The layers at the bottom help every search you want to win, cost the least, and pay back fastest. The layers at the top help a shrinking set of searches and cost the most to move. Build from the bottom.
For any business people search for near them, the map results sit above the website results. Categories, services, hours, photos, and the description are the highest-leverage text anywhere online — and they cost nothing. Grab the free GBP checklist →
Volume, recency, and replies. Reviews affect both where you appear on the map and whether anyone clicks once they see you. A five-star average from three years ago loses to a 4.7 from last week.
One page per service, one page per location — the pages a stranger could land on from Google and become a customer from today. Most small sites have a homepage doing the job of eight pages, which is exactly why they rank for nothing specific.
Can Google reach the pages, and can a person use them on a phone. Sitemap, one URL pattern, no stray "do not index" tags, working redirects, reasonable load speed, local business schema. Invisible when right. Fatal when wrong.
Name, address, and phone identical across Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, BBB, and your industry directories. Mismatches make Google less confident about your business — and confidence is what map ranking runs on.
The questions buyers ask before they call: what it costs, what happens at the first visit, how to choose, comparisons between options. This is the renewable monthly work — the only layer that keeps producing for a year or more.
Other websites linking to yours. The real ones come from your own world: suppliers, associations, chambers, sponsorships, local press. Mostly harvested once in the first 90 days, then a trickle.
We find the lowest broken layer first. That's the headline, and everything above it waits. Fixing layer 3 while layer 1 is broken is paying full price for half the result.
Asking for blogs and links is asking for layers 6 and 7. Before we agree, we show you exactly where layers 1 through 3 stand — because that's where the same money moves further, faster.
On the map, the searcher's distance from your business is a factor nobody can optimize away. A clinic on one side of a metro will not dominate the map 20 miles out — at any budget.
That's why the website layers matter. Regular search results are not distance-capped, so a well-built service page can reach the whole metro when the map listing can't.
The stack wins both: the profile and reviews win nearby, the money pages win the metro.
Big search numbers, no buyers — and usually stuck past page three.
Tool output, not ranking factors.
Against Google's spam policies. The penalty lands on your site, not the agency's.
Past "loads fine on a phone," the gains are small.
Here's the honest breakdown of a monthly local SEO retainer. Notice what's missing: mysterious "optimization." The bulk of SEO is production — writing, publishing, emailing, posting, repeat.
Google Business Profile claimed, verified, and corrected. Baseline run so nothing gets broken later.
Technical hygiene pass, then build or rebuild your top two money pages.
Review system running. Directory sweep complete. Two more money pages live.
Your existing link relationships harvested. Monthly content production begins.
Layers 1 and 2 of the stack.
We manage the profile that decides whether you show up on the map: categories, services, hours, photos, weekly posts, and a reply to every review. Monthly map scan so you can see it moving.
Best for: a business whose customers find them on the map, not on their website.
Start with the profileThe whole stack.
Everything in the profile tier, plus the pages that win the searches the map cannot reach. Service pages, location pages, technical fixes, directory cleanup, and the outreach that earns links. Monthly report showing what moved and what is next.
Best for: a business with more than one service or more than one town to cover.
Get the full stackThe $99 tier covers the Google profile only. Anything on your website lives in Local SEO.
Every engagement starts with the same picture: where you stand on each layer, which pages you are missing, and what we would do in what order. Here is a full example, built on a fictional company so nothing is confidential.
View a sample audit (fictional company) →We'll audit all seven layers — your profile, reviews, money pages, technical, listings, content, and links — and tell you the lowest broken layer, in plain language. That's your headline. Everything else waits.
We've received your request and will be in touch within 1 business day to kick off your audit.