/ GUIDE — 6 min de lecture
The local SEO checklist for review-driven businesses
GBP completeness, NAP consistency, core citations, structured data, and the weekly upkeep that keeps local rankings moving.
Cet article n'est pour l'instant disponible qu'en anglais. La traduction est en cours — le reste du site est en français.
Local SEO is mostly a completeness-and-consistency game. This is the full checklist, ordered by leverage.
1. Google Business Profile, complete
- Claimed and verified
- Correct primary category (the single most consequential field)
- Services listed, hours accurate, description written from customer language
- Photos: add 2 per week; listings with fresh photos earn more actions
- The "Ask for reviews" short link in active use everywhere you ask
2. NAP consistency
Your Name, Address, Phone must be identical — character for character — across your website footer, GBP, and every citation. Inconsistency is the classic silent killer of local rankings.
3. Core citations
Claim these first: Google, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook, Yelp, plus the 2–3 directories that matter in your vertical (Houzz, Avvo, Healthgrades, TripAdvisor…). Bing matters more than its search share suggests — it feeds several AI assistants.
4. Structured data
- LocalBusiness markup on your homepage/contact page, matching your NAP exactly
- FAQPage markup on a real FAQ built from questions customers actually ask
- Validate after every site change; re-run your site audit to confirm detection
5. One page per service, city pages where justified
Each core service gets its own page with the keyword in title, H1, first paragraph, and URL. Build "[service] in [city]" pages only where you have real proof to show — review quotes from customers in that area are the strongest content those pages can carry.
6. Weekly upkeep (45 minutes)
- 1 GBP post + 2 photos
- Respond to every new review (see the response formula in the Learn course)
- Fix one on-page basic — a title, an H1, a missing internal link
7. Monthly
- Rank check on a stable basket of 10–25 local terms — judge 4-week trends, not daily jumps
- Backlink snapshot; pursue one local link (chamber, supplier, sponsorship, local press)
- Compare calls and direction requests in GBP insights against last month
The compounding loop: reviews improve rankings and click-through → more customers → more reviews. The checklist exists to make sure nothing structural is blocking that loop from turning.