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Get found in your neighborhood

You know what to set up so you're easier to find when someone nearby searches for what you sell: your business listing, your reviews, your website text, and what to tweak each month.

8 lessons43 min readGet found on Google

Your Google listing is live, but when you search for what you sell in your area, you show up on page three, behind businesses with fewer reviews than you. You change the photo, change the description, wait a week, and check if you moved up. You don't know if the problem is the category, the words you used, or the fact that no one's left you a review in months.

This course puts your listing in order from top to bottom: first the category, using the words your customers actually search with, not your own; then making sure your name, address, and phone number match everywhere, your listing, your website, and your social media; next your description, your photo session, and your reviews. It wraps up with the ten-minute-a-month habit that keeps all of that fresh, plus the decision of whether you need one page per neighborhood or just one with your service area marked.

Who this course is for

This is for anyone with a storefront or who works in a specific area and wants to be found by neighborhood searches, not for someone who sells only online with no storefront or delivery area.

What you'll walk away with
  • Choosing your listing's main and secondary categories based on what your customer searches for
  • Writing your name, address, and phone number the same way on your listing, your website, and your social media
  • Writing a description with your exact services and the words your customers search with
  • Asking every customer for a review after each job, as a habit, not chasing some magic number
Before you start

It helps to already have your Google listing set up, even if it's only halfway done.

The 8 lessons

In the order it makes the most sense to read them.

  1. 1

    Your listing's category: who you are, said the way your customer searches for you

    You'll leave this lesson with your listing's primary category and secondary categories chosen from Google's list: accurate, as few as possible, and picked with what your customer searches for in mind, not how you like to describe yourself.

    4 min
  2. 2

    Your name, address, and phone number shouldn't be written two different ways

    Get your listing, your website, and your social media to state your name, address, and phone number exactly the same way, down to the last comma.

    6 min
  3. 3

    What you say in your description can't work for just any business on your street

    You'll come away with a description that names your exact services, using the words your customers search with, instead of lines that could fit any business in your industry.

    4 min
  4. 4

    You've only got an hour to take photos: where to start

    You walk out with the shot order already decided, the best photos picked for your listing, and the supplier's catalog photos left out of it.

    7 min
  5. 5

    The number of reviews you need before you look at anything else

    You'll walk away knowing why your first reviews carry the most weight, plus a simple way to ask for one after every job, from every customer, without rushing, instead of checking the algorithm every week.

    7 min
  6. 6

    How you beat the chain with more locations than you

    You'll decide which ground you're competing on with the chain: your neighborhood and your street, not the size of the whole city.

    6 min
  7. 7

    One page per area or just one: when to split them up

    You'll decide whether you need a page per neighborhood or just one with your service area marked on your listing, and if you do split them up, you'll know what keeps them from looking like copies of each other.

    4 min
  8. 8

    The only thing you touch on your listing each month

    You'll walk away with a fixed ten-minute monthly ritual (a photo and an update), plus the habit of asking every customer for a review when they're done, so your listing keeps looking like a living business.

    5 min