At Riley Summers, we help home services businesses get found in Google's local results across the areas they serve, through citations, location pages, local links and the business's Google profile. We measure results against the calls and booked jobs that local search produces, and charge a flat monthly fee.
On this page
- Who Local SEO Is For
- What's Included in Local SEO
- How We Approach Local Visibility
- What We Usually Find in Existing Local SEO
- How Local SEO Starts
- What's Separate From Local SEO
- Related Resources
Who Local SEO Is For
Local SEO builds visibility over months, not weeks. We see the best results with businesses that:
- Plan to grow in their market for the long term.
- Want more calls from customers searching nearby, especially in Google's map results.
- Are ready to commit to the work, rather than trying it for a month or two.
Where an owner needs calls right away, we usually recommend starting with paid search and building local SEO alongside it.
Your Google profile
The business owns it. We're added as a manager.
Your listings and pages
Citations and location pages stay with your business.
One flat fee
A fixed monthly fee for the work in your plan, with no setup fee.
One-year start
A one-year initial term, then automatic renewal with a 60-day out.
What's Included in Local SEO
Every local SEO engagement covers the business's presence across Google, the directories that list it, and its own website.
Citations
Building new ones, fixing inaccurate ones, and suppressing duplicates.
Data aggregators and niche directories
The sources that feed business information across the web, plus directories specific to the business's trade.
Location pages
Building out pages for the areas the business serves, published on the business's website wherever access allows.
Internal links
Reviewing how the site's pages link together, so location and service pages support each other.
Local links
Links from the business's community, mainly through sponsorships and local events.
Google Business Profile
Usually part of a local SEO engagement, listed as its own line item.
Location expansion analysis
When a business is considering a new area or office, we carry out a detailed evaluation of each candidate market, covering local search demand, the intent behind those searches, and the competitive landscape. The result is a shortlist of recommended locations, usually three, with the reasoning behind each.
Reporting
Monthly reports on the calls local search produces, matched to booked jobs from the business's monthly list.
How We Approach Local Visibility
Google has publicly acknowledged three factors as important in deciding which businesses appear in its local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well a business matches the search, distance is how far it is from the person searching, and prominence is how well known and trusted it is across the web.
Distance is measured in two ways. For a search that includes a city name, Google measures from that city's center. For a "near me" search, it measures from where the person is searching, usually their phone. How far from its location a business stays visible depends on its competition: the number of competing businesses and how actively they market.
Distance can't be changed, so our work goes into the other two. We build relevance through the business's profile, citations and location pages, and prominence through consistent listings, local links and reviews.
In our experience, no single piece does it alone. Citations, location pages, local links and reviews work together, and the businesses that widen their local reach do all of them consistently. Reviews carry particular weight. We encourage a steady flow of new, positive reviews, ideally two to four a week, that describe the specific service the customer received, with every review answered within a day.
We measure the calls, not just the rankings. Google's profile reports count taps on the call button, not completed calls. Where possible, we give the profile its own tracked local number, so we can see the real calls local search produces and match them to booked jobs from the business's monthly list.
For more, see Local Search & Maps and Service Area Marketing.
What We Usually Find in Existing Local SEO
These are the problems we most often find when we review a home services business's local search presence.
A keyword business name with nothing behind it
Service or city terms added to the profile name without a registered trade name (DBA) to support them, which can put the profile at risk.
What we do instead
Once the business has registered its DBA, we update the profile and every citation to match it exactly.
Inconsistent and duplicate listings
The business's name, address or phone number differ across directories, and old duplicates are still live.
What we do instead
We correct inaccurate listings, suppress duplicates and keep business information consistent across the web.
Pages with lots of content but no clear purpose
Long pages that don't match what customers in each area are searching for.
What we do instead
We build location pages around the areas the business serves and the services customers search for there.
Poor or wrong-type links
Links from irrelevant sites, or all from the same kind of source.
What we do instead
We build local links, mainly through sponsorships and community events, from a healthy mix of sources.
A profile left to go stale
Old photos, no recent posts and no sign the business is active.
What we do instead
We add new images every few months and post about community involvement and awards the business receives.
Reviews left unanswered
Reviews come in, but nobody responds.
What we do instead
When a review comes in, we offer the business suggested responses. We can post the one it chooses, or pass them to whoever handles reviews there.
Not showing up where your customers are searching?
We'll review your local search presence and show you what's holding your visibility back.
Request a free local SEO auditHow Local SEO Starts
- Free local SEO audit. We review the business's profile, listings, location pages and local competition.
- Discovery. We learn which services the owner wants more of, the areas the business serves, where its jobs have come from by ZIP code, and any plans to expand.
- Cleanup. We fix inaccurate listings, suppress duplicates and bring the business's information into line across the web, starting with the data aggregators and key directories.
- On-site work. We build out location pages for the areas the business serves and review how its pages link together. Wherever access allows, we publish the pages ourselves, so they go live quickly and as intended rather than waiting in a web company's support queue.
- Ongoing work. We build local links, keep the profile active, offer suggested review responses and report monthly, with an annual review of the engagement with the owner.
Engagements are billed at a flat monthly fee, with no separate setup fee. The cleanup, location pages and other groundwork are part of the service. There's a one-year initial term; after that, the engagement renews automatically, and either side can end it with 60 days' notice.
What's Separate From Local SEO
Every agency defines local SEO differently, and many never discuss what's left out. We set it out plainly. Local SEO covers the business's local search presence, and a few related services are available separately, depending on what the business needs.
Paid search and Local Services Ads. Both are managed as their own services. See Paid Search (PPC) and Local Services Ads.
Google Business Profile management. Profile work is usually part of a local SEO engagement and listed as its own line item. It's also available on its own.
Broader SEO and AI search visibility. Organic search beyond the business's local areas, and visibility in AI answers, are covered by our AI & Search Visibility service. See AI & Search Visibility.
Hands-on review management. Suggested review responses are included. Full review generation and response management is a separate service. See Reputation Management.
Website work. We build and publish location pages and review internal links. Website design, development and technical work are separate.
Trade name registration. We can recommend what the trade name should be, supported by an audit of local competitors showing why. Registering the DBA is the business's step. Once it's in place, we update the profile and listings to match.
Related Resources
Find out how far your local visibility really reaches.
We'll review your Google profile, business listings, location pages and local competition, and show you where you're missing calls from nearby customers.
Request a free local SEO audit