Local SEO Checklist: Every Step to Dominate the Map Pack
Local SEO is simple to describe and hard to execute consistently. Most local rankings come down to four pillars: a complete Google Business Profile, consistent NAP citations, regular reviews, and localized on-page content. Here is the exact checklist we use on every client.
Google Business Profile completion
Complete every category, attribute, service, hour, and service area field. Upload 30 plus photos at launch and add 4 new ones per month. Publish weekly posts, monthly offers, and quarterly updates. Add the products and services tabs with descriptions and pricing where appropriate.
Respond to every review within 24 hours, good and bad. Use the Q&A section to seed and answer the questions you know customers ask. Enable messaging if you can respond within an hour during business hours.
Citations and on-page SEO
Get listed on the top 30 to 50 citation sources for your industry. Keep NAP exactly consistent everywhere. Build one optimized landing page per primary service and one per primary city you serve. Use schema markup for LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQ on every page.
On-page essentials: city and service in title tags and H1s, embedded Google Map, click-to-call phone numbers, photo alt text mentioning your city, and internal links from your homepage to your top service pages.
Reviews and ongoing maintenance
Automate review requests on every closed job. Aim for at least 4 to 8 new reviews per month. Respond to every one personally. Reviews older than 90 days carry less weight, so consistent recency matters more than total count above a baseline.
Monthly maintenance: post on GBP, monitor competitor activity, refresh photos, update services, and audit citations once per year. Annual deep audit: schema validation, page speed checks, content gap analysis, and competitor comparison.
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We will run this complete checklist on your business as a free audit and send you a prioritized improvement plan with the order to attack each item.
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