primary category to the single thing you most want to be found for
- Add secondary categories, but only ones that genuinely apply
- List the areas you actually serve, and resist adding the whole county
- Real photographs, added occasionally rather than all at once
- Hours that are true, including seasonal changes
Two: reviews, as a habit
Ask every satisfied customer, soon after the work, in a way that suits how you already talk to them. One ask, one gentle reminder, then leave it. Reply to every review you get, briefly and like a person.
The thing that matters more than the total is that they keep arriving. Twenty reviews with the most recent from last year reads worse than eight that are current.
Three: consistent details everywhere
The same business name, phone number and address format on your site, your profile, your social accounts and any directory you appear in. Where an old address or a former trading name is still live somewhere, fix it or get it removed.
Four: say where you are on your own site
Put the town in the words on the page, not only in the footer. If several areas genuinely matter to the business, give each a page with something specific to say about working there. If you cannot write something specific, do not make the page.
Five: the technical minimum
- Address and phone number in the site markup, not just in an image
- A page that loads quickly on a phone
- A link to the Business Profile, and a link back to the site from it
If you only have an afternoon
Do the profile properly and ask your last ten customers for a review. That is the whole afternoon, and it will do more than a month of anything else on this list.
The short version. Profile, reviews, consistency, then pages. Most businesses skip straight to the pages and wonder why nothing moves.
