When someone nearby searches for what you do, Google shows three local businesses first. My job is making sure one of them is you.
Six pieces of work. Each one moves you closer to showing up when it counts.
This is the listing Google puts on the map. I claim it, verify it, pick the right category, and fill in every field that gives Google something to match against.
Your name, address, and phone number need to read the same everywhere they appear online. Small mismatches make Google less certain you're a real business, and that costs you.
Recent reviews and your replies to them carry more weight than a big pile of old ones. I set up a routine that fits how you already work, so asking stops being something you forget.
A real page for each town you work in, written with something specific to say about that market. Not the same page copied five times with the name swapped out.
Listings in the directories that still matter, and links earned from real local sources. Nothing bought, nothing that puts your listing at risk.
I check your ranking from points spread across your service area, not from one spot. You see where you show up, where you fall off, and whether that line is moving.
Service businesses in the Chicagoland suburbs that get customers from search: plumbers, HVAC companies, auto repair shops, electricians, roofers, landscapers, cleaners, and contractors of most kinds. If people find you by searching for a service near them, this is the work that decides whether they find you or the shop down the road.
I work with businesses in Bolingbrook, Naperville, Plainfield, Aurora, Joliet, and the towns around them. One person handles your account, and that person is me. You won't get passed to an account manager, because there isn't one.
Almost every owner I talk to has already searched their own business and seen themselves at the top. That search is close to meaningless. You're signed into your own account and standing at your own address, which is the easiest possible test to pass.
Your customer three towns over gets a different set of results entirely. I wrote about that in why your customers don't see you on Google Maps, along with how to check it properly. If you've never been able to square "I rank fine" with "the phone isn't ringing," that's usually the answer.
Pulse Auto Care, an auto repair shop in Plainfield, came to me showing up in roughly one in six local searches across their area. After ninety days of this work, they were appearing in nearly one in three. Same shop, same services, same town. They were simply easier to find.
You can read the full breakdown of that campaign on my homepage, including the numbers behind it.
Most local businesses see movement in 60 to 90 days on the searches closest to them. Wider areas and more competitive terms take longer. Anyone promising you results in two weeks is selling something other than SEO.
Usually not. Most sites need fixes, not a rebuild. If your website genuinely is the thing holding you back I'll tell you, and most of the time it isn't.
You can rank without showing a public address. Google still ties your position to where you physically are and how close the searcher is, so setting your service area honestly matters more than setting it wide. A bigger service area doesn't stretch how far you rank, which is one of the most common misunderstandings I run into.
Ads put you at the top for exactly as long as you keep paying. Local SEO builds a position you keep. Plenty of businesses run both, and ads are a reasonable way to cover the gap while the slower work takes hold.
Then you may not need me, and I'll say so. Start with the common reasons businesses don't show up on Google Maps and check yourself against that list first.
Want to know where you stand right now? Get a free site review and I'll map where you show up across your service area, where you drop off, and what's causing it. If the answer is that you're in good shape, I'll tell you that too.
