This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter five of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

What’s that? Google has put out another algorithm update. It’s OK, you’ve not been doing anything dodgy with any of your clients. You know the local search algorithm inside out. Nothing bad will have ha… wait, what’s that? Your best-performing client’s visibility has suddenly tanked? That can’t be right. Why is your phone ringing incessantly? Why is that email in all caps? What are you going to do?

Ok, that may be a bit of an extreme example, as things like this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But the truth is there’s no guarantee that an algorithm update won’t affect one of your clients. On some occasions, they may have done absolutely nothing wrong, but Google has decided that someone else has done something better, and this update has surfaced their content in place of yours.

Another example is when they add something to the algorithm, like changing how opening hours affect local rankings.

So having a process in place to respond to one of these situations is important. We’ve talked to a number of experts from across the local search industry to find out how they react when one of their clients has potentially been affected by an algorithm update.

Algorithm Response Plans from the Experts

We asked each local search expert “Google has launched (yet another) algorithm update. Your client’s been affected. What do you do?”. You’ll find their answers below.

"It should not be a surprise, but the first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business."

Tim Capper, Owner at Online Ownership

First off, this shouldn’t be a surprise. You should have seen the signs if you’re doing local SEO properly. Algorithm shifts rarely come out of nowhere, and clients should already have been prepped for possible turbulence.

Now, let me drop an old-school truth bomb: overreliance on automated “pretty” reporting instead of manual reporting here is what’s happening. And what I see happening probably landed you here in the first place. That’s why I prioritise manual, insight and “gut” driven reporting, focusing on what matters and what’s next rather than just painting a rosy (or panic-inducing) picture.

If you’re paying attention, you should already have seen early indicators, small but telling fluctuations in site performance, sections behaving oddly, or ranking inconsistencies. These “niggles” may not have a clear cause at the time, but they’re worth flagging. That’s why reporting should be proactive, not reactive. 

But now, here we are: algorithm update, impact, damage assessment.

The first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business. Sometimes, when you step back from the numbers and analyse the business’s core strengths and market positioning, the reality isn’t as dire as it first seems. Is it just this client’s business or all businesses within the same vertical mirroring this impact? 

Next, look at the type of update and what the SEO community is uncovering. Is there a clear recovery path? Can we adjust and bounce back, or is a fundamental rethink needed? 

And finally—be honest. If you don’t know exactly why the algorithm hit a particular site, don’t bluff. Say it straight: “This is new; I need to dig deeper, form a theory, test small, refine, and either roll back or roll out.” That’s how SEO should be done—not knee-jerk reactions, but thoughtful, calculated responses.

Algorithm updates will keep coming. The difference is whether you’re waiting to react or already anticipating the shift.

"As soon as you have that early context, the key is communication."

Rachel Ellen, Local Search Strategist at Croud

Firstly, don’t panic! Before rushing to react, calmly assess the situation by gathering insight from Google Search Console, Google Business Profile (GBP) insights, or other analytics. Data should give you a better idea of the scope of the problem if it’s affecting your client, and if so, how severely. Consider and observe how competitors and the wider industry have been impacted, too, as this helps paint the bigger picture. Look to the wider SEO community. Usually, there’s lots of early chatter that gives an idea of how big an update it’s been and who the early winners and losers might be.

As soon as you have that early context, the key is early communication. In an ideal world, you’ll get to your clients before they come to you. If they open up their email to find early comms or a call invite offering an update, this shows proactivity and instant reassurance that whatever has happened, they are in good hands. If they do come to you first, acknowledge their concerns, but reassure them that volatility is completely normal and that updates can take time to settle. Explain that you’re on the case and will come back promptly with clarity and a plan of action if needed.

From here, it’s good practice to spend some time validating the accuracy and optimization status of your client’s GBPs (including your reviews), their on-site EEAT signals, and their technical health, such as indexing or site-speed issues.

As said, updates can often take a good few weeks to settle, so it’s wise to closely track rankings and traffic patterns during this time. It may well be that things recover quickly, in which case—hurrah! You can update your client accordingly, and concentrate on reinforcing what’s working.  If it’s not so good news, prioritize time for deeper investigation, focusing on identifying content gaps, technical issues, or shifts in user intent.

In a nutshell, when an algo update hits, establishing context is key. Keep clients informed, stick to best practices, and avoid any reactionary moves. If you’ve prioritized quality and trust, you are far more likely to stay ahead.

"Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own."

Steve Wiideman, Owner at Wiideman Consulting Group

Too often, agencies and clients alike immediately jump to the conclusion that an algorithm update was the cause of any sudden drop in organic traffic or visibility. I think it’s important in any SEO effort that we start by following the same action plan as we would had there not been an algorithm update, but seen a drop in organic traffic. 

Before we dive in, we always want to reassure our clients that in general search engines are very forgiving if we break and need to restore content or attributes that have supported growth. We also want to remind our clients that user signals, and being the final destination users prefer to go to, are more important than content and links alone. Therefore, if fresh search results yield lower click-through rates, our listings will naturally rise back to the top over a few weeks as the search engine figures out that these new results weren’t very helpful. 

Our initial plan includes:

1. Running a full crawl of the website using whatever industry tools are at your disposal. We prefer Ryte due to its robust feature set and detailed insights. However, Screaming Frog, SEMRush, or SiteBulb would be a good runner-up. We’re looking for crawling and indexing issues. You wouldn’t believe how often we see development servers deploy to production with a Disallow: / in the robots.txt file.

2. Look for content changes at the site level, such as the replacement of heading tags with span tags, and the removal or programmatic replacement of titles, descriptions, and other metadata. Modifications of structured markup, XML sitemaps, and internal links. All of these can raise an eyebrow with Google and other search engines, which when made during an algorithm update have been known to emulate the “shaking of the Etch A Sketch,” almost like starting over with page-scoring. Best not to make updates during algorithm updates.

3. Navigate to Google Search Console and run a before and after comparison from the date of the drop-off, sorting by Click Difference first, then by Impression Difference. What types of pages lost clicks and impressions? Transactional, commercial, or perhaps both?

4. Lastly, we’ll look at spam and negative SEO, starting with new incoming links available in AHREFS and other link analysis tools. I’ll analyze the anchor text of recent links to see if competitors decided to fool Google into thinking our client was attempting to manipulate search results. If I don’t see a pattern, I’ll filter redirecting links to see if a competitor is attempting to force Google into thinking our pages are temporary using a 302 redirect, which often sends our listings into the dreaded Omitted Results. If I see a high spike in Google Search Console, despite conversion and traffic being down, it’s possible that a competitor is attempting to fool Google into thinking our client is manipulating search behaviors.

Once we have the all-clear from these four areas, only THEN do we look at the change in traffic being potentially caused by an algorithm update.

Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own. Here is a breakdown of these steps:

1. Based on the most affected pages, choose the top 3 to start with.
2. Run a search for the keywords for which the pages lost the most clicks and isolate the top 3 competitors.
3. Using a Google Sheet (or other workbook software), create a row for each SEO focal point to compare and columns for our client’s site and the top three competitors.
4. Fields might include File Name (pizza.html), Title, Meta Description, H1, Incoming Links, Internal Links, AI score, web vitals scores, image names and alt attributes, use of video, maps, reviews, etc.
5. Run a survey and ask participants which of two pages (your client’s vs one competitor at a time) is the most helpful and why.

Once completed, it’s a great idea to pow-wow with the team and break down the differences in your client’s page versus the competition. Sometimes, we learn right away what likely caused the drop in rankings. For example, after the “Medic Update,” we noticed Healthline’s survival and found a small Fact-Checked badge our client didn’t offer. Less than a month after testing and adding the badge ourselves, we saw nearly instant recovery.

If this becomes the case, no further testing should be required. However, if the team is still scratching their heads, run the other two competitors through this sequence until the problem becomes obvious. 

Reverse-engineering new search results after an update is by far the easiest and fastest way to identify what we believe Google suddenly cares about, and often enough, what they don’t. If, after all the testing and reverse-engineering, the problem still isn’t resolved, return to this page and find an expert (or experts) you would like to reach out to for their personal opinion or, if necessary, an audit. In most cases, traffic and visibility returns on it’s own within a few weeks, so if it’s possible, get buy-in to hold off on any immediate changes until the dust settles.

" I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update."

Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst + Account Manager at Sterling Sky

First and foremost, I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update, which can take several weeks, sometimes even a month or two, to determine.

For example, the Diversity Update that began rolling out in August 2024 didn’t show its full impact on our clients’ organic traffic until November and December. Because of this delay, we didn’t communicate any major findings to clients until we had concrete data, which was about two months post-update.

Once we’ve confirmed whether a client has been affected, and to what extent, we move into action planning. This includes developing strategies to recover lost rankings or traffic if necessary, or identifying opportunities if performance has improved (since not all updates are negative).

Communication is tailored based on the client’s level of SEO awareness and involvement. For clients who are highly engaged in SEO and likely to follow industry news, I’ll often reach out proactively when an update is announced, knowing they’ll want to discuss it. For others who are less SEO-savvy or are busy running their business day-to-day, we typically wait until we have meaningful insights and a clear plan before reaching out.

When a client raises concerns directly, we’re always transparent. We share where we are in the analysis process, what early signals we’re seeing, and what actions (if any) we’re taking on their website or Google Business Profile (GBP).

"Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client."

Myriam Jessier, Fractional SEO + Trainer at PRAGM

When a client’s local SEO performance takes a hit after a Google algorithm update, here’s my actionable framework for agencies to effectively manage the situation:

Immediate Response Plan

1. Assess, Don’t Panic

Don’t rush into making changes during the update rollout. Algorithm updates take time to settle, and what looks like a disaster on day two might stabilize by week three. Document the current rankings and performance metrics to establish a clear baseline for comparison.

2. Research the Specific Update

Each algorithm update targets different aspects. Identify what this particular update focuses on—whether it’s content quality, local engagement metrics, review management, or technical factors. Cross-reference the timing of ranking drops with the update rollout to confirm causation.

Sometimes, it’s not algorithmic but a problem client or agency side that caused the issue and you waste time searching for a needle in a Google update haystack. 

3. Strategic Client Communication

Contact the client proactively before they come to you in panic mode. Be transparent but reassuring – explain that fluctuations are normal, you’re monitoring the situation, and have a structured process for assessment and action.

Detailed Analysis Phase

1. Targeted Performance Audit

Use geo-grid rank tracking to identify precisely where and how rankings have shifted across neighborhoods or service areas.

• Are the ranking variations within the same city as expected?
• This helps you review things such as content, listings, etc. for specific neighborhoods—for example, Le Plateau in Montreal is famous for having many recent French immigrants, so keywords and content can’t be the same as for the rest of the town. 
• Find areas where your client has low visibility but could expand. 
• When an algorithm update hits, geo-grid tracking helps agencies to see if the effects are uniform across the entire service area, or if they’re localized to specific regions. This makes things more actionable for you as an agency. 

Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client. Check Google Trends to see if whatever you are ranking for is no longer trending.

Some industries like plumbing may have seasonal peaks, while others may simply be evolving (such as fitness coaches specialized in specific training programs). 

2. Identify Pattern-Based Impacts

Look for patterns in affected keywords, content types, or business categories. This helps pinpoint which aspects of the algorithm update are most relevant to your client’s situation. If you can’t find the red thread, chances are, it’s a bigger problem than a local SEO issue.

3. Local Listing Integrity Check

Verify all local listings for accuracy, consistency, and compliance with Google’s latest guidelines. Listing quality and verification standards have become increasingly stringent and your client may not be aware of that.

Recovery Strategy Implementation

1. Prioritize Google Business Profile Optimization

Update categories, attributes, and service offerings to align with current search intent patterns.

2. Enhance Local Content Relevance

Create or optimize hyperlocal content that demonstrates genuine community engagement. 

3. Review Management Recalibration

Implement a systematic approach to review generation and management if you haven’t already. Focus on genuine customer engagement rather than volume. If possible, try to establish a review scheme that matches other ones in the area.

4. Technical Local SEO Refinements

Review that structured data to make sure you avoid nightmares like this one. 

Client Retention Best Practices

1. Education Over Reassurance

Position your agency as a strategic partner by educating clients about the nature of algorithm updates. You could have a short newsletter that goes out or a phone call to help them understand that updates are here for a reason: to reward businesses that do things right… but sometimes, they do temporarily miss the mark and correct the course later. 

2. Implement Regular Algorithm Resilience Checks

Don’t wait for the next update. Establish quarterly reviews of local SEO fundamentals to ensure ongoing compliance with Google’s evolution.

3. Set Realistic Recovery Timelines

Be honest about recovery expectations. Major shifts can take two to three months to fully stabilize, if not more. Outline specific milestones to track progress and keep clients engaged in the process.

Successful local SEO agencies don’t just react to algorithm updates–they anticipate them by consistently aligning with Google’s fundamental goal: connecting users with the most relevant local businesses that genuinely meet their needs.

Communicate, don’t panic, and do your research

So there we have it. A thorough run down of how you can respond when the chips are down. The key to retaining your clients is through strong communication. This communication starts before the problem arises. A strong relationship that’s based on trust and education can do a lot to help when things get trickier.

Then, don’t panic. Remember that algorithm updates often take weeks to actually finish rolling out. Do some proper research of your own. Check whether traffic is actually down alongside rankings. See what the industry is saying. Work out whether the client has even been affected by an algorithm update. It could be something seasonal.

Then, once you’ve done all that research you can get a plan together. All the while, communicating what you’re doing to your client.

That’s where service area pages (SAPs) step in. They help service area businesses (SABs) appear for those region-specific searches without a brick-and-mortar location. SAPs act like local landing pages, spotlighting a business’s offerings in targeted cities, neighborhoods, or zip codes. BrightLocal’s Local SEO Handbook will guide you through the nuances of creating effective service area pages for local businesses that serve areas, not standalone locations.

We’ve tailored this resource for small-to-medium businesses eager to improve their presence in local search and appear more frequently in Google’s local results. Let’s get started with the basics: why do these pages even matter for service area businesses in the first place?

What Are Service Area Pages (SAPs)?

A service area page, or SAP, is a specific page on your website highlighting services for a defined geographic area. For instance, a plumber might craft a page titled “Emergency Plumbing in San Diego” to speak directly to residents in San Diego. Or an HVAC business might have “AC Repair in Scottsdale” to show users that it can travel there. Each SAP is a mini local landing page with details that address the unique needs of that location’s homeowners or businesses.

SAPs vs. Location Pages

Location pages often focus on an address where customers walk in, like a restaurant or a retail shop. SAPs, on the other hand, target professionals who drive out to serve customers. The plumber or HVAC expert may have a home-based headquarters or a small office, yet they travel all around a region. While both page types revolve around local searches, SAPs revolve around how a traveling business supports a region, not how a customer visits a store.

Why Service Area Pages Matter

No Physical Storefront, but Still Local

Many local businesses serve their customers at their homes, their businesses, or elsewhere. They go to their customers, not the other way around. There’s no busy store where the customer visits a check-out counter. These businesses drive to the site and complete the job there.

Traditional local SEO advice heavily features location pages meant for brick-and-mortar shops, but that concept isn’t a perfect fit for mobile teams. SAPs help to bridge that gap, giving businesses a digital foothold in the areas they cover without the need to list a physical building for each region.

Google’s Approach to SABs

Google treats SABs differently in Google Business Profiles (GBP). A service area business listing might hide the physical address and mention a service area radius, while a sit-down restaurant openly displays its physical address. SAPs give search engines the clarity they crave, showcasing the exact local content relevant to each region. That helps Google connect user searches like “emergency plumbing in Mesa” to the right business.

Building Topical Authority

Well organized SAPs expand a company’s local footprint beyond just having a GBP for potential customers to find in Google Maps or a local pack that pops up during a Google search.

Think of an HVAC provider that services four cities around Dallas. Without separate pages, the website might struggle to appear for searches in Fort Worth, Arlington, or Garland. With dedicated pages for each service area, the site signals to Google that it’s an authority in all these localities. This approach is particularly helpful for home service businesses that want more calls from users across different towns.

A Boost in Local Rankings

SABs often wonder why they don’t rank in the local 3-pack for certain cities, even if they do a lot of work there. Google’s local pack tends to favor businesses with addresses in that city, so if you’re an HVAC company based in Irving, you might not show up in the pack for Dallas queries.

Strong SAPs can potentially increase your visibility in organic results beneath that local pack. Combined with best practices for Google Business Profile, these pages improve your presence across multiple local searches.

Google Business Profile for Service Area Businesses

Read more

Who Needs SAPs?

Not every business needs a physical storefront to succeed, but every service-based business needs visibility in local search results. Service area pages are designed to help businesses that travel to customers or provide services at multiple locations without a fixed address.

Home Service Businesses

Businesses that travel to residential or commercial locations to perform installations, repairs, and maintenance services, such:

• Plumbers: Responding to emergency pipe bursts, leaks, and installations in different neighborhoods.
• Electricians: Wiring new homes, troubleshooting electrical issues, and upgrading panels on-site.
• Roofers: Handling roof inspections, storm damage repairs, and full replacements across multiple cities.
• HVAC technicians: Providing heating and cooling solutions tailored to local climate conditions.

Local SEO Tips for HVAC Businesses

Read more

Mobile Businesses

Professionals who operate on a mobile basis bring their services directly to customers, like:

• Locksmiths: Offering emergency lockout services, key duplication, and security upgrades on location.
• Mobile car detailing: Cleaning and restoring vehicles at customers’s homes, workplaces, or parking lots.
• Pet groomers: Serving pet owners who prefer at-home grooming services over salon visits.

Professional Services

Consultants and specialists who serve multiple locations without maintaining physical offices in each one, such as:

• Real estate agents: Representing buyers and sellers across different cities or neighborhoods.
• Mortgage brokers: Assisting clients with financing options tailored to their location and market conditions.
• Business consultants: Working with small businesses and startups in multiple metro areas.

Local SEO for Real Estate Businesses

Read more

Event-Based Businesses

Businesses that travel to venues, private properties, or event spaces for bookings and client engagements, like:

• Caterers: Providing custom menus and food services for weddings, corporate events, and private parties.
• Photographers: Capturing special moments at various locations, from engagement shoots to business headshots.
• Wedding planners: Coordinating logistics, vendors, and venues across different cities.

SAPs aren’t just about expanding search visibility. They help businesses establish credibility in multiple markets. Potential customers who see a business actively serving their area are more likely to reach out and book services. Without SAPs, service-based businesses risk losing potential customers who rely on local search to find reliable providers.

Google’s Perspective on Service Areas

Google’s guidelines for SAB listings mention radius-based coverage or city-by-city coverage for GBP profiles. They discourage listing addresses if customers do not visit that address. Creating SAPs that reflect your actual coverage areas complements those guidelines and clarifies your presence to both search engines and real people.

Why Service Area Pages Are Essential for Local SEO

A single office location won’t always help you rank for outlying areas. If a plumber in Chicago also serves nearby suburbs like Naperville, Oak Park, and Evanston, dedicated SAPs for those suburbs might let them tap into the local queries posted by homeowners outside city limits.

This strategy doesn’t violate Google’s rules when done correctly. It positions your brand as relevant for each specific suburb.

Heightened Relevance for Targeted Searches

Consumers often type queries like “AC repair near me.” If your site only references an address in Downtown Denver, the family in Boulder might not see you in their search results. SAPs with localized wording—like “AC Repair Services in Boulder”—help search engines connect the dots. You’ll start to show up for that narrower phrase and improve your presence for distinct neighborhoods, too.

Enhanced User Experience and Conversions

A homeowner wants to see that you know the local area. SAPs can mention local building codes or typical weather patterns, which fosters trust and helps visitors feel you truly serve them, not random addresses three hours away.

You can also highlight local reviews from their community, making the page feel specifically tailored to them. This approach increases your chances of turning a site visitor into a paying customer.

Standing Your Ground Against Directories

Search results for plumbers or HVAC pros often feature Yelp, HomeAdvisor, or Angi directories. Building well optimized SAPs on your domain can help you outrank these massive directories, so potential leads call you or fill out a form on your site, and not someone else’s platform. That means you capture direct leads rather than competing with ten other pros in the same directory listing.

How to Structure a High-Performing Service Area Page

Now, let’s walk you through creating a user-friendly and search-friendly SAP step by step. These tips will help to keep your pages purposeful and give you an idea of what to do when creating service area pages, no matter your business niche.

Target a Specific Area

No cookie-cutter approach. One big slip-up is to copy a single city page and swap out the name for “Memphis,” “Nashville,” or “Knoxville.” That’s stale and frowned upon. Speak about genuine local elements.

Let’s say your plumbing page for Midtown Memphis includes a few sentences about older historic homes that often have galvanized pipes. Or your HVAC page for a suburban Nashville community references typical humidity concerns with that local climate. This approach keeps the content unique while showcasing your familiarity with that area.

SEO-Friendly Page Title and Meta Description

Titles should incorporate the primary keyword, region name, and a unique highlight. For instance, “Dependable Plumbing Services in Eugene, OR | 24-Hour Emergency Help.” That pattern covers your main service (plumbing) plus the city (Eugene), plus a quick pitch or CTA (24-Hour Emergency Help).

Meta descriptions should be short, direct, and enticing. Something like: “Need fast repairs for your Eugene home? Our licensed plumbers handle drain cleaning, water heater installs, and more. Call us anytime.”

Engaging Header with Location Mention

Your header might say: “Reliable HVAC Tune-Ups in Pensacola – Quick Response & Fair Prices.” Keep it direct, include the location, and reflect a quick benefit. Lower-level headings (H2, H3) can be used for subtopics like “Top AC Problems in Pensacola” or “Why Pensacola Homeowners Trust Us.” This structure makes your content scannable and more welcoming to search engines.

Localized Content and City-Specific Insight

Here’s where you include neighborhood references, local events, or geographic quirks. For example, an HVAC page could mention the typical humidity levels in Mobile that stress AC systems. Or a plumber’s page for Colorado Springs might discuss freeze-thaw cycles in winter. This type of local detail signals authenticity to your audience and Google.

Services Offered in That Area

People might ask, “Does this plumber handle gas line repairs, or is that not part of their skill set?” Or “Does this HVAC tech handle commercial rooftop units, or only residential?” List all services you offer in that region. Here are some examples:

• Plumbing examples:
  • Drain cleaning
  • Leak detection
  • Sewer line replacement

• HVAC examples:
  • AC installation
  • Furnace repair
  • Indoor air quality audits

Separate them into short bullet points so visitors can quickly spot the needed service.

Google Map Embed

An embedded map illustrates the radius you serve or outline the neighborhoods you cover. Some prefer to embed a map showing the general region or your main office with an overlay of the broader service territory. Google’s guidelines for SABs allow for a pinned map if you have an office, but if you operate from a private residence, you might show just a wide coverage area.

Customer Reviews and Testimonials from That Area

Nothing beats actual feedback from a neighbor. Insert short quotes from a local satisfied client. If your plumber page is for Glendale, maybe you can quote “Sarah in Glendale,” who praises your quick response on a Saturday night. The more local the mention, the stronger the trust. Photos of local homes or a short mention of a well-known Glendale landmark can add flavor. This is also an ideal spot to show star ratings or badges (like a 4.8/5 rating from local homeowners).

Internal Links and Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Direct users deeper into your site. If your site has a main “Residential HVAC Services” page or a “Commercial Plumbing Services” page, link it here. Provide a link to your Google Business Profile for that region if it exists. Wrap up the page with a direct CTA. “Request Your Free Quote in Glendale Today” or “Call Now for Fast AC Repairs in Pensacola.” Make it easy and compelling.

FAQs Section

Folks often have questions about pricing, scheduling, or service details. Adding a short FAQ block not only helps SEO but it boosts conversions. You might see queries such as:

• “How soon can you reach my home in Glendale?”
• “Do you offer same-day plumbing for broken pipes?”
• “Can you handle older AC systems in downtown Pensacola?”

Address them in plain language. That helps anxious customers get quick answers and fosters a sense of trust.

Schema Markup for Local SEO

Schema helps search engines interpret your page more accurately. You can integrate LocalBusiness or Service markup for your service area page by specifying your business name, phone number, and location details. This isn’t always mandatory but can supply extra clarity, potentially boosting the page’s search performance. If you have multiple SAPs, consistent schema usage across them can unify your local SEO signals.

Schema for Local SEO + Templates

Read more

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Service Area Pages

Thin or Duplicate Content

One of the worst pitfalls is a set of pages that swap out city names but keep everything else identical. Imagine a scenario where your site has 15 near-identical plumbing pages, each saying, “We fix water heaters in [City], call us!” That pattern gets flagged by Google’s quality systems as unhelpful. Each city or region page must feature distinct content, references to local conditions, local rules, or unique case studies. If the page is just filler text, it does more harm than good.

Keyword Stuffing

Have you ever read a page that says, “Need a plumber in Austin? Our plumber in Austin is the top plumber in Austin who can fix anything in Austin.” That’s unnatural and spammy. Instead, use the city name in headings, once or twice in the body, and maybe once in the CTA. Pepper in synonyms or references to neighborhoods. That approach flows better for the reader and avoids looking forced.

Overloading with Service Areas

Some businesses try to create hundreds of pages for every neighborhood in a large metro or 30 near-duplicate pages for every zip code in a 10-mile zone. This approach can produce “doorway pages,” which Google discourages. Stick to your main coverage zones that bring real business. If you truly serve a wide region, group some areas logically rather than listing each tiny corner with a separate page. Quality trumps quantity every time.

Missing Trust Signals

Few things scare away a homeowner faster than a generic page with no proof that you’re reliable. If you’re an HVAC brand licensed and insured in the state, mention it. If the local chamber of commerce recognizes your plumbing services, note that membership. Show relevant badges or partnerships. Then, add testimonials from real clients. People want proof that you’re a legitimate business, not a random fly-by-night outfit.

How to Measure the Success of Your Service Area Pages

Google Search Console (GSC) Performance

Check how your SAPs perform by looking at queries containing that city or region name. If your plumber page for Glendale references “emergency plumbing Glendale,” see if GSC data shows impressions and clicks for that phrase. Monitor the average position, click-through rate, and total clicks. A rising graph suggests your SAP is resonating with local queries.

GA4 Engagement Metrics

Open GA4 and see user behavior on each SAP. Are they sticking around or bouncing? Did they fill out a contact form or click a phone number link? This info tells you how well the content is holding visitors’ attention. If the time on the page is high and the bounce rate is low, that’s a promising sign that the page is helpful.

GBP Insights

If you have a dedicated GBP listing that targets a certain region (some businesses manage multiple listings if they truly have distinct offices, though many SABs only have one), see if impressions or calls from that territory are climbing. This approach helps you see whether better local SEO translates into real leads.

Local SERP Rankings

Some rely on rank-tracking tools such as BrightLocal or Semrush to monitor positions for local keywords. You can track “water heater repair Glendale,” “drain cleaning Glendale,” and “AC repair Glendale,” and see how your SAP pages climb over time. While ranking alone isn’t the end goal, it’s a sign you’re capturing more local interest.

Drive More Leads and Visibility with Optimized Service Area Pages

Service area pages aren’t a quick content or local SEO hack. They’re a genuine strategy for building local authority. As you plan or refine your SAPs, ask yourself: “Would a homeowner or business in this city find this page truly helpful?” If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. Keep each page unique, highlight relevant information, and track your progress using GSC, GA4, and rank-monitoring tools. Over time, you’ll see more site visitors, calls, and local leads booking your service area business.

That’s the power of optimized service area pages. They draw in the right people and show them you’re the local pro they can trust. Put these tips into practice, and watch your business thrive in every corner of your region.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter four of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

In an increasingly competitive SEO world, client retention is becoming more important than ever. According to a recent Sparktoro survey of over 600 agencies and freelancers, a majority are reporting that their biggest challenge is their sales pipeline and new client acquisition. That means every client lost is going to have a bigger impact on agencies that plan to grow.

So, how can you improve SEO client retention? Well, as a previous freelancer and current agency owner who’s worked in the industry for over a decade, I’m going to share some of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners and what you can do to stand out in such a competitive market. Apply these not-so-common-sense principles, and I’m confident any freelancer or agency will not only retain clients longer but probably close more new business, too.

What is value beyond deliverables?

I’ve talked to a lot of business owners who have worked with SEO companies. In fact, on the GBP Help Community, where I volunteer as a Product Expert, I spoke to nearly 1,000 business owners in 2024 alone.

One benefit of this is it allows me to get a pretty good pulse on the industry and how business owners describe their problems (which I then, of course, incorporate into how I describe solutions). And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, agency reputation is not at a high point among business owners, to say the least.

In my experience, many business owners are unimpressed with digital marketing agencies (generally speaking here). And aside from the obvious horror stories, I think there’s a fundamental disconnect between what clients hope to get and what they actually receive—even from the “good” agencies!

Let’s look at some noteworthy findings from the Sparktoro survey I mentioned. They report some pretty staggering numbers…

When agencies were asked what they expect their biggest challenge to be over the next year:

• 70% of respondents said new business sales.
• Nearly 40% said existing client retention.

When asked how they feel about the current state of the agency world:

• 44% said, “It’s a struggle right now.” 
• Just 10% said it’s “healthy.”
  

So what’s behind all of this? Why is it so hard to sell? And why do so many agencies think it’s a struggle right now?

It’s certainly not because businesses are spending less on digital marketing. Various reports suggest strong growth in digital spending in 2024, and digital marketing investments are projected to continue growing over 10% YoY and will be a $1 trillion industry by 2030.

I’ll tell you why most agencies find it hard to sell right now: the market isn’t seeing enough value from most agencies. Duh!

One problem I see frequently is that agencies try to “sell” the value of digital marketing, in general, rather than selling the value of themselves. And given the enormous worldwide investments in digital marketing, I don’t think anyone needs to be sold on the value of ranking on Google. It’s not 2001, people!

We’re at a time in the industry of nearly complete adoption. It’s akin to Apple trying to sell the value of cell phones. If that was their only value prop, I’m sure it would be a struggle for them, too.

This brings to mind a client who fired their previous agency even though the agency was producing great results.

The deliverables were there, the performance was there, and in fact the price was cheap too. Yet, the client wasn’t happy.

For this particular client, it came down to “soft deliverables” – mainly communication and basic customer service. They also had a hard time connecting the dots between their marketing performance and what the agency was actually doing (and the ROI of it all).

They were fully aware of the value of SEO and how important it was for their business. Nobody had to convince them of how important it was, nor did they need to be convinced they ranked well for some valuable keywords.

What they told me is that actually SEO gains were not a motivating factor for seeking change – that they were more concerned about understanding SEO, ROI, and digital marketing strategies.

So, with that in mind, if I had presented them with a pitch focused on the value of SEO and how I deliver SEO results, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been very meaningful for them.

Instead, my proposal focused on partnership, customer service, communication flexibility, meeting flexibility, how I could adapt to their operating style, what my work entails, and how my work ties directly to their bottom line. 

Rather than selling results, I was selling how I could tie my role to results (any results – good or bad).

They ended up closing on a deal that was priced 4x their previous agency – and they’re still one of my happiest clients. They’ve even referred multiple new clients.

I have a similar anecdote: I had another client who, after having strong SEO results, referred another business to me. I wasn’t surprised, given the campaign’s success, but what was surprising is what I learned from the new prospect: the client never even mentioned performance to the referral.

My client told this referral that the communication made it worth every penny and more.

And this was after he had worked with several marketing agencies for over the past 10 years.

I don’t believe these are flukes, either. I regularly hear complaints that clients feel neglected, they don’t understand where their money is going, that their strategy seems generic, they don’t fully grasp what agencies do for them, and they aren’t getting what they thought they were buying.

So, how can you counter these common pain points and stand out?

5 Tips to Close More Deals and Keep Clients Longer

1. Being a Partner vs Vendor

In my experience, most clients aren’t looking for a task rabbit. Many don’t even understand this stuff (that’s why they are looking for a partner). They don’t know what tasks need to be done, which ones will pay off, what’s the best fit for their business, and most importantly, what they mean to their bottom line. 

What I see is they are looking for a trusted expert to guide them on the best path forward and explain how things work, why it will work for them specifically, and how to measure the ROI of it all.

Having worked for agencies and as a customer of agencies when I was in-house, I’ve noticed that many operate more like vendors than partners. Whether it’s rate cards, packages galore, or templated reports and dashboards, it seems more like a product than a service—and I don’t think clients are looking for a product. At least mine aren’t.

Because of this, I tend to spend a lot more time one-on-one with clients. Is that scalable? No. However, customer service can retain a client through difficulty.

Vice versa? Not so much.

That’s why partnership and customer-centric values are top priorities in how I do business, particularly when most of my clients are doing local SEO. I know that local businesses meet their customers face-to-face, day in and day out, so weak customer service from me won’t be acceptable.

So, instead of selling effort and deliverables, I sell partnership (which just happens to include some deliverables).

Which brings me to my next point.

2. Stop Selling Deliverables

Aside from selling the value of digital marketing, another common problem is selling deliverables. According to a different agency survey from BrightLocal, over 50% of agencies said that their billing structure is based on deliverables.

Usually it looks like something like this:

• One blog per month
• One backlink per month
• Four GBP business posts per month
• And so on

Sound familiar? 

It’s worth considering that, at a time when most agencies are reporting trouble with their sales pipeline, most are also billing clients based on deliverables.

While this might be a case of correlation rather than causation, there are definitely a few issues with this approach:

1. Clients Aren’t in the Market For it

When was the last time you heard this from a potential lead: “Hi, um, so I’m looking for one blog per month, one backlink per month, and four GBP posts per month. Do you have any in stock?”

Right… so why do we sell this? In my experience, clients don’t know what that stuff is, but if it gets them more customers: “then sure?” And that’s a best-case response!

2. It Commoditizes SEO

If SEO is one blog per month, one backlink, or whatever, then why don’t they just go with the next agency that provides that stuff for less?

3. It Ties Your Work to Tasks

That means if those tasks don’t get done, then they aren’t getting what they paid for. So if calls are up 60% YoY, that doesn’t really mean anything if you didn’t deliver your deliverable (aka, that blog).

4. Your Work is Always Aligned Toward Meeting Deliverables Rather Than Clients’ Real Goals

That sets you up for a client who doesn’t see real value in your work because those deliverables were never their real objective to begin with.

I’ve learned this the hard way. It’s pretty frustrating when you’re producing results for a client, yet they’re unhappy because a blog wasn’t completed on time! 

I know some might argue that operational structure can prevent the issue of missing deliverables, but my point is that it’s actually quite telling if a client sees a blog deliverable as more important than calls. Clearly, they aren’t attributing my work to the call increase! 

And that’s a big problem, which brings me to my next point.

How to Create Better Local SEO Proposals

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3. Vanity Metrics vs KPIs

The same BrightLocal survey found that the most common challenge clients bring to agencies is revenue not meeting expectations. 

Interestingly, “needing one blog per month” didn’t make the list… but I digress.

Aside from undervaluing deliverables, clients also undervalue all sorts of metrics that are important in SEO.

They don’t see value in impressions, traffic, rankings, or any of those metrics (generally speaking). These are all metrics that only matter to marketers.

So unless your client is also a marketer, there really isn’t any value in showcasing it unless it is directly tied to actual KPIs (i.e., calls, sales, etc.). If a client comes to you and says, “Customers can’t find me online,” and you show them a rank tracking report, that actually doesn’t tell them anything about how many more customers found them online.

Let me put it this way: in my previous role, where I worked as an in-house Director of Digital Marketing for a healthcare chain, I reported directly to the CFO. And while I am indeed a marketer who uses all sorts of metrics to perform my job well, I can assure you I wasn’t going to the CFO end-of-year to report how impressions increased by a whopping 300%. CFOs don’t speak that language.

My reports were always tied directly to new business, revenue, and specific attribution year over year, and that’s how I operate with clients as well. While I know impressions and clicks are valuable, my clients simply do not speak that language either.

They speak:

• Phone calls
• Appointments
• qualified leads
• Sales
• Revenue
• ROI

Rankings and traffic are just how you get to the metrics that actually matter.

I know my clients will never see value in a vanity metric, no matter how “up and to the right” or shiny it may look to me or another SEO.

The good news with this approach is you also don’t need to have case-study-level homerun ROI every time. The mere fact that you helped a client implement attribution and tie SEO efforts directly to business outcomes will make your services stand out in a big way! Because that in and of itself is highly valuable, even if performance didn’t end up as strong as you hoped.

4. The Problem With Account Managers

While some clients like account managers, I’ve heard and seen enough of the bad not to have them at my SEO agency.

Don’t get me wrong—some account managers are great! But the term just doesn’t make the most sense in the agency world. It also has a negative connotation for many business owners who are unhappy with agencies (many of whom have account managers).

AMs make perfect sense in the SaaS world, for example. They can help clients make the most of the product and are often a valuable asset since they are experts in it.

That’s the issue I have: in the agency world, clients aren’t looking for a product. Even if digital marketing strategy were a product, then the AM would need to be the person who actually developed and implemented the strategy to be a true expert in that client’s particular “product.” 

Clients generally don’t need to be convinced SEO is valuable, nor are they looking for high-level general concepts and the deliverables involved. They aren’t stupid. They might not completely grasp SEO, but most of them certainly know when they are getting blown smoke. 

In my experience, what they are actually seeking is a deeper understanding of what exactly is the plan for them, why, what’s next, and whether or not they are getting a return from a particular task (or if it’s just a waste of time).

To some marketers, this might come off as needy, hence the solution of handing clients an account manager so the client knows things are getting done and has a person to talk to.

But that won’t fix anything if the “problem” you are trying to solve via an account manager isn’t even the real problem to begin with.

What I’ve heard from a number of business owners is that they have perceived some account managers as a sort of “buffer” between them and the people actually running the strategy and doing the work. Which makes sense… Because that’s exactly what it is (generally speaking).

This all goes along with point #1 above – clients want a partner, not a vendor. Account Managers seem more like a vendor thing. I mean, it’s even just the name… Account Manager.

I think most of my clients would be quite offended if I referred to them as an “account.”

5. Proactivity vs Reactivity

The last place I want to be with a client is when they are wondering where I am or what I’m up to. In fact, I’d prefer they have as little opportunity as possible to reach out to me first. At my agency, we’re always looking for excuses to talk to clients. I know they are less likely to be compelled from a cold outreach if they are in constant contact with me!

For example, we recently noticed an SEO client was trying to post links in their Instagram posts. We don’t work on their social media, nor have we sold it or even intend to. That said, we decided to create a LinkTree for them and give some suggestions on Instagram marketing best practices. It was very quick, easy, and only cost us a few dollars. And those few dollars very well may end up paying off more than we could ever quantify! You never know when an agency might come along and approach my client with, ” Wow, your current provider never told you that!”

Wrapping Up

Selling SEO is becoming more difficult, which means keeping your current clients is more important than ever. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of business, which means freelancers and agencies can continue to grow if they can better understand their customer’s pain points and deliver more value beyond a deliverable. By focusing on customer service, ROI, and communication, agencies can position themselves to stand out in a crowded market and retain clients longer.

Do you know a freelancer or agency struggling right now? Be sure to share, save, or bookmark this page if you’ve found it valuable. That way, we can all help businesses get more back from their SEO investment – which will build a happier & healthier SEO industry for everyone.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter three of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

SEOs are always sharing advice, so if you keep up with newsletters or articles, you’ll be regularly running into something new to try. Whether it’s trying to get your website or businesses included in a new SERP feature, testing out a method to appear in AI Overviews, or even connecting social media posts to SEO strategy. Lots of things are changing, and many SEOs are sharing their insights, testing new strategies, and refining what works in real time.

Clients who like to educate themselves on SEO aren’t ignoring the new information, either. They want to keep up with the times, read about case studies, and see what SEOs with big followings are sharing. There’s nothing wrong with that.

When you’re client-facing, you’ll inevitably have one come to you about a new thing they read about, and they want to know why you haven’t tried this new thing out for them. It causes FOMO (fear of missing out), and whether that new thing is right for them or not, they can make an impulsive decision to do it anyway.

So, how do you cut through the noise and get the client to focus on what really matters? How can you make your point and get the win, both for yourself and the client?

It’s all about education, managing expectations, and preparing for the aftermath if you can’t get the client on board. 

“Shiny new object” syndrome

“Shiny new object syndrome” occurs when businesses jump on new trends without fully evaluating their impact or necessity. With the SERPs and AI changing up the SEO industry on a near-weekly basis, there is a lot more trepidation around what makes for the best approach and a sense of urgency to hop on to the latest new thing someone’s shared. Many companies see a new approach, hear a success story, and assume they must implement it immediately without considering whether it fits their needs.

A great example of this is programmatic SEO (a method that uses automation and technology to create search-engine-optimized web pages at scale). As of December 2024, ChatGPT had 300 million weekly active users worldwide. With the possibility of making things easier, faster, and more efficient, you’ve likely had or will have clients who want to figure out how to use ChatGPT for everything. The popularity of ChatGPT and the allure of programmatic SEO can lead a client to think that just because this technology exists and works for some companies, it can be the perfect opportunity to use this method for creating hundreds of business location pages, for example, at once.

However, just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. By blindly following the promise of hundreds of local landing pages created instantly that can rank, clients overlook many factors: no consideration of content quality, risks around duplicate content, and the fact they’re likely to be creating a negative experience for their potential customers. The example below from this excellent guide on the pitfalls of programmatic SEO highlights what can happen after the initial short-term gains.

Another example of “shiny new object” syndrome with local business clients is the rush for SEO testing. The client may have seen a recent case study or even read something you’ve published about another client’s results with testing and want to know why they haven’t been given the same plan. But the truth is that they don’t even have their foundation set up in such a way that testing is justified. It could be a brand new site, or there could be a lot of work to be done just redoing the work of the previous agency. 

When clients are showing you other people’s success and recommendations, managing their “shiny new object” syndrome can be overwhelming. You must be prepared to discuss and handle requests for random things like the examples mentioned. 

How to Say No

Saying no to a client’s idea in the best possible way isn’t just about managing the rejection they’ll feel—it’s about guiding them toward a better decision, too. By approaching the conversation with clear explanations, relevant data, and a focus on their long-term success, you can turn a tough conversation into an opportunity for education and trust-building.

Explain

When a client wants to try something new, the best approach is to help them understand whether it’s truly beneficial for their site. Just because a strategy worked for one business doesn’t mean it will work for another.

The industry they operate in, the current state of their website, and the competitiveness of their market all impact whether a tactic will deliver results. A strategy that helped a large eCommerce brand won’t necessarily translate to success for a small local business.

It’s also important to explain the risks. Some trends might bring short-term success but cause long-term damage. For example, a client might see a case study about a website ranking quickly by purchasing many links and assume they should do the same. 

First, you would want to address the case study, social media post, or idea they’ve shown you. Be specific in your approach to debunking its success, and explain that search engines can detect and penalize manipulative link-building tactics. Cite your sources, and if you can find the same source or publication making a debunking argument, then all the better! Google Search documentation is your friend in explaining away any of these spammy tactics they might bring up. 

Educating clients about the potential consequences of trend-chasing helps them make more informed decisions. If you tell them they’ll lose out on money, they aren’t likely to suggest this again. 

Tie it Back to Business Goals

When clients are uncertain, reassurance always comes from connecting SEO efforts to their business goals. A local business’s goals are to drive local traffic, improve leads, and increase revenue. Showing how the current strategy supports those objectives is key. When they push for a trend that doesn’t align with their goals, put things into perspective by comparing the return on investment of their existing plan versus the new idea. Sometimes, the numbers alone are enough to shift their thinking.

Data-driven insights work wonders in these conversations. Instead of simply telling clients that a strategy won’t work for them, showing them performance trends, competitor insights, and past case studies provides concrete evidence. This shifts the discussion from opinion to fact, making it easier to keep it on track.

Reassure

Managing clients is all about proper communication and developing and executing an SEO strategy that actually works. Part of your job is empathy and understanding your client’s situations and requests. Their SEO budget can be everything to them, especially when you’re working with small-to-medium-sized businesses. Every dollar matters, and they are bringing these new ideas to you because they just want to get a return on their investment as soon as possible. 

When discussing this with the client, keep the client’s perspective at the top of your mind. Remind them of the past results you’ve achieved for them and that they have trusted you before to create the best path forward for them. Align yourself with their point of view and match their communication style in your approach. 

What if they insist?

Even with the best explanations, some clients still insist on trying a new trend. Instead of fighting them on it, finding a middle ground can help them see the reality of their choice without risking their entire SEO strategy.

Compromise  

Sometimes, a client just won’t take no for an answer. In these cases, a compromise can be the best way forward. If the new idea isn’t likely to cause harm, framing it as a test allows the client to explore it while maintaining control over the outcome. Setting clear metrics and a defined time period ensures the results are measurable and actionable.

Going back to our programmatic SEO example, if a client insists on this approach for location pages despite you sharing your concerns, testing a small batch of pages first allows for an assessment of performance without making large-scale changes. If the results are positive, adjustments can be made before expanding further. If they are negative, the impact is contained, and the client can see why the approach may not be the best fit.

Let Them See the “Fruits” of Their Labor

If a client is determined to move forward with a risky idea despite your warnings, sometimes the best approach is to let them see the results firsthand. When performance declines or the expected results don’t materialize, presenting this information objectively makes it easier to guide them back to a more effective approach. 

Letting a client fail isn’t necessarily the best approach, but in some extreme cases, it’s the only way for them to understand a trend’s limitations. Instead of debating opinions, the conversation becomes centered on real-world outcomes, making it easier to refocus on proven strategies.

It’s About Educating, Not Just Explaining

By balancing education, expectation management, and strategic compromise, you can help clients navigate the “shiny new object” syndrome. The goal isn’t just for you to say “no” and have the client accept that—a client engaged with your work and industry is always a good thing—instead, it’s to educate clients with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions that drive real results.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter two of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

Whether you’re launching a local SEO strategy for a new client or planning the next quarter for a long-term term one, stakeholder buy-in is essential. For most marketing professionals, at some point in your career, you’ll need to present to executives to gain support for your initiatives.

This is especially important when finalizing marketing budgets or securing resources from other teams within a company. This could be prioritizing web tickets for technical updates or ensuring that content writers will be available to help with on-site optimizations. Gaining support beyond your direct client contact and team, including company executives, is key when SEO efforts require cross-functional collaboration and is a general occurrence when planning programs.

Stakeholder approval is often necessary for timelines, budgets, and resource allocation. These conversations typically happen during quarterly brand reviews (QBRs), annual planning sessions or strategy check-ins focused on “what’s next” or program progress against planned goals. Since time is limited, success depends on effectively communicating SEO’s value, defining key success metrics, and aligning SEO with the company’s broader goals. 

Why Getting Buy-In Is a Key Part of the Process

How can you prepare for a meeting with leadership? It starts with understanding the importance of the conversation ahead. Remember, SEO is an investment for a business that takes resources, time, and often cross-team collaboration to be effective. You may have already worked diligently with your direct client team to put together an SEO strategy focused on meeting all of the established KPIs.

Getting buy-in from key team leaders can be beneficial in a couple of ways:

• Resource allocation: This helps ensure that SEO initiatives have the proper resources for projects, such as developers, content writers, or analytics support.
• Prioritizing updates: This can ensure that SEO-related tasks are prioritized against other marketing initiatives and into workflows such as IT or development backlogs. Often, this can lead to faster implementation of items identified as having a high impact on SEO.
• Cross-team collaboration: Support from leadership can ensure that the SEO team is brought in during projects or planning conversations that might impact organic results, such as making changes to the navigation, content updates, web planning, or UX testing.

Understanding Your Audience

When putting together a pitch or presentation, you must tailor your message to the people you are presenting to. This boils down to understanding what stakeholders and executives care about, often high-level business outcomes, and how SEO contributes to them. Some questions that might come up regarding SEO might include:

• How does the ROI of your SEO program compare to other marketing channels?
• Is organic traffic translating into leads or long-term customers?
• How do we adapt to changes such as Google algorithm updates, LLMs, or AI?
• What risks are there for not investing in SEO?
• Is SEO contributing to revenue growth?

Keep in mind that executives don’t need SEO deep dives. Your main point of contact needs to understand those types of in-the-weeds details.

Instead, when tailoring presentations for executives and stakeholders, remember that they want clear insights on how SEO will help to reach business goals and support growth. Yes, the two audiences are different, making it important to know your audience so that you can anticipate questions and touch on important points in front of them.

Stakeholders & Executives vs. Marketing Teams

For example, stakeholders and executives care about:

• Staying aligned with the market, beating competitors
• Company growth
• Revenue growth
• Efficiency and resource allocation

Defining What Success Looks Like

As a marketer, defining success helps ensure that strategies align with business goals, providing clear metrics to measure performance and ROI. Defining success can help gain stakeholder support by showing how initiatives align with overall company objectives. This sets expectations for the SEO program and shows how projects align to reach the set goals. 

Defining success starts with identifying some of the key metrics that your team will report on. These can include metrics that are reported monthly to the marketing team and KPIs that can relate to the larger goals set out by the company. 

For example, some typical key metrics of an SEO program can include:

• Organic traffic: Sessions, new users, clicks, website visits
• Engagement metrics: Pages per session, engagement rate, engaged sessions, GBP profile actions
• Leads/Conversions: Form fills, free trials, click-to-calls, survey completions, newsletter sign-ups
• Visibility: Impressions, overall keyword rankings, captured SERP features, profile views

Examples of items that may be called out in a presentation to show the scale of projects, but not used as performance measurements, include:

• Number of pages that were optimized or updated.
• Number of net new content written and pushed live.
• Number of web tickets created and resolved.
• Number of broken links fixed on the website.

Understanding Company Goals and Key Objectives

Company goals and key objectives are typically going to be tied to growth, revenue, maximizing ROI, market share, and edging out competition. Depending on your business, this can include driving more website traffic to a specific site section, creating an expansion plan to help with business growth in new markets, or driving more sales/conversions for a specific product or service.

Examples of some company goals can include:

• Increasing online sales for X product by 10% this year. 
• Increase the number of returning customers.
• Opening new locations and increasing visibility in those markets.
• Increase web traffic by X% this year.

Aligning SEO Goals With Company Goals

Once you understand the company goals, it’s important to show how organic efforts can help reach those goals. Tying SEO goals directly to revenue growth and key business objectives can help show the impact on the company’s bottom line, which in turn can make it easier to get buy-in and resources.

Example Goal: Growth In New Markets

The company plans to open up new locations in a market where a top competitor already has a footprint. With this expansion, the company’s goal is to grow business visibility, reach new audiences, increase market share by cutting into competitor’s share, and drive more traffic to the website.

To achieve this goal, the SEO team plans a couple of key initiatives:

• Creating and optimizing local listings such as Google Business Profile to secure top positions in the local pack, grow localized keyword rankings, drive engagement to profiles, and attract branded and non-branded search traffic. 
• Conducting a competitor backlink audit and targeted acquisition strategy will help establish local authority, increase brand visibility where competitors are already listed, and drive referral traffic from local sources.
• Working with web and content teams to develop optimized local landing pages with strong call-to-actions can improve organic rankings, drive additional traffic, and generate leads through on-site form fills.

These initiatives work together to strengthen the company’s local presence in the market, compete effectively, and drive business growth.

Building The Case For SEO

To start the conversation around SEO, there needs to be a clear understanding of what SEO is—and what SEO isn’t. It is critical to explain its role in the marketing mix and how investing in SEO can drive more traffic, capture different audiences within the customer journey, reach new users, increase brand visibility, and support business growth.

Another key point is that, unlike other marketing channels, such as paid, SEO is a long-term strategy and may take time to see the full impact of efforts. Setting these expectations upfront helps navigate discussions around performance impact and timelines. 

When building your case for SEO, it’s important to touch on a few key items:

• Define value and business impact by demonstrating how SEO supports company goals.
• Present a high-level SEO strategy or roadmap focusing on main initiatives and how each project ties back to established company goals. 
• Focus on the big picture rather than getting lost in tactical details.
• Communicate ROI by outlining expected outcomes, explaining KPIs, and showing how success will be measured. 
• Be transparent about the resources and budget required for specific initiatives, clearly explaining why they are necessary and how they will be used. Executives will want to understand the rationale behind these allocations.
  • Example: You need content writers to assist with updating on-site content for product pages. This should improve keyword rankings for a specific product to help drive more traffic to pages and reach those ready-to-purchase audiences. Learn more about this in Melissa Popp’s guide to mastering content creation for client success.
• Set a project timeline, ensuring you cover everything from planning to execution.

Delivering Local SEO as Part of a Wider SEO Strategy

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Client Relationships & Partnerships

Before preparing to present strategies and goals to executives and stakeholders, ensure you’re fully aligned with the marketing team that you’re directly working with. This is the team you’re directly working with to solve their problems and achieve the goals you’ve set out together. They should be aligned on upcoming initiatives and serve as your partners and/or advocates during the conversation with larger teams. 

Whether it’s a newly signed client or one you’ve worked with for years, data can support an SEO strategy. Highlighting past success—whether with the specific client or when implementing a similar strategy—can help show opportunities and ease doubts. This could include successful past initiatives within your SEO program or a case study highlighting effective tactics for a similar client. A proven track record of success and a strong client relationship built on trusted recommendations help establish credibility and reinforce the effectiveness of your approach. 

Getting Ready For Your Next Presentation

Building a strong case for SEO is essential to securing the resources and support needed to reach goals and drive meaningful business impact. Gaining stakeholder buy-in ensures alignment with company goals, helps with implementation efforts, and fosters cross-team collaboration, which can drive long-term success for an SEO program. 

When planning your next presentation to executives and stakeholders, remember the audience, what they care most about, how your SEO strategy aligns with company goals for the year, and the effort required to reach those goals. When executives understand the value of SEO, the team can be better positioned to executive strategies, adapt to the changing search landscape, and sustain growth in competitive markets. 

Is it just you? What about your local competitors? What about your industry?! Welcome to hours of digging through forums and ranking tools to get the answers you need for your bosses and clients.

Wish you had a way to quickly determine which ranking changes are being felt throughout your industry?

Introducing Local RankFlux, the world’s only ‘weather report’ for Google’s local ranking algorithm.

The wider SEO industry has been lucky to have multiple tools dedicated to tracking seismic changes in organic SERPs for years. Local SEO? Not so much!

That ends today, with the (re)launch of Local RankFlux: a completely free tracking tool and early-warning system from BrightLocal, designed to give local marketers the edge in understanding what’s happening with Google’s local algorithm.

How Does It Work?

BrightLocal’s local rank tracking software has been monitoring the local SERPs of our customers for years. With Local RankFlux, we apply the same technology to a set group of:

28 keywords x 26 industries x 20 cities = 14,560 keywords (560 per industry)

This means we’re tracking nearly 15k SERPs every day to determine a statistical point of variation (the Local RankFlux score) and to understand if similarities are seen in specific industries.

Local RankFlux simply looks at all these SERPs, calculates how much the rankings for these keywords have changed since yesterday, and gives the level of variation a score, from 0 (no change at all) to 10 (complete upheaval, volcanoes erupting, cities falling into the sea).

• 0 – 3 indicates ‘low’, expected fluctuation (i.e. nothing significant has happened)
• 3.1 – 6 indicates ‘medium’ fluctuation (i.e. something minor has happened)
• 6.1 – 10 indicates ‘high’ fluctuation (i.e. something major has happened – likely a local algorithm update)

That’s the simple version, though! I’d encourage you to take a look at our detailed methodology so you can better understand how the Local RankFlux Score is calculated… The more you know!

How Do I Use It?

Easy! Just bookmark the URL www.brightlocal.com/local-rankflux today, and when you think there’s been a rumble in your rankings, head there, check the score, and filter the data to your own industry to see if there’s anything more to learn.

Want to be ahead of the game? Sign up for one or more of our email alerts:

Daily: Simple. Get a daily email telling you today’s Local RankFlux score.
Weekly: Sign up, and every seven days you’ll get an email with the previous week’s Local RankFlux scores.
Urgent: Sign up to ‘Urgent’ to only receive an email when the score is above 4, which we determine to mean that a Google local algorithm update is likely.

Happy Rankings!

We hope you find Local RankFlux useful and can get a bit more sleep next time you feel that ol’ tremble in the rankings.

Want to know more about Local RankFlux, or need to report a bug? Get in touch with us at content@brightlocal.com.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter six of ‘Part Two: Processes and Workflows’.

Foreword: Saving the Dream

Why did you start on this little mission of yours in the first place? I’m assuming you’re not a classic movie villain, and you’re not going after power for power’s sake. You probably did it for promises of freedom or a better life. A little green in the bank probably caught your imagination too, but even that, I would say, comes from a desire to have more control over one’s life. After all, what do we want money for if not for spending our time and energy in more fulfilling ways?

But every company reaches what Michael E. Gerber calls the “Adolescence” phase. You’ve realized you can’t do it all alone, so you start delegating and hiring new people. And too often, when people reach this phase, that promise of having more control over one’s life starts to feel a bit like snake oil. Your team’s problems haven’t really stopped being your problems, and now new challenges seem to be forming in places you didn’t realize existed.  Not only is your sense of control not improving, but it’s actually made worse by an exponentially increasing number of questions to answer, crises to avert, and futures to plan for. You may feel like you have anything but control over your life.

The solution is process.

Now, those of us who work in SEO, local SEO, or any form of digital marketing, for that matter, hate being put into a box. We’re a proud people. We’re battle-hardened from years of explaining to clients why the strategy they’re suggesting is overlooking important nuance and why all of those KPIs they want to focus on aren’t as clear-cut as they want to make it out to be. And every time a new trainee asks a question about SEO theory, we’re always happy to provide them with the infamous “it depends.” Additionally, the mad scientist in us is often a perfectionist who doesn’t want to sacrifice quality in favor of an assembly line approach.

But I want to stress to you that creating a process for your work does not have to be the death of quality. On the contrary, I hope to show you that implementing processes will help you regain control and even help you deliver a better service.

Vision

If your team doesn’t know where the company is going, how are they supposed to help you achieve your goal? How could they possibly think outside the box and provide creative solutions if they don’t even know there’s a box to begin with? And how are you supposed to prioritize anything properly? You need to create something tangible to latch on to.

The Definition of a Vision

There is a strange amount of debate on the definition of a company vision and how it relates to things like a mission statement. Personally, I believe those arguments are mostly about semantics. What really matters is that there is a clear and compelling future that you and your team are working towards.

Think of it this way: The most important part of developing a good local SEO strategy for a client is researching and determining your core terms. Is that not the case? Without them, you’re just guessing, and any optimizations may turn out to be futile. You might get lucky, but you might also be that guy building a strategy primarily centered on ‘near me’ keywords in 2024.

Determining a primary topic and the terms associated with it will guide the nuances of the rest of your strategy. The clarity that comes from your long-term vision for your client’s success will answer many of the open-ended questions about how to approach aspects of your on-page, linking, or Google Business Profile (GBP) strategy. You, your organization, and your processes are no different.

Defining Your Positioning and Choosing Your Niche

Read more

Define Your Ideal Customer

A good vision of success should include a vision for who you will be helping and how. Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) are nothing new, but too often, I see people companies trying to service every type of customer that sends them an RFP. If that’s you, I highly recommend re-evaluating that reality.

It can be hard to turn down a potential source of income. At the end of the day, you’re trying to bring in revenue. And maybe, in your current state, you’re struggling to believe you could say no even if you wanted to. If that’s you, and now isn’t the best time to start saying no to RFPs, then maybe you at least begin the process of defining an ideal customer profile and make it a goal to strive for. 

What’s required of you and your team can vary wildly already before introducing entirely different client types into the mix. Suppose you’re being pulled in too many different directions. In that case, you’ll eventually reach a point in your growth where effectively pricing your service, setting boundaries, and setting up processes for better efficiency for your team becomes impossible.

This doesn’t mean you can’t expand into services for more than one vertical or client type. But you should try to own your backyard first. Focus on what you’re best at and who you have the most rewarding experience with first. To use another SEO analogy, it’s like trying to overcome the proximity bias with your map rankings. Owning your backyard first will give you the strength and footing necessary to overcome the next obstacle. But if you don’t start there, you leave a lot to chance.

Building and Organizing Processes

You’ve likely heard the phrase, “You can lead them to water, but you can’t force them to drink.” But are you leading them to water? Is there even a watering hole to go to? Or is everyone wandering through the woods until they find a stream on their own? 

Self-reliance is an important attribute to look for in a good recruit, and I’m as big an advocate for that as the next guy. Everyone wants a team of rock stars. But as a leader, it’s your job to bring people together and align their goals. And that starts with the processes you use to achieve those goals. If everyone has their own way of doing everything, there will be a lot of unnecessary bottlenecks and arguments about best practices. You may all want what’s best for the client, but what that looks like to each of you is not always going to match up. And while it’s always good to challenge ourselves and be willing to improve, if there isn’t a standard to measure your work against, your discussions will just go in circles. 

A Process for Creating Process

Is it meta to have a process for creating process, you ask? 1000% it is. But if you don’t use one, you’ll likely fall into any of the countless traps that await your inner perfectionist. So, your first and most important process is a process for creating process. (Say that five times fast)

It’s super simple: Gather, Simplify, Capture, and Document.

Gather 

Start by gathering the information for a rough outline of what your organization does. It’s really important that you don’t get ahead of yourself here. Adding some detail can be helpful; after all, we’re mostly brainstorming right now. But during this step, you should focus on boiling things down to their major pivot points.  

When I’m first getting started with this, I usually prefer to go analog and use a large whiteboard before transferring things over to my computer. It gives me the freedom to get a little chaotic as I brainstorm, allows me to see the whole “picture” at once, and requires less effort to make adjustments when I reach the “Simplify” step. However, depending on your needs and preferences, using something digital like a Google Doc or even something more sophisticated like a mapping tool may make more sense. In either case, just make sure to pick one and stick with it. 

If you’re worried about missing something important, remember you can always break things down into more detail later. Don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be. Get it all together as best you can first and go from there.

Simplify

Before we start documenting anything, take some time to look at what you have and see if there are any ways to organize better or simplify the outline’s structure. One of the ways I like to approach it is to ask myself how well someone would retain this information if I used the same structure to create a sales pitch. This helps me stay concise (as the incessant, rambling ADHD-er that I am), and it helps me quite literally later when building a pitch for our sales conferences, training programs for new employees, and presentations for onboarding clients. 

This is also a stage at which I recommend having someone look at what you’ve got with fresh eyes. 

Capture

Now it’s time to start recording yourself. Start capturing the “How-to’s” of your major services. For example, if you have a periodic audit for a client set every month, have whoever’s best suited on your team record themselves going through the process and explaining it along the way.

There are  various tools you can use for this. Anything that records your screen and audio will do. My personal recommendation is Loom. We originally started using it to help with remote work collaboration but found it worked even better for training videos. It’s simple to use and has some really convenient features, including easy integration with our training manual program.

Document

Now for the Pièce de résistance. Now that we have an outline and videos to go with it all, we want to write down the essential goals, how-tos, and anything else that can clarify or support the training video. This is where I recommend getting the most detailed. Some of the best details you can provide here are any useful sources or references that further explain your reasoning or provide an easy path to the tools needed to complete the process. 

I highly recommend getting a good training manual software like Trainual to document everything. It’s not required, though. If you’re pressed for cash or would prefer an alternative, you could always go the simple route and use something like Google Docs or Slides. The first SEO Manual I ever made was a Google Slides deck with videos and diagrams. Eventually, that slide deck got too big (hundreds of slides too big) and increasingly harder to maintain and keep organized. As time progressed, people had an increasingly harder time going through them.

Using good software has made it easier to keep things up to date and divvy up lessons in a way that’s far more user-friendly. As a bonus, making it more user-friendly for my team has made it more engaging, which has led to better knowledge retention and, therefore, fewer unwanted opportunities to repeat myself. 

The Anatomy of a Good System

When you begin evaluating your systems or are just creating a new one from scratch, I recommend having a framework for that approach, too. Call this a second process for creating. Supplemental to the documenting process we just went over, it can help define current processes better and ensure that any new processes you create are done efficiently. 

The best framework I’ve found to help me in my thought process is to define what you do, when you do it, how you do it, and who is doing it. The key for me is to force myself to answer these questions as much as possible to keep myself from getting lost in the weeds. 

What You Do

Start with the value being provided. This will become more difficult as you get into smaller actions, but always start with what the client is actually getting out of it, or at least what provided value the task is feeding into. Then,  define the deliverables. 

For example, instead of “GBPs tasks” or even “Optimize GBP’s,” I would label it “GBP Management” at the very top. “Optimize GBP’s might be a part of it, but it’s not the overarching value you’re providing if you’re also taking care of suspensions, appeals, and the like. “GBP Management” provides a better umbrella to fit your current systems under and a framework any new ones you create can funnel into easily.

When You Do It

This is the step I see overlooked the most. Everything seems simple on paper until it’s put into practice. That’s because context is what pulls your system apart. Consider onboarding a client as an example: When does your team begin and finish optimizing a GBP? What about On Page? Links? The simple answer is when the client signs the contract, but what about the accesses you need to entities like the site? Clearly defining the “When” of one process often clearly identifies the “What” of another. The GBP example did so by outlining what was needed on the Client Success Managers’ part to ensure onboarding went quickly and smoothly. 

How You Do It

This is the step most people naturally tend to start with, but it’s important to do it after What and When. Because how you do something is what evolves the most. If your company grows, you’re going to need to make changes at some point. If you add to your service offering or make addendums to your company vision or identity, the How is more likely to change. But the What and When, while still subject to change, are much more rigid in comparison. Doing it after What and When also provides the perspective you need to question the current How and refine it if necessary.

Who is Responsible

While perhaps the most important part of the process, choosing who is responsible is easiest when you realize the scope. If you’re a one-man show, I would still recommend creating some form of title or label so that if the day comes that you need to delegate it out for one reason or another, it’s a seamless transition.

An Ongoing Process

Not only do you not need to document everything now, you shouldn’ t. 

The most straightforward reason is that your time is limited, and this is supposed to help you with that, not make it worse. These steps are also meant to help you improve your processes, not just record them. Seeing how your organization functions in a clearer and more concrete format makes decisions to modify it easier. Paired with your company vision, you’ll be able to see more clearly if certain secondary procedures in the fine print of your strategy are worth your time or not. But if you spend all your time in the fine print, you’ll never get around to that.

This is an ongoing process. If I were to compare it to anything, it’d be dieting. No amount of extreme calorie deficit in the short run is going to erase the need for long-term consistent habits. For most people, it’s better to start by building a few good habits at a time and build on top of that consistency one piece at a time.

Practical Principles for Process

All the process documentation in the world won’t fix anything if you don’t take the time to simplify, organize, revise, and optimize them. In this section, we’ll review a few ideas that can get you pointed in the right direction. At the end of the day, you’ll have to create your own systems that fit into your business model and best serve your clients. But these can serve as inspiration and a good place to start.

Some examples include the use of task management software. Project management tools like Asana, Click Up, or even Notion can be really helpful in speeding up delegation and organization. However, they are not required to implement these principles.

Choosing the Best Project Management Tools for Your Agency

Read more

Using Targets Instead of Tasks

Let’s set the scene: I was a new manager, still young in my experience in SEO. My team was comprised primarily of college students who first heard about SEO when they applied for the job. I felt like I was losing a lot of time creating and following up on Asana tasks, so I decided I was going to automate some of it.

I wasn’t sure how, but I knew I needed to eliminate the monotony for my own and my client’s sake. But how was I supposed to create a linear process for something as ambiguous as SEO? And how would I structure it so I could easily delegate it to a very inexperienced team? I didn’t have the benefit of hiring “rockstars” like so many business gurus on YouTube suggest. We hired great people, but we were a small start-up and didn’t have pockets deep enough for experienced professionals. 

I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but I knew I had to try something, so I started with onboarding. It was the most straightforward process we had, and we even had a checklist of sorts already. So, I organized it and automated it with an Asana project template. It covered everything we needed to do when we took on a new client, including collaboration tasks with our client success department, content team, and design team. I thought I was a genius.

Then, all of the reasons “it depends” in SEO started showing up in my Slack inbox. Mistakes started rolling in, and millions of questions came with them. Externalities weren’t being taken into account or were even being ignored because someone assumed it was someone else’s responsibility. In many cases, I had a hard time arguing with that assumption. If I were in their shoes, I think I would have done the same.

You Can’t Templatize Everything

Despite my best efforts to automate the process, I ended up more overwhelmed than when I started. So, in a stroke of genius (otherwise known as panicking), I tried to templatize everything even further. Clearly, the problem was that I hadn’t used enough skip logic in my process, so I started looking for every opportunity I could to create an if/then statement and create more preventative measures.

Surprise, surprise, it only got worse. Everything was turning into what Dan Martell calls Transactional Leadership, and I was pounding my head against the “Tell-Check-Next” ceiling. I’d tell them what to do, check that it was done correctly, and then tell them what to do next. I thought that’s what I was supposed to do as a manager.

However, the problem with a transactional approach is that the only way it can scale is by adding more transactions. This can only translate into more time lost and more quality compromised. In this framework, all your team’s problems don’t stop being your problems, and you’re eventually consumed by the endless pit of QC-ing everything, everywhere, all the time. And that’s time you and your client don’t have. 

The Definition of Done

Everything took a turn for the better when I stopped focusing on all the things that could go wrong and started focusing on prioritizing my end goals for each project. The tasks on my onboarding template became a list of areas that needed to be covered rather than a list of every step to complete. I started defining what “done” looks like at the highest level for those areas (also an idea I stole from Dan) and introduced stewardship to the system by making the assignees responsible for the outcome instead of just the tasks. If they were waiting on assets from a client or another department in the company, it was on them to follow up and solve the problems.

Of course, I still provide training and answer questions. But when I do, I often start by asking, “Well, imagine I didn’t exist. How would you handle this?” Ultimately, it’s my job to give them the tools they need, a destination to reach, and assistance as necessary along the way. 

This mindset can and should be applied in every stage of your process. When you work in something more creative or analytical, like SEO, it’s better to use targets instead of tasks. Otherwise, your “process” will just be one big juggling act.

“Once you set the outcome instead of telling your employees “how,” they start talking about results, not tasks. They begin offering their energy, not just their skills. They start asking themselves, ‘ Is there a better way?’ instead of asking you, ‘ How do we do this?” – Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time

Process Beats Paranoia Every Time

A scenario pretty much every SEO provider has had nightmares about at some point is the dreaded morning phone call from a client asking why something on the website is broken, or the GBP is set up wrong. “How did we miss this?” you ask yourself. You know the person you assigned to the project wouldn’t knowingly leave that behind for someone to find. So how’d it happen?

Simple: They’re human.

Fun fact: we all are, and that’s not changing any time soon. And while emphasizing the importance of not making mistakes to your team is important, “Don’t Make Mistakes” is not a strategy. You can’t stop biology from doing its thing. So what can we do about it? It’s here where most fall into the trap of thinking they must QC everyone’s work. But while QC-ing is also important, I urge you to remember the Tell-Check-Next loop I mentioned earlier. That’s a ceiling you cannot break through. Besides, nobody wants a helicopter parent, and nobody wants to be one, and it’s not effective anyway. But the good news is, you don’t have to be one. 

Set up Routines Based on the System You Already Have

Instead of checking everyone’s work all the time, create routines for checking or auditing clients periodically. This doesn’t always have to be a major QC audit, either. My team’s smallest QC checkpoint is a final QC at the end of onboarding from the SEO, Design, and Content teams. Everyone is already there, and it’s hard for something glaring on a page to get past three individuals in a single sitting. It’s simple and takes little to no extra time because it’s just a part of the Asana task template we have set up. 

For larger QC measures, I’d recommend starting with any routines or systems you already have and simply adding to them. You probably already have periodic check-ins every week or month where you evaluate rankings and any other metrics you’ve deemed top priority. Introduce some QC-ing into them.

What’s likely to get overlooked? Grammar, for example, is an easy one to forget when you’re worried about keyword density, word count, backlinks, etc. It seems small, but it’s no less embarrassing when it comes up on a phone call with one of your biggest clients. Make it a routine to check that, along with some other on-page optimizations, when building location pages or anything that involves the written word for a client, once a month when your team is already there.

This allows you to show your team you trust them while still putting in some countermeasures to support their humanity.

Minimum Viable Product

There’s no law for how long these intervals should be; it’ll depend on your time and resources. So, just start with something. Processes are iterative anyway. You’ll probably reach a point where some of the intervals feel a little too far apart. In that instance, remember two things:

1. A little too far apart is better than the alternative.

   You do not have the time to check everything all the time, and you won’t break through the Tell-Check-Next ceiling.

2. You can always improve it, but you can’t do that if you don’t try something.

   Theory only takes you so far. Once you get a process down, you can find ways to speed some of it up or simplify it.

Simple System Examples

Improved Collaboration

One of the best changes I made was to my weekly 1:1’s with my team. I had actually discontinued the meetings for a time because I felt like they were a waste of time and always got too convoluted with all of the objectives I tried to tackle every meeting. But not having a scheduled time meant I just wasn’t getting around to talking with my team members enough. So, I re-implemented them and changed how I approached them. Keeping the idea of transformational leadership in mind, I changed my meetings to be oriented around outcomes rather than just task instructions. We still discuss tasks and questions as necessary, but the primary goal of every meeting is to answer the following questions:

1. Were there any notable improvements in rankings?
2. Were there any notable drops in rankings?
3. What are you doing about it?
4. What do you need from me?

There’s always more that could be discussed, but ultimately, this is what they’re responsible for. Everything else hangs off of these questions. Keeping simple, quantifiable markers of success at the forefront of the discussion keeps the meeting focused, helps prioritization, and makes it clear to your team members what they’re responsible for. It also gives them the ruler they need to measure their own day-to-day priorities against, helping to eliminate the extra busy work that might otherwise get in the way.

Quarterly Link Planning  

The most dreaded phase of service for me has always been what I call the “Now what?” phase. You’ve been working on a client for some time now, and you’ve achieved the primary objective of your contract to rank for the core terms you’ve selected, and now there are no obvious next steps. Now what? We know all of the things we could do. But what should we do? What will be the best use of our time and the client’s money? How do we make sure something is always being done while also making sure it’s beneficial for the client and not just busy work? These are just some of the questions I always found myself trying to answer.

One of the deliverables I decided to tackle first was link building. I started by trying a rigid schedule for certain deliverables like backlinks. I needed to make sure things were happening without having my hands on every lever in the machine. However, the problem was the same as the onboarding template. It was too rigid, it didn’t scale nicely at all, and, most importantly, it ignored the unique needs of the client. So, I replaced it with a simple planning phase that we now go through every quarter. This made the schedule the rigid pivot point rather than the deliverables themselves and created a balance between consistency of process and quality of service. And there was no need to introduce automations to do it. This thought process is beginning to guide how we approach most of our ongoing services.

Conclusion

Implementing structured processes within your agency is not about stifling creativity or turning local SEO into an assembly line—it’s about reclaiming control, improving efficiency, clarifying directives, and ultimately delivering better results for your clients. Without clear frameworks, scaling becomes chaotic, decision-making slows, and your time gets consumed by unnecessary firefighting. But by defining goals, setting measurable targets, and building adaptable processes, you empower your team to operate with autonomy while maintaining quality and consistency.

The key takeaway? Processes should evolve alongside your agency. Start small, document what matters, and refine over time. Prioritize outcomes over rigid task lists, foster accountability within your team, and establish systems that reduce errors without micromanaging. When done right, these systems won’t just improve your SEO services—they’ll give you the freedom and control you originally sought when you started this journey. Your agency’s growth doesn’t have to come at the cost of your sanity—process is the answer.

So, next time you’re looking for a juicy statistic to throw into a pitch deck and support your point, ask yourself if it really represents the story as things are today.

At BrightLocal, we’re big on integrity. That’s why we’ve curated this list of up-to-date, verified local SEO statistics for 2025. Using much of our own local SEO research, as well as statistics sourced from other trustworthy publishers, you’ll find the most relevant local marketing stats below.

General Local Search Statistics

• Local search queries show the following types of results in Google’s first ten organic results:
  • Business websites (47%)
  • Directories (31%)
  • Business mentions (16%)
  • Forums and discussions (7%) 

(Business Listings Visibility Study, 2024)

Consumer Search Behavior

• 80% of US consumers search online for local businesses on a weekly basis, and 32% search for them daily (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 61% of consumers use business information sites (like Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Better Business Bureau) to find information about a local business that is new to them or that they have not used before (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023).
• 42% of searchers click on Google map pack results for local queries (Backlinko, 2024).
• 72% of consumers use Google to search for local business information, but this drops to 61% for 18-24 year olds (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 67% of 18-24 year olds use Instagram for local business information, followed by 62% using TikTok (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 47% of consumers would look for an alternative business nearby if the one they intended on visiting was closed (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 2 in 3 US consumers have already made a decision about what they’re going to buy before they visit a physical store (Think with Google, 2023).
• 29% of consumers encountered businesses not stocking the products in-store that they said they did online at least once a month in 2023 (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 40% of consumers visit Google when researching or planning a purchase they plan to make in a physical store (Think with Google, 2021).
• 65% of US consumers approach holiday shopping with a mix of online and in-store spending (Think with Google, 2024).

Local Business Review Statistics

Finding and Comparing Online Reviews

• 83% of consumers use Google to find local business reviews (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• 31% of US consumers use Instagram to find local business reviews, and 20% use TikTok as alternative local business review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
  
• 74% of consumers use at least two review platforms in their business research, whilst 34% of consumers use three or more review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• Over three-quarters (76%) of US consumers consume video content when looking for review information about local businesses (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).

Review Stars and Ratings

• 91% of consumers say that the local branch reviews of a multi-location brand impact their overall perceptions of big brands in some way (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 71% of consumers would not consider using a business with an average review rating below three stars (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 63% of consumers said seeing mostly negative written reviews would make them lose trust in a business (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 69% of consumers would feel positive about using a business if its written reviews describe positive experiences (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 88% of consumers say they’d use a business that responds to both positive and negative reviews, whilst only 47% said they would consider using a business that doesn’t respond to its reviews at all (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).

AI in Local Search

Using AI for Search

• ChatGPT Search shows business websites for 58% of its local search sources, followed by business mentions (27%) and online directories (15%) (Uncovering ChatGPT Search Sources, 2024).

Local Marketers and AI

• 88% of multi-location marketers are using generative AI within their organizations (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 36% of of high-performing brands are using AI to ‘a great extent’ in their marketing, compared to 13% of average-performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 59% of local agency marketers want to develop their AI and machine learning skills in 2025 (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).
• 32% of US adults said that they think AI would provide a better experience and outcome than typical search when looking for a local business (Near Media, 2024).

Consumers and AI

• 61% of consumers feel well-informed about AI developments (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 41% of consumers feel comfortable with businesses using AI to inform and communicate, so long as it improves their overall customer experience (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
  
• Not local, but still important: 17% of US consumers are using AI chatbot technology like ChatGPT for search (Washington Post, 2024).

Local Search Industry Statistics

• 94% of high-performing brands have a dedicated local marketing strategy, compared to 60% of average performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 86% of local marketers say their clients are aware of how new developments in search could impact their business visibility and rankings (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).

We hope this list inspires you to kickstart your local marketing strategies for 2025 and beyond.

Think we’ve missed any crucial figures? Please feel free to get in touch with the content team, drop us a note in The Local Pack, or catch us on LinkedIn, Blue Sky, or X