Local SEO Checklist

This is the execution list rather than the theory. Work top to bottom, because the order is deliberate: the first section can move rankings within days, and the last takes months to compound.

For the reasoning behind any item, follow the link beside it. The full explanation lives in the local SEO guide.

Do not try to do all of this in one week. Most businesses get the majority of the available gain from the first two sections.

Week 1: Profile Foundations

Fastest wins available. Nothing else on this page produces results as quickly as correcting the profile, and most businesses have at least three of these wrong.

• Claim and verify the Google Business Profile if you have not.
• Set the primary category to the narrowest accurate option.
• Add secondary categories only where you genuinely work.
• Fill the services list completely, in customer language.
• Write a plain description for humans, with no keyword stuffing.
• Check the business name is your real name, with no added keywords.
• Set accurate hours, including holidays.
• Upload at least ten real photos across exterior, team, and work in progress.
• If customers do not visit you, hide the address and set service areas correctly.

Week 2: Data and Website

Now remove the contradictions. This is the work that stops everything else being undermined.

• Write down your canonical name, address and phone in one document.
• Search your business name, old name, phone number and old address to find stray listings.
• Claim the core platforms: Bing Places and Apple Business Connect.
• Fix or claim duplicates rather than deleting them, so reviews survive.
• Make sure the website footer matches the canonical record exactly.
• Add LocalBusiness schema with matching details.
• Confirm the site loads fast on a phone on mobile data.
• Make the phone number tappable on mobile.

Ongoing From Day One: Reviews

Start this in week one and never stop. It is the fastest moving signal you control, and it works only as a habit.

• Create a short review link and save it to every phone in the business.
• Ask in person at the end of every completed job, then text the link.
• Set a weekly target rather than running a one off campaign.
• Reply to every review, positive and negative, within a couple of days.
• Never buy, gate or incentivise reviews. See reviews that improve rankings.

Month 2: Content and Pages

Now build the pages that give Google something relevant to rank, and give customers a reason to choose you.

• One page per service you want calls about, not a single services page listing everything.
• Location or suburb pages only where you can write genuine local detail.
• Answer the questions you get on the phone, on the page.
• Add real photos of completed jobs, not stock imagery.
• Include prices or ranges if you are willing to publish them, because it filters out mismatched enquiries.

Month 3 Onward: Authority

The slow compounding work. Start it once the foundations are right, because it will not compensate for a broken profile.

• List with your chamber of commerce and relevant trade bodies.
• Check supplier and manufacturer installer directories for a listing and link.
• Ask existing referral partners for a linked page.
• Sponsor something local you would support anyway.
• Build the small set of citations that matter, per the citation strategy.
• Publish one genuinely useful local resource worth referencing.

Quarterly Maintenance

Local data rots. A short quarterly pass prevents most of the problems that take months to unpick.

• Re check hours and seasonal opening times.
• Run a geo grid to see where you actually rank across your area.
• Audit for new duplicate or unclaimed listings.
• Review which services and suburbs produced calls, and adjust pages accordingly.
• Check competitor profiles for category changes worth matching.
• Report any obvious spam listings outranking you.

Key Takeaways

Order matters more than effort. Fix the profile, then the data, then build authority.

• Week one on the profile produces the fastest movement.
• Reviews are a permanent habit, not a campaign.
• Build service pages before chasing links.
• Only build suburb pages you can write honestly.
• Re audit every quarter, because local data decays.