Local SEO
Local SEO services: your business profiles and citations optimized across the internet.
When nearby customers search for what you do, your business profiles and citations decide whether they find you, trust you and call you. We manage and optimize every one of them, everywhere.
How local search works
Three things decide who shows up nearby.
Every search engine weighs the same three things when it picks which local businesses to show. Local SEO is working on all three.
Relevance
How well your business matches what the customer searched. Search engines read your categories, services, description, website and even the words in your reviews.
What we do: We set the right primary and secondary categories, list every service, and make sure your profiles and website describe exactly what you do.
Distance
How close you are to the person searching, or to the place they named. You can't move your building, but you can make sure every search engine knows exactly where you are and every area you serve.
What we do: We lock in your exact address or service areas everywhere, and build pages for the neighborhoods and towns you serve.
Prominence
How well known and trusted your business is: the number and quality of your citations, your reviews and rating, links and mentions, and how established your website is.
What we do: We build citations, grow reviews, and earn local links and mentions that tell search engines you're the trusted choice.
NAP consistency
Your name, address and phone, identical everywhere.
NAP is your business name, address and phone number. Search engines check it on every site that lists you. When it matches, they trust it. When it doesn't, they're less sure you're the right business to show, and customers end up calling an old number or driving to an old address.
We set one correct version of your details and make every profile, directory, aggregator and page on your website match it, then keep it that way when anything changes.
Citations
Every place your business is listed, built and cleaned up.
A citation is anywhere your name, address and phone appear online. Accurate citations on trusted, relevant sites are one of the strongest signals in local search. We build them in every category that matters for your business.
Core business profiles
CGM Local, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and Apple Business Connect — the profiles behind most local searches and maps.
Data aggregators
The data providers that feed your business details to hundreds of apps, GPS systems, maps and directories. Get them wrong and the error spreads everywhere.
Major directories
The well-known review and business directories customers still check before they call.
Industry directories
The sites for your trade or profession, which carry extra weight because they're relevant to what you do.
Local sources
Chamber of commerce, city and neighborhood sites, local associations, sponsorships and local news.
Unstructured mentions
Your business named in articles, blogs and event pages. No listing form, but search engines still count them.
Cleanup comes first
Duplicate listings split your reviews and confuse search engines. Closed locations, old addresses and wrong phone numbers send customers away. Before we build anything new, we find and fix or remove every bad listing.
Business profiles
Every part of every profile, optimized.
Your profiles on CGM Local, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and Apple Business Connect are often the first thing a customer sees. We complete and optimize every part of them, and keep them active every month.
Categories
The right primary category and every secondary one that fits. The single biggest relevance signal on a profile.
Services & products
Every service you offer, described in the words customers search with.
Attributes
Details customers filter by: online appointments, wheelchair access, veteran-owned, languages spoken and more.
Hours
Regular, holiday and special hours kept current, so customers never arrive to a locked door.
Photos & video
Real photos of your team, work, storefront and vehicles, added every month.
Posts & offers
Updates, offers and events published on your profiles to keep them active.
Questions & answers
The common questions customers ask, answered on your profile before they have to call.
Booking & contact links
Call, message, website and booking links set up and tracked.
Reviews & reputation
Reviews win the search and the call.
Your reviews help decide where you show up, and they're what customers read before they choose. We build a steady stream of real reviews and answer every one.
More reviews, steadily
A steady flow of new reviews beats a burst. We ask every happy customer at the right moment, by email and text.
Recent reviews
Customers and search engines both look at how recent your reviews are. Fresh reviews every month keep you current.
Every review answered
A thoughtful reply to every review, good or bad, shows customers and search engines you're active and care.
Words that rank
When customers mention the service and the area in their review, it adds relevance for those searches.
By the rules
No paying for reviews, no fake reviews and no filtering out unhappy customers. Every search engine penalizes those.
Local signals on your website
Your website and your profiles telling the same story.
Your profiles point to your website, and search engines check that the two agree. We add the local signals that connect them.
Location & service-area pages
A page for each location, neighborhood or town you serve, each written for that place.
Local business schema
Structured data that tells search engines your name, address, phone, hours, area and services, matching your profiles exactly.
Name, address and phone on every page
In the same format as every citation, so your website and profiles agree.
Local links
Links from local organizations, sponsors, suppliers and news sites that prove you're part of the community.
Built for how you work
Storefront, service area or many locations.
Storefronts
Customers come to you: shops, offices, clinics and restaurants. Your exact address, hours, parking and directions are optimized everywhere.
Service-area businesses
You go to customers: contractors, plumbers, cleaners and mobile services. Your address stays private and your service areas are set everywhere instead.
Multiple locations
Every location gets its own profiles, citations, reviews, page and reporting, so each one ranks in its own area.
A profile no other agency can give you
Your business profile on a search engine we own.
CGM Local is the business profile on our own search engine, live in every US city and running since 2007. As part of your local SEO we build, verify and optimize your CGM Local profile, so nearby customers find you on a network no other agency can put you on.
See CGM LocalNetworks we own
Citations on the networks we run, in every industry and city.
Beyond the search engines, we run our own networks where customers look for local businesses. Your local SEO puts you on them, with citations no other agency can build.
cgmimm.com
Category pages for every industry in every US city, where your CGM Local profile is listed alongside your competitors.
chirocentrix.com
Our network that helps people find a chiropractor near them.
dont-do-time.com
Our criminal defense network.
bailbondsman.co
Our bail bonds network.
best-divorce.attorney
Our divorce attorney network.
Monthly reporting
What we track, every month.
Local SEO results
Brewer Chiropractic: top 3, and 600+ five-star reviews.
We manage the full local SEO for Brewer Chiropractic Clinic. They consistently rank in the top 3 in their market and have generated over 600 positive reviews.
Your first 90 days of local SEO
- 1
Week 1–2: Audit
Every profile, listing and citation you have, every NAP mismatch and duplicate, and how you rank across your service area today.
- 2
Week 2–4: Fix the foundation
One correct name, address and phone set everywhere; duplicates and old listings removed; core profiles claimed, verified and fully optimized.
- 3
Month 2: Build citations
Data aggregators, major and industry directories and local sources added and kept consistent.
- 4
Month 2–3: Reviews & activity
Review requests running, every review answered, monthly photos, posts and questions on your profiles.
- 5
Every month after
More citations and local links, profile updates, review growth, and a report on the calls, directions and rankings it brings.
Pair it with organic and AI SEO
They work together. See how in our SEO services.
Let's plan your local SEO.
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll find every profile and citation you have today, the NAP mismatches and duplicates costing you calls, and build your plan and price around fixing them.
Local SEO questions
What is local SEO?+
Local SEO is managing and optimizing your business profiles and citations across the internet, so nearby customers find you, choose you and call you when they search for what you do.
What is NAP and why does it matter?+
NAP is your business name, address and phone number. Search engines compare it across every site that lists you. When it matches everywhere, they trust it; when it doesn't, they're less sure you're the right business to show, and customers may call an old number or drive to an old address.
What are citations?+
A citation is any place your business name, address and phone appear online: business profiles, directories, data aggregators, industry sites, local organizations and articles that mention you. Accurate citations on trusted, relevant sites build the prominence local rankings depend on.
How many citations do I need?+
Quality and accuracy matter more than a number. The core profiles and data aggregators come first, then the major and industry directories for your trade, then local sources. Hundreds of wrong or duplicate listings hurt more than they help.
Why doesn't my business show up when people nearby search?+
Usually it's one of three things: your categories and services don't match the search, your details are inconsistent across the internet, or competitors have more reviews, citations and local signals. Our audit shows which, for your business and your area.
I work from home and go to my customers. Can I still rank?+
Yes. Service-area businesses keep their address private and list the areas they serve instead. We set that up correctly on every profile and citation.
Can I use a P.O. box or virtual office address?+
No. Search engines require a real location where you meet customers, or a service area if you go to them. Fake or virtual addresses get profiles suspended.
Do call tracking numbers hurt local SEO?+
They can if they replace your main number on citations. We set tracking up so your real number stays consistent everywhere while calls are still measured.
What is CGM Local?+
CGM Local is the business profile on CGMIMM's own search engine, live in every US city since 2007. As part of your local SEO we build, verify and optimize yours.
How fast does local SEO work?+
Fixing and completing your profiles often shows results within weeks. Citations, reviews and rankings keep building over the following months.