Local SEO checklist

A profile only helps if Google considers the business eligible. Pretending a service-area operation is a storefront, or opening a listing you cannot verify, wastes the rest of the work.

• Confirm you are eligible before creating a profileGoogle Business Profile is for businesses that customers can visit or that travel to customers in a defined area. A purely online brand usually is not eligible.
• Claim and verify the legitimate profile; keep ownership secureUse the listing that matches the real entity. Do not create a second profile to “start clean” while the old one still exists.
• Primary category, hours, services and photos describe this businessThe category should be how people search for you, not a broader label that looks more competitive. Photos should be of this premises, team or work.
• Storefront versus service-area settings match how you actually sellIf customers cannot visit an address, do not publish one as a showroom. If they can, hide the address only when that is how you operate.

Local ranking cannot be diagnosed while the entity disagrees with itself. One published NAP, used everywhere you are willing to be found.

• Write one canonical name, address and phone you will publishDecide the legal or trading name, the public address (or the honest absence of one), and a number that a person answers.
• Website, profile and listings use that same NAPFooter, contact page, Business Profile and any directories should match character for character where the format allows.
• Hours and service area agree across the site and the profileClosed days, seasonal hours and the towns you actually cover should not contradict each other.
• If you have public premises, the address is not hiddenHiding a storefront to game a wider service area is a representation problem, not a ranking tactic.

Reviews are evidence from customers. Never buy, fabricate, or pay for fake reviews. A normal request after completed work, and a habit of responding, is the whole process.

• Ask after completed work through a normal customer processA follow-up after the job is done is legitimate. A script that only goes to people who already said they were happy is filtering.
• Never buy, fabricate, or pay for fake reviewsPurchased, swapped or invented reviews violate Google’s policies and poison the signal you are trying to earn. Do not do it, and do not hire anyone who offers it.
• Do not offer incentives that break Google’s review policiesDiscounts, gifts or entry into a prize for leaving a review are not a growth channel. If you are unsure, do not offer the incentive.
• Reply to reviews, including critical onesA short, specific reply shows the business is attended. Do not delete legitimate criticism or argue the customer into silence.

A citation is a mention of the business with accurate NAP. A few correct listings beat a blast of junk directories.

• Appear on directories your customers actually useIndustry, city and well-known local directories first. Quantity without relevance is noise.
• Listing NAP and URL match the canonical sheetOld phone numbers, dropped suite numbers and “near” addresses create a second entity Google has to reconcile.
• Do not blast citations onto junk directoriesBulk submission packages mostly create duplicates and spam listings you will have to clean later.
• Fix or close duplicates and outdated listingsPrevious trading names, moved premises and abandoned aggregator pages should be marked closed or updated.

A location page has to be useful to a person in that market. A paragraph with the city name swapped is not local relevance.

• The page has facts that could not be swapped for another cityHow you work here, who you meet in person, and what the catchment actually is. If find-and-replace would produce the next city page, do not publish it.
• Service area is honest — no extra cities you do not serveDo not add nearby city names to capture queries. Rankings from doorway pages are not a durable local presence.
• It explains how you work locally (in person, radius, remote)Visitors should know whether they can meet you, what the service radius is, and what happens remotely.
• Title and H1 describe the practice, not “best SEO in [city]”Unprovable superlatives and city-keyword stacking are not a local page. Name the work and the place you actually operate from.