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Google Business Profile & Local SEO
When someone nearby searches for what you do, your business should be the one on the map. By the end of this course you'll have a fully claimed, optimized profile, a review engine that runs itself, and a local presence that keeps working while you sleep.
Start with SEO Fundamentals — Fluent Collective Courses · Next: Reviews & Reputation — Fluent Collective Courses
Someone three blocks away is searching for exactly what you sell. Right now, your competitor's pin is the one they tap. In seven modules you'll own your Google Business Profile — claimed, optimized, review engine running — and become the obvious choice on the map.
What you'll learn
- Claim and verify your Google Business Profile — and get through the verification process without getting stuck in the loop.
- Pick the categories, services, and attributes that tell Google exactly what you do — the single strongest relevance signal on your profile.
- Build a review engine: a systematic ask process plus professional responses to every review, glowing or brutal.
- Lock down NAP consistency across citations and track your map-pack rankings with a simple manual system.
Is this for me?
Who is this course for?
Local businesses with a physical location or a service area — plumbers, dentists, restaurants, contractors, shops. If customers come to you, or you go to them, this course is for you.
What do I need before starting?
A real, verifiable business — Google mails a postcard to confirm your address. No website required, though one helps.
How long does it take?
Seven modules at 30–45 minutes each. Most people finish in about two weeks, doing a module every couple of days.
Start here
Module 0: Start Here
Get oriented before you build anything: what you’ll learn, how the course works, and what you’ll walk away with.
Module 1
Module 1: How local search actually works
Before you touch a single setting, you need to understand the game you're playing. This module explains the local map pack, what Google ranks on, and what you need gathered before you start.
Module 2
Module 2: Claiming and setting up your profile
Your Google Business Profile is free real estate on the biggest search engine on earth. This module walks through claiming it, verifying it, and entering the fundamentals correctly.
Module 3
Module 3: Categories, services, and attributes
Categories are the single most powerful relevance signal on your profile. Get them right and Google understands exactly what you do; get them wrong and you're invisible for your best keywords.
Module 4
Module 4: Reviews — getting them and handling them
Reviews are the engine of local SEO: they feed prominence, they feed relevance (customers write your keywords for you), and they decide clicks. This module builds you a review system that runs on habit, not hope.
Module 5
Module 5: Photos, posts, and staying active
An active profile outranks a dormant one. This module covers the visual and freshness signals — photos, posts, Q&A — that keep your listing alive in Google's eyes and appealing in customers'.
Module 6
Module 6: Citations and NAP consistency
Citations — mentions of your business name, address, and phone on other sites — are the backbone of prominence. This module shows you how to audit yours by hand and fix the mess.
Module 7
Module 7: Local content, links, and tracking
The final layer: location pages on your website, genuine local links, and a simple manual system for watching your rankings move.
Choose your track
Two ways through this course — pick the one that matches where you are.
Starter track
New to local SEO? Do Module 0, then Modules 1, 2, and 4. Module 1 explains how rankings actually work, Module 2 gets your profile claimed and complete (the single biggest lever), and Module 4 starts your review engine. That’s 80% of the value — add Modules 3, 5, 6, and 7 once the foundation is live.
Advanced track
Done local SEO before? Audit your profile against Modules 2–3 as a checklist, then go deep on Modules 6 and 7 — citation cleanup and local content/links are where experienced optimizers pull ahead of competitors who stopped at “claimed.” Finish with the teardown, the glossary for precision, and the final exam to certify it.
Your build brief
Everything you write in the build brief prompts across this course's modules collects here. Download it as a designed PDF — and we keep a copy too, so when you're ready for us to build it for you, we already know exactly what you want.
Your answers save automatically as you type — on this device and to your signup email.
Teardown: two plumbers on the same map
Search “plumber near me” in any city and you’ll see the same story: one business owns the map pack with 300+ reviews and a 4.8 rating, while a competitor three blocks away sits at 12 reviews and page-two invisibility. Same trade, same city, wildly different phones. Let’s dissect the gap with this course’s toolkit.
The winner’s profile completeness is the first tell: every field filled — primary category exactly right (“Plumber,” not “Contractor”), all services listed individually, attributes set (women-led, veteran-led where true), hours including holidays, and a business description written for humans that happens to include what people search. The loser’s profile is a skeleton: name, address, phone, and hope.
Reviews are the visible moat. The winner has a system — the Module 4 playbook: ask at the moment of delight (job done, customer smiling), make it frictionless (direct link, not “find us on Google”), and respond to every single review, good or bad, within a day. Three hundred reviews didn’t happen; they were built, five at a time, for years. The loser “asks sometimes” — which is to say, never systematically.
Photos tell the same story: the winner uploads real job photos weekly — the team, the van, before-and-afters. The loser has the default street-view thumbnail. Google’s algorithm notices activity; customers notice proof. Both compound.
What to steal: completeness as a discipline, a review system tied to the moment of delight, and weekly photo uploads. None of it costs money — it costs consistency, which is exactly why most competitors won’t do it. What to leave: the temptation to buy reviews or keyword-stuff your business name (“Best Plumber Austin Cheap 24/7”). Google suspends for that, and one suspension erases years of work. Play the long game — it’s undefended.
Want this done for you?
Rather do it with us? Our Map Pack Setup ($997) — Google Business Profile optimization, citations, and a review engine that runs itself.
See done-for-you services