To do local SEO, work in this order: claim and complete your Google Business Profile, set up a steady review habit, fix your citations, then publish a page for each service and each town you serve. The order matters — the profile and reviews move rankings fastest and cost nothing, so do them before you spend a dollar or an hour on anything else.
We run this exact routine on our own cleaning and HVAC companies. Below is the real checklist, what each step does, and an honest note on when to stop doing it yourself.
Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
Verify ownership, pick the right primary category, list every service, set your service area, add real photos, and fill in hours and description. This is the biggest lever and it's free.
Build a review habit
Ask every happy customer after the job — a text with your review link works best. Space requests so the flow looks natural, and reply to every review, good or bad. Freshness and replies both feed ranking.
Make your business info consistent
Your exact name, address, and phone should match across your site, profile, and the major directories. Fix mismatches — they quietly hold back everything else.
Publish service and city pages
One real page per service and per town you serve, plus honest cost guides. Write each for a human, not a keyword. This is the slow part that compounds over months.
Measure and keep going
Track which searches and pages produce calls, then do more of what works. Local SEO is a routine, not a launch — the businesses that win are the ones that keep showing up.
We'd rather you do the free, high-impact steps yourself than overpay. Handle it on your own if:
Hire it out when your market is competitive, when the page-and-citation grind eats time you'd rather spend on jobs, or when you can't take the calls more visibility creates — fix that first with our AI receptionist.
Our Grow in Google plan ($597/month) runs this whole checklist for you every month: a hand-built site, the content engine publishing researched service and city pages, profile management, review prompts, citation cleanup, and attribution. Month-to-month, and you own the site and domain. Lighter need? Start Getting Leads is $249/mo for the site and AI lead capture.
New to the concept? Start with what is local SEO. Want the price picture? Local SEO cost. Want what ships each month for a service business? SEO for home services.
We don't post stock testimonials. On a 15-minute call we screen-share the real dashboards behind our own businesses — live leads, rankings, and the exact page that produced each one. See the proof →
There's no magic number, but under about 20 you're at a disadvantage in most markets. Aim for steady additions rather than a one-time push — a few new reviews every week beats a big batch that then stops.
It helps a little and signals activity, so a quick post now and then is worth it. But it's far less important than reviews and a complete profile — don't let posting distract from the work that actually moves rankings.
Set your profile as a service-area business and define the towns you cover. Then build a real page for each major town. Don't fake multiple addresses — Google catches it and it can cost you the listing.
Send your company name and area — we'll confirm your market is open and build a working demo within 48 hours. Free, no card, no commitment.
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