Get Found Where You Are · Vivian Robelo

One afternoon, in four blocks

This is local visibility for people whose business serves a place, so cafés, studios, trades, practices, and it’s checklist work rather than marketing talent, which means nobody is asking you to be clever on demand, and it keeps paying out for years after the afternoon you spend on it. Set aside three hours and work down the four blocks in the order they come.

tick each step as you finish it, and it stays ticked on this device

01 · google business profile 02 · the listings that matter 03 · the review engine 04 · your one local page

Google Business Profile, the big one

Block 1 · 60 min, and start this one first, as the verification can take a few days to reach you.

Block 1 · Google Business Profile, the big one [60 min]

Claim it at google.com/business, so your business name and then verify by postcard or phone, and start this one first, as the verification can take a few days to reach you.
Category, and pick the most specific one that’s actually true of you, because “Wedding cake shop” will beat “Bakery” every time as long as you really are one.
Every field filled in, so hours including the holiday ones, plus phone, site link, service area, because an empty field is what quietly puts you underneath somebody who filled theirs in.
Photos, ten of them at minimum and yours rather than stock, so the front, the inside, the work, your face, and then swap a couple out each quarter so it still looks like the place people will walk into.
The description, which is your one-liner, who you serve, and the area you serve it in, written the way you’d say it out loud, and no keyword stuffing, because it reads as spam to people and to Google now.
The Products/Services section, so every offer with its price on it, and yes, the actual prices, because the people who quietly leave without asking are the ones who couldn’t work out what it costs.

The listings that matter

Block 2 · 45 min, and the same name, address and phone number character for character in every one.

Block 2 · The listings that matter [45 min]

Same name, same address and same phone number, character for character identical in every place you list it, because inconsistency is the thing that holds local search back more quietly and more completely than anything else on this page.

Apple Maps at mapsconnect.apple.com, which is what everybody with an iPhone is actually looking at when they search for you.
Bing Places, which imports everything straight from Google in a few minutes, so it costs you almost nothing to have one.
Yelp, and claim it even if you have feelings about Yelp, because the listing is there whether or not you ever log in.
A Facebook page with the correct information on it, because it ranks whether or not you ever post there again.
A Nextdoor business page, which is free and does more for local services than most people expect it to.
Your industry’s own directory, so that’s [‹the one your customers actually check›], and there’s usually only the one that matters.

If you’re not sure which one that is, this is where each industry’s customers usually look, and directories change, so the tie-breaker is searching “‹your industry› near me” and being wherever that first page is.

food and drink	Yelp · TripAdvisor · OpenTable if you take reservations
trades and home services	Angi · Thumbtack · Nextdoor, where the recommendations threads live
health and wellness	Zocdoc · Healthgrades, and your insurance networks' own finders
beauty and personal care	Booksy · StyleSeat, because the booking app is the directory
weddings and events	The Knot · WeddingWire, and couples check both
everyone, whatever you do	Google Business · Apple Maps · Bing Places · Nextdoor

The review engine

Block 3 · 30 min to set up, runs forever.

Block 3 · The review engine [30 min to set up, runs forever]

Get your review link from the Google Business dashboard, so “Ask for reviews” and then copy the short link it hands you.
Save this message in your phone so that it’s already written when you need it: “Thank you again for ‹the thing›, and if you have 60 seconds, a Google review genuinely helps a small business like mine more than you’d guess, so here’s the link: ‹link›. No pressure at all.”
Send it within 48 hours of every happy customer while the goodwill is still warm, and that really is the whole engine, because the asking is the part almost nobody gets around to.
Reply to every review including the strange ones, and keep it short, warm and professional, because future customers read your replies more closely than they read the reviews themselves.

Your site’s one local page

Block 4 · 45 min, so a person and a search engine both see where you are in the first second.

Block 4 · Your site’s one local page [45 min]

Your city and what you do should turn up in the page title, in the headline or the subline, and in the footer, so that a person and a search engine both see it in the first second.
An “areas served” line if you cover several towns, and one sentence is enough, because a list of forty suburbs reads as spam to everybody who sees it.
Embed the Google map of your location or your area, since it’s one paste and it settles the where-are-you question before anybody has to ask it.
Your phone number at the top on mobile and clickable, because somebody standing on the street choosing between you and the next place will tap it rather than type it out.

Then you’re done, and maintenance is 15 min/month

Two new photos onto the Google profile, which is a minute of your time and keeps the listing looking current.
Send the review ask to whoever was happy with you that month, and that’s the slot where the engine actually runs.
Check the hours are still right, especially around holidays, because they change and nobody ever remembers to update them.
And that’s genuinely it, so when the $99/month “local SEO” calls start coming in you can say no without wondering, because you already did the thing they’re selling.

do this nowOpen google.com/business and start the claim today, because the verification postcard takes days to arrive and that wait only starts when you do.