Findability
How to show up on Google without paying anyone
Before you spend a dollar on SEO, there is a free listing that does more for a local business than almost anything on your actual website.
If you run a business people find locally — a contractor, a studio, a shop, a service — the highest-value thing you can do is not on your website at all.
Claim your Google Business Profile
It is free. It is what produces the map pin, the hours, the photos, and the reviews panel. Go to business.google.com, search for your business, and claim it. If a listing already exists that you never made, claim that one rather than making a second — duplicates hurt.
Then fill in every field. Not most. Every one: category, hours, service area, phone, website, description, and at least ten photographs of real work.
Be consistent everywhere
Your name, address, and phone number should be written identically on your site, your Google profile, Facebook, and any directory you are listed in. "Ste 4" in one place and "Suite 4" in another is a small inconsistency that makes it harder for a search engine to be confident it is looking at one business.
Ask for reviews, plainly
Not a campaign. When someone tells you they are happy, say: "Would you mind putting that on Google? It genuinely helps." Do it the same day, while they still mean it. Reply to every review you get, including the bad one, calmly.
Write the pages people actually search for
People do not search for services. They search for the thing they need, plus where they are. If you do four things, that is potentially four pages — each one titled the way somebody would say it out loud.
What not to bother with yet
- Buying backlinks. Money spent here is money burnt.
- Keyword stuffing. It reads badly to humans, which is now the point.
- Blogging daily. One useful page beats thirty thin ones.
- Anyone who emails you promising page one. Delete it.
None of this is fast. Local search rewards being consistently, boringly correct for a few months. That is genuinely the whole trick, and it costs nothing but attention.