Joe Chierotti's SEO & Inbound Marketing Blog

Local SEO starts with accurate business information, relevant service pages, genuine customer feedback, and a reliable way to contact you. A business owner should prioritize the gaps that stop a nearby customer from choosing the business, rather than chase every possible directory listing. Audit the customer journey Search for your business name and your main service from the area you serve. Record the date and search location, because results can vary. Check whether the business details are correct and whether the landing page answers the question that prompted the search. Google describes local visibility in terms of relevance, distance, and prominence. Its local ranking guidance is a useful baseline. Distance is a constraint to understand, not something to solve by inventing addresses. Business profile checklist Confirm eligibility, ownership, and the real-world business name. Select categories that accurately describe the business. Maintain regular hours and special holiday hours...

An AI-era SEO audit should identify whether customers can find, understand, trust, and act on your website. Start with the pages that influence inquiries, fix access and accuracy problems, then measure lead quality. AI visibility belongs inside this broader business goal. This working plan is designed for a small service business with limited time. The priorities below are recommendations, not a promise of rankings or AI citations. Choose five pages that influence revenue Start with the homepage, two core service pages, your strongest educational guide, and the contact page. For each, identify the customer, the question it answers, and the next action. An emergency service page needs a different answer and contact path from a guide explaining maintenance costs. Record the current URL, title, search description, indexed status, organic visits, inquiries, and known weaknesses. This baseline keeps the audit tied to a business outcome. Week 1: Check access and accuracy Open priority pages...