Local SEO
Being findable nearby. The profile, the site, and facts that do not contradict each other.
What does Local SEO mean?
The work of showing up when someone nearby looks for a business like yours, mostly through your Google Business Profile and a website that agrees with it.
Also called: local search
Two surfaces, one business
The map and the short list come mainly from the Google Business Profile. The website is where a person goes to believe you. Local SEO is keeping those two aligned: name, category, hours, services, photos, and the link.
General SEO still matters for the service pages themselves. Local SEO adds the geography and the profile. It does not replace a clear page about the work.
Habits that are not the work
Buying reviews, inventing extra office locations, and publishing doorway pages for towns you barely serve are sold as local SEO. They are shortcuts with a mess behind them. We will not build them. The checklist is the version we will stand next to.
Citations, meaning other directories that mention you, matter when they are wrong. Fix the ones that show an old builder URL or a town you left. Chasing a hundred new directories is lower value than a true profile and a true site.
What inclusion looks like here
Profile setup is part of an Artol site. So is writing the pages after an audit and competitive market research. None of that is a promise of a map position. Weather, distance, reviews you earned, and competitors' pages all sit outside the contract.
Service-area companies can hide a home street and list towns. That is a supported way to be local without publishing a kitchen table. See service area.
An example
A fencing contractor's profile said the next county over, because a template defaulted there, and the site never mentioned towns at all. Correcting the profile's area and adding an honest paragraph about where the crew will drive did more than a packet of directory submissions.
Questions we get asked
How long until local SEO works?
There is no honest clock. The profile can be verified and the site can be clear in less than a week of building. Whether Google shows you for a given search is not on that clock, and we will not invent one.
Is local SEO different from ads?
Yes. Ads are paid placement you can turn off. Local SEO is the unpaid listing and the site. The $249/mo website includes the site and profile setup. It does not include an ad budget.
