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Local SEO · Essentials

SEO Essentials — The Local Search Floor

For one-location small businesses that need to show up when somebody in their service area types the obvious search. Citations, on-page, blogs, reporting. $359/mo, real human eyes on the work.

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SEO Essentials is the floor for businesses that have done none of this. A real website (we built it or someone did), a Google Business Profile (probably half-set-up), and zero ranking strategy. We turn that into a competent local-search presence inside 90 days.

It is not the tier that wins competitive markets. It is the tier that puts a single-location business on the map for the obvious searches in their service area. If your phone is not ringing because you are invisible on Google, this is the cheapest fix.

Quick reality check. If your top three competitors all rank #1, #2, #3 for your money keyword with strong SEO programs of their own, Essentials does not catch them. Essentials+ or Pro does.

What lands the first 60 days

The first two months is mostly cleanup. Most accounts we inherit have a Google Business Profile that has not been updated in two years, citations scattered across 12 directories with three different phone numbers, and on-page SEO that ignores every modern best practice.

  • Google Business Profile rebuild. Categories, services, photos, hours, special hours, posts, Q&A. Optimized so it actually ranks in the map pack.
  • Citation push to 50+ directories: Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yellowpages, Manta, Citysearch, Foursquare, plus industry-specific directories that match your niche. Consistent name, address, phone everywhere.
  • On-page SEO audit and tune on your existing site: title tags, meta descriptions, header structure, schema markup, internal linking, image alt text, page speed sanity check.
  • Tracking setup: Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, ranking tracker keyed to your priority keywords + competitors.

What runs every month after that

Once the foundation is clean, the monthly work compounds. Three things ship every month:

  • 4 AI-drafted blog posts, each targeting a long-tail keyword your competitors are not writing about. Local angles where they fit. Internal links to your service pages. Schema markup for AI search.
  • One new location page per month for the secondary towns or neighborhoods you serve. These are not doorway-page spam — they are real pages with unique content per location.
  • Monthly health checks: citation drift (somebody updates Yelp with a wrong phone, we catch it), GBP photo refresh, post cadence, technical SEO sweep, Search Console error queue.

What you actually see

A monthly report on the first of the month. Honest numbers. Ranking changes on your priority keywords (we track 25 by default). Search Console traffic by keyword. Top landing pages. Conversion events you have set up. Calls if you have call tracking enabled.

What the report will not be: a 40-page deck full of impression vanity metrics. Real money signals or none.

Where Essentials hits its ceiling

If you start ranking on the second page of Google for a money keyword and need help climbing to page one in a crowded market, the math changes. Backlink building, competitor analysis, deeper content programs, and manual outreach are what gets you the rest of the way. That is Essentials+ ($649/mo) or Pro ($895/mo) territory.

Most accounts stay on Essentials for 6 to 12 months before they upgrade. Some never need to. Depends entirely on how hard your competitors are pushing.

What it costs

$359/mo, billed monthly. No setup fee on standalone SEO. Cancel with 30 days written notice. All fees are non-refundable from the moment of purchase (MSA §6).

If you bundle SEO into a Marketing Plan, the math changes — the Pro tier ($449/mo) includes enhanced local SEO inside the flat rate plus a free website. Worth comparing if you are also in market for a new site.

Questions you're probably asking

Who is the Essentials tier actually right for?

One-location small businesses in markets that are not brutally competitive. Think a single dental office in a suburb, a plumber in a mid-sized city, a salon in a small town. If you are a multi-location brand or fighting national chains for the top spot, you want Essentials+ ($649) or Pro ($895) instead.

When should I see real ranking movement?

Citations and on-page work move the needle inside 60 to 90 days. Material business impact (new leads, calls, walk-ins from search) typically lands inside 3 to 6 months. Anyone promising week-one rankings is selling something else.

What is a citation and why do 50+ matter?

A citation is a listing of your business name, address, and phone on another website (Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yellowpages, industry directories). Google reads citations as trust signals. Inconsistent citations (different phone numbers across sites) actively hurt your ranking. We standardize and publish 50+ in the first 60 days, then maintain them.

Are the 4 monthly blogs any good or are they AI slop?

They are AI-drafted but every post hits a structured brief: target keyword, search intent, local angle, internal links, schema markup. Human copy review for accuracy. Not Pulitzer material. Useful, ranked content that drives the long-tail searches your competitors ignore.

What reports do I get and how often?

Monthly. Real numbers, not vanity metrics. Ranking changes on tracked keywords, traffic from Google Search Console, conversions from your forms, calls if you have call tracking enabled. We tell you what worked, what did not, and what we are changing next month.

How do I cancel?

Standalone SEO subscriptions are month-to-month with 30 days written notice (MSA §6b). All fees are non-refundable for any reason. If your SEO is bundled inside a Marketing Plan, it follows the Plan’s 12-month commitment instead.

Ready to stop being invisible?

Drop your details. We'll check your current state for free and tell you straight whether Essentials, Plus, or Pro fits your situation.

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