Local SEO Guide

Learn how to set up your local SEO, and create a predictable, repeatable process for blogging and analyzing results.

We suggest creating a marketing plan before starting any marketing tactic. This ensures consistency across your marketing effort. 


Take 15 minutes and complete our questionnaire, and we will send you a custom marketing plan, a custom content calendar, and our complete creative brief template guide.

BUILD A MARKETING PLAN
In general, the execution of marketing tactics is the same.  You pick a platform, set up the foundation, create a schedule, execute the tactic, assess the results, adjust, and repeat.

Why Local SEO Matters:

46% of all searches on Google are local. 72% of consumers who search for local businesses visit a store(s) within 5 miles of their location. 

Local search is the easiest way for local business to compete with national competitors. The local SEO tactic takes the least amount of time with the highest return for your effort.

What to Expect from Your Local SEO Efforts:

3x to 5x increase in website traffic and an increase in foot traffic at brick and mortar stores.

Before You Start Local SEO, Ask Yourself:

Is approximately 1 hour of work per-directory worth increased traffic?

Your Step-by-step How-to Guide for Manual Local SEO Setup

Click Here for Automated Set Up

Pick your local SEO directories.

There are lots of local directories and the more profiles you make, the better your local SEO will perform. We suggest starting with the following platforms:
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Yellowpages.com
  • Yelp
  • Local.com
  • Manta
  • CitySearch
  • Apple Maps
  • Bing
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Foursquare
  • HubSpot
  • Angie's List
  • Thumbtack
  • Yahoo Local
  • Insider Pages
Need more help? Click here to schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation with one of our marketing experts.

Create your local SEO profiles.

Click on each platform below for links to getting started.
Need more help? Click here to schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation with one of our marketing experts.

Create a content calendar.

It's important to plan when you are going to do what. Fortunately, we've put together the best practices for you. 

Manually add the following events to your calendar or task list. 

Or email support@webeducationservices.com from a Gmail account and we will transfer a complete content calendar to you. Just remove the tactics you don't want.
Monthly Tasks or Repeating Events (add to your calendar)
  • Add a new listing

    Once a month you will want to add a new business listing to a directory or login to your Yext account and review your listing status.


    More detail will be provided in the Execution Step of the guide.


  • Review your listings

    Once a month you will want to review one of your business listings and make sure it is accurate and  up to date. Or login to your Yext account and review your listing status.


    More detail will be provided in the Execution Step of the guide.

Example Content Calendar:

January 2026

Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat

28

29

10am SEO: page review and update

30

11:30am Blog: write and post

31

4pm Ad: performance review

1

10am Local SEO: add a new listing

10:30am Reputation: add a new listing

11am Email: send and review email

Show all

2

10am Blog: Outline

3

4

5

10am SEO: page review and update

10am Social: write schedule

6

11am Email: creative brief

11:30am Blog: write and post

7

4pm Ad: performance review

8

11am Email: send and review email

9

10

11

12

10am Ads: creative brief

10am SEO: page review and update

13

11:30am Blog: write and post

14

4pm Ad: performance review

15

11am Email: send and review email

16

10am Ads: content creation

17

18

19

10am Ads: landing and thank you page

10am SEO: page review and update

20

11:30am Blog: write and post

21

10am Ad: setup and launch

4pm Ad: performance review

22

11am Email: send and review email

23

24

25

26

10am SEO: page review and update

27

11:30am Blog: write and post

28

4pm Ad: performance review

29

11am Email: send and review email

30

10:30am Local SEO: review a listing

11am Social: ROI analysis

31

Execute your plan.

Local SEO is the most straightforward repeatable task. Where most people go wrong is... they only fill out a couple of listings and don't continue. Or, they complete their listings and then ignore them and information becomes stale, or platforms update their interface and business listings are missing information. 

To prevent errors, update and review one or two listings a month. The goal is to look at each listing once or twice a year.

We suggest linking the step by step guides and templates to your task calendar to make it easy to complete your tasks.
Monthly Task Execution
  • Add a new listing

    Once a month, add one of the listings from the list above. Or, pick from the list below:


    • Facebook (Domain Authority = 100)
    • Apple Maps (Domain Authority = 100)
    • Google My Business (Domain Authority = 100)
    • LinkedIn Company Directory (Domain Authority = 98) 
    • Bing (Domain Authority = 94)
    • Yelp (Domain Authority = 94)
    • Better Business Bureau (Domain Authority = 93)
    • Foursquare (Domain Authority = 92)
    • MapQuest (Domain Authority = 92)
    • HubSpot (Domain Authority = 91)
    • Yellow Pages (Domain Authority = 91)
    • Angies List (Domain Authority = 91)
    • Yahoo! Local (Domain Authority = 91)
    • Manta (Domain Authority = 87)
    • Merchant Circle (Domain Authority = 86)
    • Super Pages (Domain Authority = 84)
    • Yellow Book (Domain Authority = 83)
    • Thumbtack (Domain Authority = 82)
    • Local.com (Domain Authority = 77)
    • Kudzu.com (Domain Authority = 76)
    • Hot Frog (Domain Authority = 76)
    • Communitywalk.com (Domain Authority = 75)
    • Brownbook.net (Domain Authority = 73)
    • Tupalo.com (Domain Authority = 72)
    • La Cartes (Domain Authority = 68)
    • 2findlocal.com (Domain Authority = 67)
    • ezlocal.com (Domain Authority = 67)
    • ebusinesspages.com (Domain Authority = 67)
    • Spoke (Domain Authority = 66)
    • Chamberofcommerce.com (Domain Authority = 66)
    • City Squares (Domain Authority = 66)
    • Cylex USA (Domain Authority = 66)
    • yelloyello.com (Domain Authority = 66)
    • BOTW (Domain Authority = 65)
    • worldweb.com (Domain Authority = 65)
    • ibegin.com (Domain Authority = 63)
    • Get Fave (Domain Authority = 63)
    • Fyple.com (Domain Authority = 63)
    • Company.com (Domain Authority = 60)
    • Call Up Contact (Domain Authority = 60)
    • Finduslocal.com (Domain Authority = 60)
    • My Huckleberry (Domain Authority = 59)
    • Hub.biz (Domain Authority = 59)
    • where2go.com (Domain Authority = 58)
    • City Insider (Domain Authority = 58)
    • n49.com (Domain Authority = 58)
    • My Sheriff (Domain Authority = 57)
    • opendi.us (Domain Authority = 56)
    • Bizhwy.com (Domain Authority = 55)
    • Smartguy.com (Domain Authority = 55)
    • Wherezit.com (Domain Authority = 55)
    • DiscoverOurTown.com (Domain Authority = 54)
    • Nexport.com (Domain Authority = 52)
    • USdirectory.com (Domain Authority = 50)
    • Wowcity.com (Domain Authority = 49)
    • Bizadee (Domain Authority = 48)
    • Wand.com (Domain Authority = 47)

    For step-by-step instructions go to, how-to claim  local business listings.

  • Review your listings

    Once a month, it is essential to review each of the listings you have created. 


    Make sure the address, phone number, and business hours are identical across all listings. Make sure your name is the same. A common mistake for businesses is to include things like LLC and INC on some listings and leave them off of others. This creates confusion for search engines and hurts your local SEO.

Assess your plan.

It is important to search your industry and see what directories are appearing in the search. Continue to add new directories that Google search returns as well as the directories listed above.

Always make sure each listing is completely filled out. Review each listing annually to make sure nothing has changed on the platform.

Adjust and Repeat 

Local SEO takes time. Each listing indexes in Google. Your listing has to have clickthroughs, and the directory itself will become more and less popular as markets change.

The important thing is to be listed in as many directories as possible, so you have credible backlinks and visibility.

Other Marketing 
How-To Guides:

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