Our local SEO services start from a truth most local SEO companies skip: Google builds a different Map Pack for every searcher, weighted heavily by how close they are standing. So there is no single ranking to chase — there is a map of them. We scan yours, show you where the green stops, and work the factors that widen it.
Rank by location · “emergency plumber”
Same business, same profile, same day. The average of these 25 points is a rank of 11 — a number that describes none of them.
We run a geo-grid scan across your service area and send you the map — your real position in every neighbourhood, not one average number.
Profiles optimized
Grid scanned per service area
Typical relevance-fix response
Rating on Clutch
Google names proximity, relevance and prominence as what determines local ranking. Knowing which one is holding you back is the whole diagnosis — the work for each is completely different, and one of them you cannot change at all.
How close the searcher is to your address when they search. It is the strongest single factor in the Map Pack and the one you have least control over — which is exactly why a business can sit at #1 outside its own front door and be invisible four miles away. You cannot move proximity, but you can stop it being the only thing carrying you.
How well Google understands that you do the specific thing being searched for. Primary category does most of the work here, then services, attributes and the wording on your site. This is the fastest lever in local search: a category correction can change a whole service area's rankings inside a fortnight.
How well known Google thinks you are — review count and velocity, consistency of your details across the web, local press and links, and general brand signals. It moves slowly, but it is what lets a business outrank a nearer competitor. Prominence is how you beat proximity.
Bar widths illustrate relative influence. Google does not publish weightings.
A profile can be complete, verified and well filled in and still sit outside the pack. When it does, it is almost always one of these — and none of them are fixed by adding more photos.
A general contractor set to "Construction company" will not rank for "bathroom remodeler" no matter how good the profile is. Primary category is the single biggest relevance signal, and the wrong one caps your ceiling everywhere in the area.
Too large and Google dilutes you across places you'll never win; too small and you disappear from the suburbs that actually convert. Service-area businesses in particular get this wrong, then blame the profile.
Checking your ranking from the office tells you almost nothing — you're standing at the point of maximum proximity. A single average rank number hides that you're #2 in one neighbourhood and #19 in the next. This is what the grid scan is for.
A profile with 80 reviews and none in eight months reads as less active than a competitor with 40 and one a week. Google weighs recency and pace, not just the total, and stalled velocity shows up as a slow slide down the pack.
A different suite number on your site, an old phone on a directory, a former trading name on an aggregator — each mismatch chips at prominence. It rarely causes a dramatic drop; it quietly stops you climbing.
The Map Pack is comparative, not absolute. If three competitors added photos, posts and reviews all year and you didn't, you'll fall even though nothing about your profile got worse. Local rankings decay without maintenance.
Ranking work is sequenced, not bundled. Relevance first because it moves fastest, coverage next, prominence last because it compounds slowly. If the profile itself still needs building out, that belongs with Google Business Profile optimization before any of this.
Before touching anything we scan your rankings across a grid of points spanning the service area, for the terms that actually bring work. That map tells us whether you have a relevance problem, a prominence problem, or a coverage problem — three different jobs.
Primary category set to the highest-intent match, secondaries chosen so they widen coverage without muddying relevance, and the services list built out to mirror how customers actually phrase the job.
Coverage redrawn around where you genuinely compete and want to work, rather than an optimistic radius. For service-area businesses this is usually the biggest single change available.
A repeatable request flow so reviews arrive steadily instead of in bursts, with replies on every one. Pace and recency are what the algorithm reads.
Details reconciled everywhere Google cross-checks them, plus the local links and mentions that separate a known business from a listed one. Slow, but it's what beats a closer competitor.
The same grid, the same terms, monthly. You see coverage change square by square instead of trusting a single number that could move for any reason.
None of the levers on this page lift a profile that is unverified, suspended or disabled — it isn't in the pool being ranked at all. If that's where you are, start there and come back once the listing is live.
Video is the default method now and the rules changed twice since 2024 — see the 2026 verification rules, or get GMB verification help.
A suspended listing is off the map entirely. Our GMB reinstatement service handles first-time suspensions.
If Google has already turned down an appeal, that's a different job — the escalation desk picks it up from there.
The scan and the diagnosis are free because they're how both of us find out whether there's work worth doing. Ongoing work is month to month, with the same grid re-run so you can see what moved. Need leads while rankings build? Google Ads management covers the gap — and our local SEO packages show what each affordable tier includes.
Free, one per business
The scan and the read on it. You get the map of where you rank across the area and a plain explanation of what's capping you.
Get the free scanNo card, no commitment
What's included
Month to month, no lock-in
The ongoing work: relevance and coverage fixed, prominence built, and the grid re-scanned every month so you can see it move.
Start Map Pack GrowthCancel any time · Reporting you can read
What's included
Volume rate, minimum 3 locations
For brands and agencies running several profiles, where coverage overlap between locations is its own problem.
Get a multi-location quoteMin. 3 locations · Custom onboarding
What's included
Ranking work assumes a profile that is already built out — that's Google Business Profile optimization. For trades specifically, most of the coverage problems on this page show up inside local SEO for home services and local SEO for HVAC companies. Once the calls start, a conversion-focused website is what turns them into booked jobs.
The scan is free and takes a day. You get the grid, the diagnosis, and an honest answer on whether there's enough headroom to be worth paying for.