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)
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Primary category matches your highest-value service
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All applicable secondary categories selected
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Services with descriptions for each
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Products listed where applicable
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Attributes filled in (women-owned, wheelchair accessible, etc.)
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25+ recent photos
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Posts shipping weekly
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Q&A seeded with common questions
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Reviews above 4.5★ with regular velocity
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Hours accurate including holidays
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Service area defined (or storefront address)
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UTM-tagged website link
On-site (10 items)
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Each location has its own page with unique content
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LocalBusiness schema with sameAs to GBP
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NAP consistent across header, footer and contact page
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Embedded Google Map
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Customer reviews displayed on page
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FAQ section with FAQPage schema
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Service-area cities listed naturally (no doorway pages)
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Page loads under 2.5s LCP
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Mobile-first design (most local searches are mobile)
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Click-to-call button visible above the fold
Reviews (6 items)
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Automated review request workflow (email + SMS)
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Response template for 5-star reviews
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Response template for negative reviews (within 24h)
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Reviews integrated on website
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Review velocity matches or beats competitors
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Reviews mention specific services (not just "great service")
Citations (5 items)
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Cleanup of inconsistent NAP across Yelp, BBB, industry directories
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Submission to niche industry directories
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Suppression of duplicate listings
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Apple Maps and Bing Places claimed and optimized
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BrightLocal or Yext automation for ongoing consistency
Conversion tracking (5 items)
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Call tracking with provider attribution
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Form tracking with GA4 events
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GBP click and direction tracking
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Offline conversion import to Google Ads
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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.
