Canonical: https://awcseo.com/how-local-seo-works/ - [Home](https://awcseo.com/) - How local SEO works Six things to try # How local SEO works, in your own hands [Local SEO](https://awcseo.com/local-seo/) is three factors worked on steadily: relevance, distance and prominence. The six demonstrations below let you try each piece with made-up businesses, so when you read what the local SEO plan, [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/), the [reputation and review flow](https://awcseo.com/reputation-management/) or [citations and NAP cleanup](https://awcseo.com/citations/) include, you know exactly what the work does. Every demonstration is an illustration that runs in your browser. Nothing here measures a live search, profile or listing, and nothing is sent anywhere. Try it: the local pack ## Who gets the three spots under the map? Google scores three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Pick your trade and town, then switch the work on and off. Each switch is something one of our services does. An illustration with made-up businesses and fixed scores, so you can see how the factors interact. It does not measure any real search; your real baseline is measured when we start. roofer in Tyler - 1 **A sample roofer** Complete profile, steady reviews, listings tidy. **68** /100 - 2 **Another roofer** Good reviews, no city pages, quiet profile. **54** /100 - 3 **A third roofer** Category set, a few old reviews, listings disagree. **41** /100 - Below the map: everyone else 4 **A fourth roofer** Claimed profile, nothing else done. **30** /100 - 5 **Your business** Switch the factors on and watch. **30** /100 Position 5, below the map. Switch on the prominence factors and watch the order change. Each switch is covered by a service: [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/), [On-page local SEO and city pages](https://awcseo.com/on-page-local-seo/), [Reputation and review flow](https://awcseo.com/reputation-management/), [Citations and NAP cleanup](https://awcseo.com/citations/). This is the work the local SEO plan does every month, with a rank grid in the report. Try it: profile completeness ## How complete is a Google Business Profile? Tick what a profile already has. The score is weighted by how much each item does for searches and calls. Every unticked item says what it is for and which service covers it. An illustration of how completeness is read. It does not look at a live profile; the monthly report scores your real one with this same list. **33** out of 100 A thin profile: Google has little to match searches against, and customers see an empty page. 4 of 15 items in place. ### What is missing, and who covers it - **Secondary categories for the other services.** Each extra category is another search you qualify for. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Services listed, each with a description.** Service descriptions tell Google which searches you match. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Products added, where they apply.** Products show up as a carousel on the profile. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Attributes filled in (owner, accessibility, payments, amenities).** Attributes feed filters and the "from the business" line. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Business description written, with services and area.** The description is read by people and by Google. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Questions seeded and answered.** Unanswered questions get answered by strangers. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **A post every week.** Posts keep the profile active, and activity is part of prominence. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **A reply to every review.** Reply rate is read by customers and counts toward engagement. [Reputation and review flow](https://awcseo.com/reputation-management/) - **Messaging switched on and answered.** A message button is one more way to become a lead. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Booking or appointment link.** Lets a visitor book without leaving the map. [Google Business Profile management](https://awcseo.com/google-business-profile/) - **Name, address and phone match your website and listings exactly.** Consistency is the trust signal behind prominence. [Citations and NAP cleanup](https://awcseo.com/citations/) Google Business Profile management keeps a real profile at the top of this score. Try it: name, address, phone ## Do your listings agree with each other? Type your business as it appears in three places. The checker normalises what search engines treat as equal (St and Street, Suite and Ste, LLC or not, phone punctuation) and shows what is left: the real mismatches. An illustration of the comparison, run in your browser. The sample is a made-up business; nothing you type leaves this page. Field Result What search engines compare Name Mismatch A real difference: at least one listing says something else. This is a citation mismatch and it costs trust until it is fixed. - Your website lone pine roofing - Google Business Profile lone pine roofing - A directory (Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing) lone pine roofing and repair Address Mismatch A real difference: at least one listing says something else. This is a citation mismatch and it costs trust until it is fixed. - Your website 412 north main street suite 4 tyler texas 75702 - Google Business Profile 412 north main street suite 4 tyler texas 75702 - A directory (Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing) 410 north main street tyler texas 75702 Phone Mismatch A real difference: at least one listing says something else. This is a citation mismatch and it costs trust until it is fixed. - Your website 9035550142 - Google Business Profile 9035550142 - A directory (Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing) 9035550198 3 real mismatches: this is what the citation audit lists and the cleanup fixes. Citations and NAP cleanup fixes exactly these mismatches on 80+ directories. Try it: the rank grid ## How we show you where you stand on the map A rank grid checks one search from many points across your service area, because the map changes with where the searcher stands. Each square is a point; the number is the position. Drag the slider and watch what steady work does, month by month. An illustration with made-up positions, so you can learn to read the grid. Your real grid is measured at the start and every month after, and the monthly report shows it next to the baseline. Months of work: 0 Month 0, the baseline: in the 3-pack at 0 of 49 points, average position 16.6. - In the 3-pack (1 to 3) - Just under it (4 to 6) - Page one (7 to 10) - Page two (11 to 15) - Further down (16 and beyond) The pin in the middle is the business. Points further out are harder: distance is one of the three factors, and the work on the other two is what moves the edges. 19 20 20 20 19 20 20 20 16 15 14 17 16 20 20 15 9 12 11 15 19 20 14 12 6 10 14 20 19 17 11 10 9 17 20 20 16 15 14 17 16 20 20 20 19 20 20 20 19 This is the work the local SEO plan does every month, with a rank grid in the report. Try it: the review flow ## Ask every customer. Hear about problems first. After a job, your customer gets a text with a link to a page like this one. Tap a rating and see where it goes. A walkthrough of the flow with mock buttons: nothing is sent and no review site opens. The real page carries your name, your logo and your Google link. Lone Pine Roofing How did we do on your roof today? Tap a rating. Lone Pine Roofing Thank you. Would you tell others? A rating of four or five goes straight to the public step. One tap more and the review is on Google. Continue to Google (mock button: in the real flow this opens your Google review link) Lone Pine Roofing We are sorry. What went wrong? A rating of one to three opens this private form first, so the owner hears about it the same day and can fix it. Your feedback (goes to the owner) Send to the owner Prefer to post publicly? You can leave a public review on Google. (mock link: every customer keeps that right) ### Why it works - Everyone is asked, the same way, every time. That is what Google permits: no paying, no picking. - Happy customers reach the public step in one tap, so more of them finish. - Unhappy customers reach you first, while the public link stays visible in small print. - Every review, public or private, gets a reply, and the reply rate is in your monthly report. The reputation and review flow runs this routing for every customer. Try it: behind this page ## How this page does its own local SEO We do to our own pages what we do to yours. Open each panel to read what search engines and AI assistants read here, straight from this page in your browser. Everything shown is read live from this address: the page's own script tags, its Markdown twin and its summary file. No outside service is called. The JSON-LD on this page: the business, the page, the breadcrumbs, the service and the questions. Read from the script tags you are looking at. Open this page in a browser with scripts on to read its structured data here. Without scripts: view the page source and look for script type="application/ld+json". Links: [/llms.txt](https://awcseo.com/llms.txt), this page as Markdown (add .md to the address), [/.well-known/ai-catalog.json](https://awcseo.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json). [On-page local SEO](https://awcseo.com/on-page-local-seo/) does this to your own site, and city pages extend it to every town you serve. Questions ## About the demonstrations ### Are these demonstrations measuring my business? No. Every one runs in your browser with made-up businesses and fixed numbers, so you can see how the mechanics work. Your real baseline, the rank grid, the profile score and the listing audit, is measured when the work starts and reported every month after. ### What are the three local ranking factors? Relevance (does your profile and website say you do this, here), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well known you are: reviews, listings, links and an active profile). Google names all three; the local pack simulator lets you switch them on and off. ### Why does a rank grid matter more than one ranking? Because the map changes with where the searcher stands. One ranking taken from one spot can look great while most of your service area never sees you. A grid checks the same search from many points and shows the whole picture, which is why the monthly report uses one. From trying to buying - [Every service with its price](https://awcseo.com/services/) is on the full list of services, with what each includes, what you get each month and how it is measured. - [Build an estimate](https://awcseo.com/pricing/) from the published prices and send it as your quote request. - See where we work across Texas: [local SEO in Houston](https://awcseo.com/texas/houston/), [local SEO in Dallas](https://awcseo.com/texas/dallas/), [local SEO in Fort Worth](https://awcseo.com/texas/fort-worth/), [local SEO in San Antonio](https://awcseo.com/texas/san-antonio/), [local SEO in Austin](https://awcseo.com/texas/austin/) and [local SEO in East Texas](https://awcseo.com/texas/east-texas/). ## Seen enough? Price it. Every service on this site is priced in the open. Build your estimate, or call and talk it through. [Build my estimate](https://awcseo.com/pricing/)Call (863) 602-6911