In short
Most local businesses burn paid budget because their local SEO foundation is broken. Here's the 38-point checklist we run before activating any paid channel.
Introduction
Local SEO has consolidated. Google now weighs proximity, primary category, review velocity, photo recency and on-site E-E-A-T signals far more than NAP citations from 2014 directories. Get the foundation right before you activate Google Ads or LSA.
Google Business Profile (12 items)
- Primary category matches your highest-value service
- All applicable secondary categories selected
- Services with descriptions for each
- Products listed where applicable
- Attributes filled in (women-owned, wheelchair accessible, etc.)
- 25+ recent photos
- Posts shipping weekly
- Q&A seeded with common questions
- Reviews above 4.5★ with regular velocity
- Hours accurate including holidays
- Service area defined (or storefront address)
- UTM-tagged website link
On-site (10 items)
- Each location has its own page with unique content
- LocalBusiness schema with sameAs to GBP
- NAP consistent across header, footer and contact page
- Embedded Google Map
- Customer reviews displayed on page
- FAQ section with FAQPage schema
- Service-area cities listed naturally (no doorway pages)
- Page loads under 2.5s LCP
- Mobile-first design (most local searches are mobile)
- Click-to-call button visible above the fold
Reviews (6 items)
- Automated review request workflow (email + SMS)
- Response template for 5-star reviews
- Response template for negative reviews (within 24h)
- Reviews integrated on website
- Review velocity matches or beats competitors
- Reviews mention specific services (not just "great service")
Citations (5 items)
- Cleanup of inconsistent NAP across Yelp, BBB, industry directories
- Submission to niche industry directories
- Suppression of duplicate listings
- Apple Maps and Bing Places claimed and optimized
- BrightLocal or Yext automation for ongoing consistency
Conversion tracking (5 items)
- Call tracking with provider attribution
- Form tracking with GA4 events
- GBP click and direction tracking
- Offline conversion import to Google Ads
- CRM integration for lead → revenue attribution
Fix the foundation, then scale paid. Skipping this is how local businesses spend $10K/month on Google Ads with nothing to show.
