WEBVTT

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Local SEO is not a bag of tricks.

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It is the work of making one real business easy to verify, match, choose, and measure when people search in a place.

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Start with eligibility.

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A real storefront, service-area business, or hybrid can have a Google Business Profile when it follows the relevant rules.

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An online-only business, lead generator, mailbox, or unstaffed virtual office does not become eligible because someone added a city keyword.

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Google says local results are mainly shaped by relevance, distance, and prominence.

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It does not publish numerical weights.

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Relevance can improve when your categories, services, profile, and website clearly match the customer’s need.

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Distance is mostly a real-world constraint.

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Prominence grows through genuine reviews, useful work, and relevant references, not magic citation counts.

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Keep one maintained record for the business name, location, phone, hours, categories, services, owners, and changes.

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Use it to update the website, Google, Apple Business, and Bing Places.

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Ask every eligible customer for honest feedback through the same neutral process.

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Do not buy reviews, offer incentives, screen out unhappy customers, or script what people should say.

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On the website, build useful service and location pages.

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If changing the city name leaves a page basically true, the page needs real local value before it goes live.

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Add Local Business structured data only when it matches visible facts.

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Structured data can clarify information.

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It cannot promise a ranking.

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Finally, measure calls, directions, website visits, forms, bookings, and revenue where available.

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Rank grids and audit scores are diagnostics, not the finish line.

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Make it true, complete, useful, and trusted.

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Then measure what customers do.