Guides
Plain-English guides for local businesses.
How local search actually works, what it costs, and what you can do yourself. Every figure is sourced, and nothing here is padded to sell you something.
Local SEO
Rankings, landing pages, links, tracking and what local SEO costs.
A 12-Month Local SEO Plan: What to Do Each Month and What to Expect
A 12-month local SEO plan for UK businesses: what to do each month, from your Google Business Profile and service pages to reviews, AI search and refreshes.
Do Reviews Help Local SEO? What Google Says and What It Doesn't
Do reviews help local SEO? Google's own words, what practitioners estimate, why recency beats your total and where reviews win the call. Learn what counts.
Google Search Console for Small Business: The 15-Minute Monthly Check
Google Search Console for small business owners: one setup, then a 15-minute monthly check of performance, indexing and warnings. Learn what to ignore.
How Long Does Local SEO Take? A Straight Answer
How long does local SEO take? Real UK campaign data and Google's own guidance replace vague timelines with sourced medians. Learn what changes yours.
How to Choose a Local SEO Agency: 8 Checks Before You Sign
Learn how to choose a local SEO agency with 8 checks: Google's own questions, who owns your Google listing, proof you can verify and the exit terms to read.
How to Rank for 'Near Me' Searches (Without Writing 'Near Me' Everywhere)
How to rank for near me searches: how Google reads 'near me', why it doesn't belong in your profile name, and what really moves you up. Learn how.
How to Track Local SEO Leads and Rankings: A Practical Guide for UK Small Businesses
Learn how to track local SEO leads and rankings for free with Google Business Profile, Search Console, GA4, a map grid check and one monthly spreadsheet.
Impressions Up, Clicks Down: Is AI Search Taking Your Clicks?
Impressions up clicks down in Search Console? See what the AI Overviews CTR studies really show, why local firms are less exposed, and how to check for free.
Keywords for Small Business: How to Find Local Searches You Can Actually Win
Keywords for small business: list services and towns, check each results page is commercial, and find local searches you can win. Free tools only.
Local citations in the UK: a 7-step guide to building and cleaning them up
Learn how to build and clean up local citations in the UK: lock one NAP, align Google, Bing and Apple, then the directories and trade bodies worth your time.
Local Landing Pages for SEO: How to Build Pages That Aren't Copies
Build local landing pages for SEO that aren't copies. Get a section-by-section template, avoid the town swap trap, and learn to make each page genuinely local.
Local link building without an agency budget
Local link building for UK small businesses: seven evening-sized steps using suppliers, sponsorships and local press, plus how to check each link is live.
Local SEO Audit Checklist: 9 Checks You Can Run in Under an Hour
Run this local SEO audit checklist yourself in under an hour. No paid tools, no jargon, no gated PDF checklist. See exactly what to check and fix first.
Local SEO Cost UK: What You'll Actually Pay in 2026
Find out what local SEO really costs in the UK for 2026, including VAT traps, fair contract lengths, and how to judge if a quote is good value.
Local SEO for Service Area Businesses: How to Rank Without a Shopfront
Local SEO for service area businesses: how UK trades with no shopfront pick towns, structure their site, write honest town pages and earn trust. Learn how.
Local SEO ranking factors: what Google has actually confirmed
Google confirms three local SEO ranking factors. Learn what else moves the map pack and blue links, which numbers are only estimates, and what to fix first.
SEO vs Paid Ads for Local Business: How to Decide Where Your Money Goes
SEO vs paid ads for local business, compared on speed, cost, stopping ads, Local Services Ads and Checkatrade. Learn which mix fits your trade and town.
Website Redesign SEO: A Checklist for Local Businesses Getting a New Site
Website redesign SEO checklist for local businesses: benchmark, protect town pages, map 301 redirects, update your GBP link and know when to get help.
What a Good Local SEO Case Study Should Show (and What Should Make You Suspicious)
Learn what a good local SEO case study should show: enquiries not just rankings, fair dates, non-brand growth, starting numbers and source-tool screenshots.
What Is Local SEO? A Plain-English Guide for UK Business Owners
What is local SEO? A plain-English guide for UK trade businesses: how it works, what it costs, and when it isn't worth the money. No jargon, no hype.
Why Has My Organic Traffic Dropped? A 7-Step Diagnosis for Local Businesses
Why has my organic traffic dropped? Follow a 7-step check in Search Console and GA4 to find the cause: tracking, seasonality, redesigns, updates or your GBP.
Why Your Local Business Isn't Getting Leads From Google (and How to Find the Leak)
Why is your local business not getting leads from Google? Find which of four stages is leaking enquiries, with a self-check for each. Learn where to start.
Google Business Profile
Getting into the map pack and staying there.
Do Google Business Profile Posts Help SEO? What the Evidence Says
Do Google Business Profile posts help SEO? See what Google and a controlled test say, why posts get rejected, and how often posting is worth it.
Google Business Profile Management Cost in the UK: Real Prices and What You Get
Google Business Profile management cost in the UK: published prices from about £50 to £250 a month, what each level should include, and what to do yourself.
Google Business Profile Opening Hours and Rankings: What the Evidence Says
Learn how Google Business Profile opening hours and rankings connect, when 24/7 hours are honest, and how to set special hours for UK bank holidays.
Google Business Profile Photos: Best Practices That Win the Click
Google Business Profile photos best practices: Google's specs, what to shoot, what gets removed, consent for faces, and why geotags don't help. Learn more.
Google Business Profile Ranking Factors: Why You Are Not in the Map Pack
Google Business Profile ranking factors are relevance, distance and prominence, and a full profile only satisfies one. See which is costing you the map pack.
Google Business Profile Service Areas: How to Set Them Up and Hide Your Address
Set up Google Business Profile service areas the current way: hide your address, pick up to 20 towns or postcodes, and get verified without a shopfront.
Google Business Profile Suspended? How to Find Out Why and Appeal It
Google Business Profile suspended? Learn how to find the reason, fix it, gather UK evidence and appeal through Google's tool, plus what to do if it's denied.
Google Business Profile Verification: How to Get Verified (and What to Do When It Fails)
Google Business Profile verification, step by step from Google's own rules: which method you get, a video that passes, and what to do when it fails.
How to Check Your Google Maps Rankings From Where Your Customers Actually Search
Learn how to check Google Maps rankings from where your customers search: strip out personalisation, run a free geo-grid scan and read what it shows.
How to Choose Google Business Profile Categories: A Plain-English Guide for UK Businesses
Learn how to choose Google Business Profile categories: pick a specific primary, add only the secondaries that earn a slot, and change them safely.
How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Local Business (Without Breaking Google's Rules)
Learn how to get more Google reviews for your local business: your review link, a compliant script, and what Google and UK law ban, including review gating.
How to Optimise Your Google Business Profile: A Step by Step Guide for UK Businesses
Learn how to optimise your Google Business Profile in the right order: categories, service area, reviews and more. A straight guide for UK business owners.
Which URL Should Your Google Business Profile Link To?
Homepage or location page? Learn the best landing page URL for Google Business Profile by situation, with Google's rules and dated practitioner tests.
Why Your Business Sits Outside the Google Maps 3-Pack
Learn how to rank higher on Google Maps: what relevance, distance and prominence mean, and what actually moves each one for your local business.
AI search (GEO)
Getting named by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI assistants.
AI Search Visibility for Local Businesses: What It Means and Whether It Matters
What AI search visibility actually means for a local business, how selective ChatGPT and AI Overviews really are, and how to check yours in ten minutes.
Do Reviews Affect AI Search Recommendations? What's Documented and What's Guesswork
Do reviews affect AI search recommendations? What Google documents, what ChatGPT can see and which claims are vendor guesswork. Learn what matters in the UK.
Does llms.txt Help Local Businesses? What the Evidence Actually Shows
Does llms.txt help local businesses? Learn what Google, OpenAI and server-log studies say, and why the file is harmless but never worth paying for.
Entity SEO for Local Businesses: What an 'Entity' Actually Is and What to Do About It
Entity SEO for local businesses in plain English: what an entity is, why your Business Profile matters, and four fixes Google's own docs support. Learn more.
Gemini SEO for Local Businesses: How to Get Recommended by Google's AI
Gemini SEO for local businesses: how Google's AI uses your Business Profile, reviews and website to recommend you, plus a seven-step plan for UK owners.
Generative Engine Optimisation Cost UK: What GEO Should Cost a Local Business
See the generative engine optimisation cost UK providers actually publish, which GEO work your SEO already covers, and the red flags to walk away from.
GEO Audit Checklist: 7 Checks to See If AI Can Find and Recommend Your Business
Use this GEO audit checklist to see if ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity can find and recommend your local business. Seven checks you can run yourself.
GEO vs AEO vs AIO vs LLMO: Are They Different, and What Should You Buy?
GEO vs AEO, plus AIO, LLMO and AI SEO: what each label means, the one real difference, and what to check on an agency proposal before you buy.
How AI Search Citations Work: Why Some Businesses Get Named and Others Don't
Learn how AI search citations work in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity: query fan-out, which pages get cited, and why answers change each run.
How to Appear in Google AI Overviews: 8 Steps for Local Businesses
Learn how to appear in Google AI Overviews with 8 practical, UK-specific steps: what to check first, what to publish, and how long results realistically take.
How to Appear in Perplexity Recommendations: A Practical Guide for UK Local Businesses
How to appear in Perplexity recommendations as a UK local business: read the sources it cites, check PerplexityBot access and fix the listings it trusts.
How to Map the Sources AI Search Cites for Your Trade and Town
Learn how to map sources cited by AI search for your trade and town: log every link ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google cite, count them, then act on the top sites.
How to Track AI Search Visibility: A Monthly Method for Local Businesses
Learn how to track AI search visibility with a free monthly method: a frozen question set, a simple spreadsheet, plus Search Console, Bing and GA4 AI data.
How to Track ChatGPT Traffic in GA4 (and See If It Brings Enquiries)
Learn how to track ChatGPT traffic in GA4: the AI Assistant channel, a custom channel group for Perplexity and Claude, and linking AI visits to enquiries.
Structured Data for AI Search: What the Evidence Actually Says
Does structured data for AI search work? What Google says, what controlled tests found for ChatGPT, and which schema a local business should still keep.
What Are AI Overviews? A Plain-English Guide for UK Business Owners
Learn what AI Overviews are, how Google's AI summaries work, how they differ from AI Mode, how accurate they are and what they mean for UK local businesses.
What Is GEO? A Plain-English Guide for Local Business Owners
What is GEO? A plain-English guide for local business owners: how it differs from SEO, and a free 20-minute way to check your AI visibility.
Why most UK businesses are invisible when someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation
Learn how to get your business mentioned in ChatGPT: six practical steps for UK local businesses, from Google Business Profile fixes to crawler access.
How these guides are researched and checked: editorial policy.
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