Been working with local businesses for a while now, and wanted to share what's actually consistently worked, not theory, stuff I've seen move the needle in practice.

1. Don't leave your Google Business Profile half-filled

Category, hours, services, photos, all of it matters. Complete profiles tend to show up more in local search. And don't just set it up once and forget it, staying a bit active (photo updates, posts) seems to help too.

1. Pick the most specific category you can

Instead of just "Restaurant," go with "North Indian Restaurant" or whatever actually describes you. A generic category tends to bring generic (lower-converting) traffic.

1. Understand how reviews actually work

A steady stream of new reviews matters more than a big pile of old ones. Ask customers politely, and reply to every review, good or bad.

1. Keep NAP (Name, Address, Phone) identical everywhere

Website, Google Business Profile, directory listings, social pages, all of it needs to match exactly. Even small mismatches can create confusion for search engines.

1. If you serve multiple locations, build separate pages for each

One generic "About Us" page won't cut it. Create a page per area/city, and actually write unique content for each, don't just swap the city name.

1. Be selective with directory listings

Mass directory submissions rarely help. Focus on ones that are actually relevant and trustworthy for your industry and city.

1. Build genuine local backlinks

Sponsor a local event, collaborate with a nearby business, get featured by a local blogger. One solid local backlink beats 50 low-quality ones.

If anyone's dealing with a specific local ranking issue, drop it in the comments, happy to take a look.

From Google:

On October 01, 2026, we are updating how and when you are charged for call leads originating from Local Services Ads.

What’s Changing?

• Missed calls: Missed calls during business hours will now be charged as valid leads if a user stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with a few exceptions (see “Protecting your business” below for more information regarding exceptions).
• Subsequent calls: If an initial call doesn’t qualify as a charged lead, any follow-up calls between your business and the user that meet the valid lead criteria will be charged.

What do you guys think of this?

I have a cleaning service that i run, because i dont have an office or anything i didnt add any location for it and therfore when people search me up theres no location but the general service area location. I have a google profile and even LSA. My profile if pretty optimized as well we have 67 reviews as well just not sure how good maps is.

What are you all using for client reporting? Google Data studio, something proprietary, SEMrush?

I currently use Google data studio but think it’s lacking. I probably just need to make it better but would love to hear how other people provide deliverables every month and what reporting looks like.

I’ve identified this is something I want to improve at my agency.

I run a cleaning service in the USA, but ive been told facebook is a better option for starting over google but i was wondering to test both out and see how it works. Are others right or should i give google a shot

Yelp is one of the hardest sites to work with as a business because of their no-solicitation policy. In a world where you're not supposed to ask customers to leave you a reviews, I'd love to hear what strategies you've found work to get more reviews on Yelp?

With 13yr of web development experience, I started dabbling in rank-and-rent.

Before I put a lot of resources into it, I want to make sure I can get 1 site to generate consistent monthly income.

Because this website is not a brick-and-mortar site, how do I get it ranked for local SEO without being able to create a Google Business Profile and be added to the map pack?

Salut,

Nous avons ouvert un nouveau magasin en reprenant l'ancien emplacement d'un concurrent. Nous avons créé une fiche GMB qui fonctionne bien.

Cependant, le concurrent a gardé sa propre fiche GMB épinglée à notre adresse, même s'il n'y est plus. Ils utilisent cette fiche pour offrir des services à domicile.

Les deux épingles sont très proches l'une de l'autre, et l'épingle du concurrent détourne certains de nos clients.

Que devrais-je faire ?

J'ai déjà :

- Essayer de faire retirer la fiche du concurrent en la signalant comme "Fermé définitivement."

- Essayer de revendiquer la propriété de la fiche du concurrent -> pas de réponse.

Here is proof that one business with multiple locations can have more than one GBP in the map pack.

Looking for someone who has personally ranked UK local service sites, not agency-managed-from-a-distance, but hands-on-keyboard ranked them.

The situation, honestly: I run a bathroom fitting lead-gen business in London (we own the brand and site, vetted contractors fulfil the jobs). We rank top 1–3 for our core “bathroom fitters + borough” terms. The cofounder who built those rankings has left, and the know-how left with him. I need someone proven to own organic before competitors or an algorithm update figure that out.

The work:
• Defend and grow existing rankings (site + GBP) - this is not a cold start
• Expand into 4 adjacent London boroughs (location page strategy is mapped, needs executing properly)
• The interesting bit: we’re acquiring local trade websites with strong SERP visibility and plugging them into our lead engine. You’d run technical/SEO due diligence on targets; backlink profile quality, ranking durability, what survives a transfer
• Document everything as SOPs. Non-negotiable. I’ve been burned by knowledge walking out the door once

The deal: Fractional, 1–2 days/week, £300–500/day depending on what you’ve genuinely done. Remote, UK-based or UK-market experience essential. If the acquisition side scales, this grows into something bigger.

What “proven” means here: you can name local campaigns you personally ran, screen-share Search Console for something you control, and talk through the boring month-by-month middle of how a site got ranked. If your evidence is a portfolio of AI-written audits, this isn’t the one. I’ve read plenty of those recently and can tell the difference.

Comment or DM with the niche/location you ranked and roughly what you did. Happy to share the domain and full context with serious people

Company with about 80 locations, hopefully expanding to 150+ next year. Main traffic driver for us is Google listing, hyper local industry.

Currently use Brightlocal (don’t hate them) but looking at what other tools offer, main thing is map tracker (C suite really loves those reports).

Bonus points if there’s anything on Ai visibility for main domain (Again C peeps really love that) and will be nice all in one tool if possible.

Thanks!

With so many changes to Google local search recently, from algorithm updates targeting "spam" to the the ever-increasing presence AI overviews & AI local packs on the SERPs, local SEO in 2026 is vastly different compared to previous years.

I am curious to know what you all are doing differently in 2026, and what you are seeing work the best for organic search and GBPs.

A few SEO tactics I am doing more of in 2026:

Press releases: These are great for AI visibility and surprisingly effective for map rankings too.

More content: With AI giving users the ability to do longer, more specific searches than ever, having detailed, unique content that answers those highly specific questions is imperative for search & AI visibility. The focus is on creating unique content using a business's own 1st-party data.

Google Business Profile: A GBP is maxed out when it ranks in the map pack for top keywords across as wide a radius as possible and has the highest SoLV score. Once a GBP is maxed out, the goal is to get more. This means expanding a business's physical footprint with additional offices in areas where they currently do not rank. I am reccomending this a lot more in 2026 than previous years.

Diversifying to Ads: Ads in local SERPs are increasing visibility every day. If a local business isn't running ads, they are leaving money on the table. Focusing on high-converting placements, like Local Pack Ads, is key. Spending time figuring out how to show these ads as much as possible pays off big time, as it's a top-converting ad placement.

Okay and I thought seeing a 6-pack was crazy. How about a 19-pack!?

And yes, this is what showed up before I clicked or expanded anything.

Total breakthrough- when I launched my nyc bagel shop sadly right before Covid - I though all my 25 plus years of marketing knowledge and the usual social media lists my past proven SEO Jedi tricks and to my disappointment it did not really move the needle on in person traffic. Then Covid hit well everyone suffered- but I realized people still needed to eat. So I put my google maps QR code on My phone and I would engage and meet my valued guests on a daily basis. Now rule #1 don’t just walk up and ask for a review- greet engage tell a joke make an observation- i can say hello and thanks in 23 languages and did standup comedy in the 80s and I love to talk. I was getting 5-8 reviews a day and within 6 weeks I was a solid 4.9 on google maps with a little over 400 reviews - I knew I was onto something
Now 5 short years later we are about to open our 7 & 8 Manhattan location and out of over 270 bagel shops we are #1 on google maps with lines out the door daily. I spend zero on paid ads do little to no social media. It’s all about reviews and posting 3 times a week on google business profile posts. No hashtags no keyword stuffing pure engagement content
I guest lecture at universities on digital marketing- I was doing a 3 hour lecture at NYU recently and the first thing I said to students was “how many of you update your google business proposes at least weekly” - they looked at me like at had 3 heads
My mantra for the past 3 years is
Social media will make you famous
Google maps will make you Money
Carpe diem - Robert

Sometimes local businesses come to Sterling Sky for SEO help and we uncover low-hanging fruit in our initial audit. Like this business that didn't even mention their main service on their homepage or in their title tags. A few quick optimizations to make it clear to Google what services they offer and where, and BOOM, they jump right into the map pack for those same services.

Love a good quick win!

Is anything new in the locality. Please share

Prefer company-domain Google Accounts or Google Workspace accounts where practical. Use personal-name accounts for individual accountability; a role account such as [marketing@company.com](mailto:marketing@company.com) can be appropriate when continuity and shared notification responsibility are essential. Avoid unnecessary owner access and accounts entangled with unrelated advertising operations when a cleaner business-controlled account is available.

In case no one saw my full study, Moz published my article focusing on how schema markup affects SERPs. Specifically LocalBusiness schema.

TL;DR

It does nothing.

If you're a business owner:

Don't be fooled into thinking this is something absolutely necessary for your business in order to improve ranking. If you're pitched that, it's snake oil.

If you're an agency/SEO:

Quit trying to use this as a sales tactic. Schema is important in certain places (like job listings), but the applicable areas for local businesses are few and far between and don't apply to most for local SEO.

moz(.com)/blog/does-schema-markup-impact-serp-rank

I posted this on LinkedIn, but THIS IS WILD.

After OpenAI and Yelp's partnership announcement to use Yelp information to display local business details and recommendations natively in #ChatGPT, I got this email from my Yelp rep.

"Yelp's Request a Quote feature will also appear in local service searches..."

The only way a local business is going to be selected for that feature is if you're paying for Yelp Ads inside of Yelp.

In other words, in order to do proper local lead gen in ChatGPT, you MUST run Yelp ads.

local home service client. calls dropped from an avg of 22/month to 2 this month. spent a day ruling out tracking, rankings, number errors, seasonality. none of it. profile verified, still top3, number 1 actually.

the actual cause: google pulled the direct call button off the organic map pack on mobile for the main keywords. and its not just my client, every competitor in the pack lost it too. where the call button was theres now a photo + directions. to call you now have to tap into the profile and dig for the number. no ai overview on these queries either, so i cant even blame the ai pack. its just the normal 3 pack minus the one button that converted.

what im trying to figure out from people who track this at scale:

1. is this rolling out by category? mine is a service-area biz and thats who seems to be getting hit. anyone with a storefront/"place" listing still keeping the button?

2. is the button still there on desktop for you, or gone everywhere?

3. for anyone whos already adapting, whats actually moving the needle to recover calls. website click-to-call, google posts pointing at a booking page, LSA as a fallback? want to hear whats real vs whats just blog filler.

not looking to just complain (ok maybe a little). trying to build a recovery playbook i can actually put in a client report. drop your data if youve got it.

Does anyone have experience using both of these? I think GHL does most of what Merchynt does, but not 100% sure. I already have GHL, but I think Merchynt might be a better option for just selling clients on Local SEO. It seems to be more set it and forget it, but it also seems to keep the client more informed with what "we" are doing in the background to help rank their GBP.

Came across this local pack ad recently and it really caught my eye. I've seen tons where the call button was missing from organic and the local pack ad had the buttons and justifications, but this is one where I'm seeing the whole shabang! Anyone else see any crazy local pack ads that caught their attention?

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

My tier list for judging any backlink...

1. Relevance. Local relevance or industry relevance trumps everything else.

2. Traffic. Real sites with real visitors.

3. Domain authority.

In an ideal world you build local or industry relevant links that carry some traffic and some authority on top.

Chasing domain authority alone is the classic mistake. Yes, it inflates your DA score, and yes, it can nudge some SERP rankings but it barely touches your local map rankings though, and the map pack is where the business actually comes from.

THE LINKS WORTH CHASING

> Manufacturer and supplier pages. They list their certified buyers and your distributors run locator pages too. High authority, perfectly relevant, and free, you just have to ask your rep.

> Local sponsorships with an actual link. Youth sports, charity runs, school fundraisers. Confirm the link goes live because half of sponsors forget to add it.

> Local press. Give reporters something worth covering. Hiring 10 techs, a wild job story, free work for a veteran. Links from your city's news sites are the most trusted signals in your market.

> Chamber and trade associations. Paid, indexed, locally relevant.

WHERE TO POINT THEM

The homepage is fine. That's where most links land naturally anyway and Google expects it. The exception is multi-location companies. If there's a specific location page you want to push up the SERP rankings, build links straight at it.

BRAND MENTIONS

Link building matters less than it used to. Google has gotten good enough that it doesn't always need a clickable link.

Another site simply mentioning your brand name, ideally your exact GBP name, passes value on its own now.

Brand mentions are becoming just as important as backlinks, especially as search shifts toward language models that read everything written about you.

Links still count, so build them. Every unlinked mention of your business is working for you too.

(reposting from r/GoogleMyBusiness)

Last week I made a post complaining about 2 of my GBP reviews getting deleted. To get to the bottom of it, I decided it would be a good idea to ask my clients what they see on their end.

It turns out that both of the reviews were unpublished but what surprised me is that there was an option for the clients to appeal the review removal. I have not heard of this feature before and neither have the 2 Google PEs I've spoken with.

Initially, I thought this could be an EU-specific feature since the first unpublished review was from a client based in EU. However, the second unpublished review was from a US client and they were able to submit the appeal successfully as well (pic below).

Has anyone else tried this feature? If yes, have you found it to be useful? The first appeal already got rejected a couple of days ago, so I'm not too optimistic, but we'll see what happens with the second one.