Course description

When someone nearby searches for what you do, does your business show up on the map? This course shows small local businesses, step by step, how to get found on Google Maps and in local search, and how to turn those searches into calls, visits and bookings. No marketing or technical background is needed.

It's a full course, not a quick tour. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons. You follow the owner of a small dog grooming salon through seven months of local SEO, with her real-looking figures and her mistakes. She fixes an out-of-date profile and a duplicate, cleans up old listings, starts asking for reviews fairly, deals with a fake review, builds better web pages and sponsors a local event. Every section has a worksheet, answers, a cheat sheet and ready-made templates and workbooks.

What you'll learn

• How local search works: the map results, relevance, distance and prominence, and how your customers really search.
• Your Google Business Profile: claiming and verifying it, name and categories, address, service areas and hours, services and description, access and security.
• Keeping your profile working: photos, updates, answering customers' questions, booking and website links, and a 30-minute monthly routine.
• Your website: local signals on your home page, service pages, honest area pages, a full contact page and structured data in outline.
• Listings: finding and fixing your details across the web, and what to do when you move or change your number.
• Reviews: the law on fake reviews, asking fairly, replying to good and bad reviews, and reporting fake ones.
• Local links: sponsorships, local news, partners, and the link schemes to avoid.
• Special cases: service-area and home-based businesses, moving, more than one location, and spam competitors.
• Measuring: profile figures, Search Console, sensible ranking checks, "how did you find us" and a one-page monthly report.

Who it's for

Owners and staff of shops, salons, cafés, trades, clinics, studios and mobile services who want more local customers and can spare a couple of hours a week. It ends with two final projects: a full local SEO audit of your own business and a 90-day plan.

No one can promise you the top spot. What this course gives you is the honest, steady work that helps local customers find you and choose you, and a simple way to see what's working.

What will I learn?

• Understand how local search works and where your business stands today
• Set up, verify and complete a Google Business Profile within the guidelines
• Keep your profile fresh with photos, updates and a simple monthly routine
• Build service, area and contact pages that help local customers
• Find and fix your business listings so your details match everywhere
• Ask for reviews fairly and reply to good and bad reviews well
• Earn local links through events, partners and local news
• Measure calls, clicks and new customers and report on them each month

Frequently asked questions