Local SEO Checklist for Businesses

By Corey Hinde

This list is for anyone that owns a business that serves a defined area, eg a town, or part of a city.

If you have a Google Business Profile (formerly called “Google My Business”), this checklist is for you.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO means “ranking well on Google, in your local area”.

If your business services a local area, rather than the entire planet, Local SEO is for you.

If you need help with this stuff, just hit the link below:

👉 https://goodoil.marketing/contact/ 👈

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Here are the 6 steps required to improve your local SEO and get more clients for your local business:

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1️⃣ Get Google Reviews

Action: Build up as many Google Reviews for your business as possible. Also, install a system for regularly getting new Google Reviews, for example a client feedback email that goes out to every customer / client / sale. Regular reviews are more important than total review count.

Explanation: Google reviews are one of the most important factors for both ranking your local business on Google Business Profile, and also helping people decide to use your business. Getting regular Google Reviews is a very strong indicator to Google that you deserve a good ranking locally.

Example: Sunrise Car Rental, a car rental business in Tauranga New Zealand, has ramped up and improved their review inflow in the last 2 months prior to writing this article. Not suprisingly, their Local SEO results are soaring.

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2️⃣ Get Facebook or equivalent reviews

Action: You should pursue Facebook Reviews along with Google Reviews. This helps your local rankings. Add a Facebook Review link to your client feedback system along with your Google Review link.

Explanation: We recently published the following article that explains this in depth: https://coreyhinde.substack.com/p/why-you-should-chase-facebook-reviews

Example: Budget Car Sales in Auckland New Zealand, have a huge number of Facebook Reviews as seen HERE. Not surprising to see how well they rank locally for multiple car related Google searches.

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3️⃣ Optimize the Google Business Profile

Action: Work through the list linked below to ensure your Google Business Profile is well set up. If you have any problems or questions, you are more than welcome to email Corey Hinde and ask for personal advice ([email protected])

Here is the link: ⬇️

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clJGCGtKLJmjEWIu4CAbluR3WItIkzf4vDW44A5IVUw/edit?usp=sharing

Example: Mortgage Broker Michael Anastasiadis has outranked far bigger brands in Wellington NZ for quite some time, simply by paying attention to the trends and recommendations around Google Business Profile that we’ve provided to him.

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4️⃣ Install Reviews and Maps on your website

Action: Insert your Google Reviews onto your website, using a widget. Also, install your Google Business Profile onto your website. Please see images below:

Explanation: In our local SEO agency work, we’ve found over and over again that websites that install both a Google Review widget (top image), and a Google Maps embed (bottom image), rank higher on Google.

Your web developer will be able to do this easily for you.

Example: Florida Healthcare Insurance has their Google Reviews and Google Maps embedded on their website.

This helps from an SEO perspective, but also people who find their site feel more confident in selecting them as a service provider.

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5️⃣ Citations using AI

Action: Build out at least 10 business citations. These are Business Directories, where you list your website, and get a backlink to your website. Open up ChatGPT, and ask “please list the top 10 business citation websites for {your country}”.

Explanation: You’ve probably heard of how important “backlinks” are for SEO. This is also true for local SEO. Local citation links are useful as it sends messages to Google about where your business is located, and what it does.

We’ve found in our local SEO agency work that these links are an important part of ranking a website higher locally. List your business on as many of these as possible.

Example: We have recently started performing Local SEO for Melbourne Based videographer / photographer Rodney Dekker of Aspire Pictures.

Literally our first step of the campaign after our client interview was to look up “best business directories Australia”, and get to work building those out.

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6️⃣ Q and A Social Platforms

Action: Post on social media platforms that count, regularly. You can simply post common questions you get in or about your business, and the answers to those. This will help your Google rankings, and possibly help you get local leads for your business as well. We’ve explained this in more detail in the video linked below.

Explanation: