Guides and resources
Local SEO Guides for Small Businesses
Plain-English guides to local search, written so an owner can act on them without hiring anyone. Each one explains how something works, what to do about it and what to avoid.
Where a guide touches a service we sell, it says so once and links to it. The rest is yours to use.
Start here
The overview, and the three questions every owner asks first.
Local SEO Guide for Small Businesses
The five building blocks and a 30-day plan you can follow yourself.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile vs Website SEO
What each one does, where it shows up and which to fix first.
Read the guideHow Long Does Local SEO Take?
A realistic timeline, and what speeds it up or slows it down.
Read the guideLocal SEO Pricing Guide
Retainers, projects and hourly rates compared, with red flags to avoid.
Read the guideGoogle Business Profile and Maps
How listings are ranked and how to improve yours.
How to Optimize a Google Business Profile
Every field on the profile, what to put in it and what to avoid.
Read the guideHow to Rank Higher on Google Maps
The nine steps that improve a Maps listing, in the order to do them.
Read the guideHow to Rank for Near Me Searches
What Google reads when someone types “near me”, and what to do about it.
Read the guideTrust signals and websites
Citations, reviews and the site that backs up your profile.
Local Citations and NAP Consistency Explained
What citations are, which ones matter and how to fix inconsistent details.
Read the guideHow Reviews Affect Local SEO
What counts, how to ask within Google’s rules and how to reply.
Read the guideSEO Website vs Normal Website
The practical differences, and a ten-minute test for your own site.
Read the guideFind us elsewhere
New guides and updates are shared on our social pages.
Sources we rely on: Google’s local ranking guidance, Google Search Essentials, Google Business Profile guidelines and Schema.org.
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