Local SEO checklist for small businesses

1. Google Business Profile

• Claimed and verified, one profile per location.
• Name exactly as on your sign, with no keywords added.
• The most specific true primary category, plus relevant secondary ones.
• Hours, holiday hours, phone, website link and services filled in.
• Real photos, added every month or two.

2. Your website’s basics

• Your business name, address (if you have a storefront) and phone number on every page, the same way they appear on Google.
• A phone number a customer can tap to call, and that rings the right phone.
• A page title and description on every page that say what the page is and where you are. We found 14 of 62 local sites with no search description at all in our October report.
• LocalBusiness structured data, so Google reads your name, address, hours and phone directly. 25 of the 62 sites we checked didn’t have it.
• Fast and readable on a phone. Most local searches happen on one.
• HTTPS, with no “Not secure” warning.

3. Pages for what you sell and where

• One page per main service, written about that service, not a list of everything on one page.
• Pages for the towns you really serve, each saying something true about working there.
• Prices or price ranges where you can give them. People search for cost, and a page that answers it gets the call.

4. Reviews

• A steady routine of asking every customer, with your direct review link.
• A reply to every review, good and bad.

5. Listings elsewhere

• The main directories (Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook, your industry’s directory, the chamber of commerce) with the same name, address and phone as Google.
• Old listings with an old address or number corrected or removed.

6. Measure it

Connect your site to Google Search Console and look at the Performance report once a month: which searches you appear for, where you rank, and what people click. It’s free and it’s the only real source for how Google sees your site. Our Search Console guide shows the five reports worth reading.