Get Found Locally: Local SEO and Google Business Profile
Get Found Locally: Local SEO and Google Business Profile
A plain-English guide to showing up on Google Maps and local search when nearby customers are looking for you.
Who it is for: Local businesses such as shops, salons, cafes, clinics and service providers who want more customers from Google Maps.
About this eBook
When people nearby search for a barber, cafe, clinic or shop, Google shows a map with a handful of local businesses. This free guide explains how to earn a place there. You will learn how local results are chosen using relevance, distance and prominence, and how to create, claim and verify your Google Business Profile. The guide covers choosing categories, adding services, hours and photos, publishing posts, and handling questions and messages. A full chapter explains how to get more genuine reviews and reply to them professionally, without fake or incentivised reviews. You will also learn about consistent name, address and phone details, local citations and directories, local landing pages and keywords on your website, schema basics, and how to track calls and direction requests, finishing with a practical 30-day local SEO plan.
What you will learn
- How Google chooses local map results
- Create, claim and verify your Business Profile
- Complete categories, services, hours and photos
- Earn and reply to genuine reviews
- Keep NAP details consistent across directories
- Follow a 30-day local SEO plan
What is inside
- Introduction
- How Local Search Results Work
- Creating, Claiming and Verifying Your Google Business Profile
- Filling In Your Profile Properly
- Posts, Questions and Messages
- Getting and Replying to Reviews Ethically
- NAP Consistency and Local Citations
- Your Website, Local Keywords and Schema
- Tracking Results and a 30-Day Plan
- Quick-Start Checklist
Read the introduction
This guide is for owners of local businesses such as barber shops, cafés, clinics, salons, tutors, repair shops, restaurants and service providers who visit customers at home. It is also for freelancers and marketers who help these businesses get more calls, visits and bookings. You do not need technical skills. If you can use a smartphone and edit a simple website, you can do almost everything in this book.
By the end of this eBook you will be able to:
- Understand how Google decides which local businesses to show
- Create, claim and verify a Google Business Profile
- Choose the right categories and fill in services, hours and photos
- Use posts and customer questions to keep your profile active
- Get more genuine reviews and reply to them professionally
- Keep your business name, address and phone number consistent across the web
- Build local landing pages and use local keywords on your website
- Add a map embed and basic local schema
- Track calls, direction requests and website visits
- Follow a practical 30-day plan
Throughout the book we use hypothetical examples, such as a barber shop in Karachi, a café in Lahore and a dental clinic. These businesses are invented to illustrate the steps.
Related free tools
Browse all our free eBooks and guides, read the blog, or contact DAD Technologies for help putting these steps into action.