Local SEO for contractors and service businesses

How local search works, in Google's words

Google's help page on local ranking names three factors:

1. Relevance: how well your profile matches the search.
2. Distance: how far you are from the person searching.
3. Prominence: how well-known the business is.

The same page says: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." So our work is making your profile and site complete, accurate and worth choosing. We don't sell shortcuts.

What we do

1. Google Business Profile setup and upkeep.
   • The most specific category that fits.
   • Real hours and service areas. Google allows up to 20 service areas, within about 2 hours' drive of your base.
   • Your home address hidden if customers don't come to you.
   • Photos of real jobs, and help with verification.
   • Updates whenever something changes.
   • You stay the owner. We're added as a manager.
2. On-page SEO and service-area pages.
   • One page per main service, with a clear title, description and headings.
   • Area pages only where we can say something true and useful about that place.
3. Citations and NAP consistency.
   • Your name, area and phone (NAP) match everywhere: your site, your profile and the directories customers use.
   • Wrong phone numbers and duplicate listings get fixed first.
4. Schema. Business and service markup that says exactly what the page says.
5. A review-request process that asks every customer.
   • A short, friendly ask after every job, by email or on a card you hand over.
   • No screening for happy customers first and no rewards for reviews. Google's policy prohibits both.
   • We can draft your replies for you to post.
6. Technical health. HTTPS, sitemap, robots.txt, speed on phones and broken links.
7. A monthly visibility check.
   • Which searches show your site in Search Console, and which get clicks.
   • The calls, direction requests and website clicks your Business Profile brings in.
   • All of it in one plain report.

What we won't do

1. Stuff keywords or town names into your business name. Google's guidelines don't allow it.
2. Set up fake offices or rented mailboxes. Google says a rented mailing address you don't operate from isn't eligible for a profile.
3. Buy, fake or filter reviews.
4. Promise rankings. We never promise rankings. Nobody honestly can.

Where it fits

Local SEO works best on a site that converts. If the audit finds the phone or the form is the problem, we fix that first under Websites. To be ready for AI answers too, add AI search visibility.

More: Google Business Profile checklist · Visitor Insights · Sample audit · How we quote