Local SEO and Google Maps
The map pack is where the nearby, ready-to-buy searches land. Three businesses get shown. The goal is to be one of them.
The map pack is the whole game locally
When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows three businesses in a map before it shows a single organic result. Those three take the overwhelming share of the calls. Everyone below is competing for what is left.
Our own numbers make the point. The Google Business Profile button on our listing sends more traffic than every organic search result on this site combined. If that is true for a web design agency, it is far more true for a plumber, a locksmith, or a dentist.
Local ranking is driven by proximity, relevance, and prominence. You cannot move your building. The other two are work, and most of your competitors are not doing it.
(What is included)
What local SEO involves
Most of this is unglamorous and most of your competitors have not touched it.
01
Profile optimization
Primary and secondary categories, services, service areas, hours, attributes, and a description written for the terms people actually search.
02
Grid rank benchmarking
We map where you rank across your service area, not just at your own address. That is how you find out you disappear four miles away.
03
Monthly profile posts
Posted consistently and written with a keyword purpose rather than as filler.
04
Review strategy
Getting more of them, responding to all of them, and handling the bad ones in a way that reads well to the next person.
05
Citations and consistency
Name, address, and phone matching everywhere they appear. Inconsistency here quietly holds businesses back for years.
06
Location pages
Real pages for the towns you serve, with actual content, rather than one page with fifty city names stuffed at the bottom.
(Questions)
Local SEO questions
What is the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?+
Regular SEO is about ranking your website in organic results. Local SEO is about ranking your business in Google Maps and the map pack. They overlap and support each other, but the ranking factors are different. Local leans heavily on your Google Business Profile, proximity, and reviews.
Why does my business show up at my address but not a few towns over?+
Proximity is one of the strongest local ranking factors. The further a searcher is from your address, the more relevance and prominence have to compensate. That is what location pages, categories, reviews, and citations are working on.
Do I need a physical address?+
You need a valid location Google can verify. Service area businesses can hide the address and still rank, but the address still determines where the proximity clock starts.
How many reviews do I need?+
There is no threshold. What matters is being competitive with the other businesses showing up for your terms, and getting them steadily rather than twenty in one week.
Can you fix a suspended Google Business Profile?+
Sometimes. It depends on why it was suspended. We will look at it and tell you honestly whether it is recoverable before taking money for the attempt.
How long before I see movement in the map pack?+
Local moves faster than organic. Profile and category work can show changes within weeks. Building enough prominence to hold a top three spot in a competitive category takes months.
(Other services)
What else we do
(Get started)
See where you rank across your service area
Tell us what you are trying to sell and we will tell you what it takes.