When someone in Dorchester, Cambridge or Burlington searches for a service “near me,” the results they see are local. For a small business, showing up there is often the most practical marketing win available. The good news: most of local SEO is careful, unglamorous work you can do yourself. Here is the checklist I use, built on what Google and Bing actually publish.
How local ranking works (in Google’s own words)
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the searcher) and prominence (how well known your business is, including links and reviews). Google also states there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking. Source: Google: tips to improve your local ranking.
You can’t change distance. You can improve relevance and, over time, prominence.
1. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile
- Claim or create your profile and complete verification (Google: add or claim your Business Profile).
- Use your real business name. Don’t add keywords or neighborhood names to it; Google’s Google Business Profile guidelines prohibit that.
- Pick the most specific primary category that fits, and add secondary categories only if they’re accurate.
2. Storefront or service-area business?
If customers visit you, list your address and hours. If you travel to customers or work remotely and don’t serve customers at your address, Google asks you to remove the address and set a service area instead. You can list up to 20 service areas by city or ZIP code, and Google says the overall area shouldn’t extend beyond about two hours’ drive from your base (Google: manage service areas for service-area businesses). For home-based businesses, this also keeps your home address off the map.
3. Complete every useful field
- Hours (including holiday hours), services with plain-English descriptions, and a link to the most relevant page on your site.
- Real photos of your work, team or space. Skip stock images.
- Posts for news, offers or events, kept factual.
4. Make your website match
Your profile and your website should tell the same story.
- One clear page per core service, written for people, not stuffed with city names. Google’s Google spam policies specifically call out lists of cities and near-duplicate city pages.
- A descriptive title tag and meta description on each page, one H1, and headings that reflect what customers ask. The Google SEO Starter Guide covers the basics well.
- Your business name, city and a way to contact you, shown consistently. (Service-area businesses can show the city without a street address.)
- Optional: LocalBusiness structured data that matches the visible page (Google LocalBusiness structured data documentation).
- Fast, mobile-friendly pages. Many local searches happen on phones.
5. Get listed consistently elsewhere
Citations are mentions of your business name, location and website on other sites. Consistency matters more than volume.
- Bing Places for Business and Apple Business Connect cover Bing and Apple Maps.
- Local and industry organizations you actually belong to, such as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce or your town’s chamber, and the Better Business Bureau.
- Industry directories that real customers use. Avoid paid link schemes and low-quality directory blasts; Google treats those as link spam.
6. Earn reviews the honest way
Reviews influence both rankings and customers. Google’s Google: tips to get more reviews recommend simply asking customers and making it easy with a direct review link.
The rules matter here. Under the FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, effective October 21, 2024, businesses can’t buy, create or sell fake reviews, can’t offer incentives conditioned on positive sentiment, and must handle insider reviews carefully (FTC Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule Q&A). FTC staff also warn that asking only happy customers for reviews can be misleading (FTC Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking). My rule of thumb:
- Ask every customer, not just the happy ones.
- Never offer anything in exchange for a positive review.
- Never post reviews from family or employees without clear disclosure, and never write reviews yourself.
- Reply to every review, positive or negative, calmly and specifically.
7. Publish locally useful content
A short post that answers a real local question beats a generic article. Examples: a Somerville restaurant explaining parking and transit options, a Waltham accountant covering Massachusetts filing deadlines with links to official sources, or a Woburn manufacturer showing how to request a quote. Google’s guidance on Google: creating helpful, reliable, people-first content is a good test: would a real customer find it useful?
8. Measure what matters
- Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to see the queries and pages that earn impressions and clicks.
- Use Google Business Profile performance data for calls, direction requests and website clicks.
- Add analytics (Google Analytics setup guide) and track contact-form submissions as conversions.
- Review monthly. Local SEO compounds slowly. Anyone promising guaranteed rankings is promising something Google says can’t be bought.
A simple monthly routine
- Check your profile for unwanted edits and update hours or services.
- Ask recent customers for reviews and reply to new ones.
- Add one or two real photos or a short post.
- Publish or update one helpful page or article.
- Review Search Console queries and adjust page titles where needed.
Where I can help
I help Boston and Greater Boston small and mid-size businesses set this up properly and build a routine they can keep running. If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your profile and site, see my marketing services for Boston businesses.
Peter Klausz is an MBA (University of Rochester, Simon Business School) and the founder of Statadventure, LLC. Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, he offers marketing services, website design and business plans for Greater Boston businesses, and builds software in Python and SQL with AI-assisted development. Book a free 30-minute call.