Be the businessnearbypeople find first.
When someone in Hagley searches for a plumber, a dentist or a solicitor, Google shows three businesses on a map before anything else. Local SEO is the work of being one of them.
Local search is won on specifics.
Which services you list. Which areas you name. How many recent reviews mention the job you did. Whether your address matches everywhere. It is detailed, unglamorous work, and it is the difference between a full diary and a quiet one.
What’s
included.
Scoped in writing before we start. Nothing here is an optional extra that appears on the invoice later.
- Google Business Profile
- Categories, services, service areas, photographs, posts, Q&A and messaging, set up properly and kept alive.
- Reviews
- A simple system for asking happy customers at the right moment, plus replies that help you rank and reassure the next customer.
- Citations & NAP
- Your name, address and phone number consistent across every directory that matters, and removed from the ones that do not.
- Local landing pages
- Genuinely useful pages for the towns you serve, with real local content, not the same page with the place name swapped.
- On-site local signals
- Location schema, embedded maps, service-area copy, local case studies and photography built into the site.
- Tracking
- Calls, direction requests, website clicks and enquiries from the map pack, reported monthly.
How we
approach it.
- Principle 01
Profile before pages
For most local businesses the Business Profile drives more calls than the website. We get it right first.
- Principle 02
Reviews as content
Reviews that describe the job, the area and the outcome are the most persuasive words on the internet about you. We help you earn them.
- Principle 03
No thin location pages
Google can tell when ten town pages are the same page. We only build a location page if it has something real to say.
- Principle 04
Local proof everywhere
Case studies with real places, photographs of real jobs, testimonials from real streets. Local relevance you cannot fake.
Sounds
familiar?
- You are not in the map pack for your own town
- Your Google profile is unverified or unloved
- Competitors have more reviews than you
- Your address is different on five websites
- You serve ten towns and rank in none
- Calls come from the wrong side of Birmingham
- Let’s talk about it
Questions
we get asked.
What is the map pack?
The block of three businesses with a map that Google shows for searches with local intent, like 'electrician near me' or 'dentist Stourbridge'. It sits above the normal results and takes most of the clicks. Getting into it depends on relevance, distance and prominence: how well your profile matches the search, how close you are, and how well known and reviewed you are.
Do Google reviews help rankings?
Yes. Review quantity, recency, rating and the words in them are all local ranking signals, and replying to reviews helps too. More importantly, reviews decide who gets the call once you are visible. We wrote a longer answer in our reviews article.
Do I need a page for every town?
Only if each page can be genuinely useful and different. If you serve Stourbridge, Dudley and Halesowen and have real work, real customers and something specific to say about each, yes. If not, one strong service-area page beats five thin ones.
How long does local SEO take?
Profile improvements can move within two to six weeks. Building reviews, citations and local content compounds over three to six months. It is faster than broad SEO because the competition is smaller and more local.
Can you manage my Google Business Profile for me?
Yes, as part of an ongoing local SEO plan. That includes posts, photo updates, Q&A, review replies and keeping services and hours current.
Own your
postcode.
Or just email
hello@stourbridgewebstudio.co.uk