Get Found Locally

Overview

Google Business Profile, reviews and a website that brings enquiries, for UK local service businesses.

Outcomes

What you will be able to do.

• Explain how Google ranks local results (relevance, distance, prominence) and what you can and cannot influence.
• Create or claim, verify and correctly configure a Business Profile, with the right primary category and either an address or a service area, and hold owner access yourself.
• Ask every customer for a review in a way that complies with the DMCC Act, CMA guidance and Google's policy, and reply to reviews without disclosing customer data.
• Identify and remove at least three non-compliant practices or claims from your own marketing, such as review incentives, selective asking or unsupported 'No. 1' claims.
• Set up consistent listings on the main directories and fix inconsistent ones.
• Plan and publish a small website with one page per core service, clear contact routes, required company details, a privacy notice and lawful cookie handling.
• Record the source of every enquiry and produce a one-page monthly report.
• Use an AI assistant to draft profile content, service pages and review replies, then check and edit them, without creating fake reviews or scaled low-value pages.

Curriculum

7 modules, 23 lessons.

Every module ends with a practical output on your own business. Open a module to see its lessons.

1. 01 How local search works 2 lessons

   A realistic picture of what decides who appears in local results, so time goes on what you can change. Ends with an audit of where you stand today.

   1. 1.1 How customers find a local business
   2. 1.2 The starting audit

   Practical output A completed audit with baseline screenshots and numbers.

2. 02 Google Business Profile 5 lessons

   Claiming, verifying and configuring a complete, correct profile that the business owns, then keeping it active and protected.

   1. 2.1 Eligibility, claiming, verification and access
   2. 2.2 Name, category, address or service area
   3. 2.3 Services, description, photos and attributes
   4. 2.4 Keeping the profile active
   5. 2.5 Protecting the profile

   Practical output A verified, guideline-compliant profile owned by the business, with services, description, photos and a monthly routine.

3. 03 Reviews, inside the law 4 lessons

   A steady flow of genuine reviews, collected and displayed lawfully under the DMCC Act, CMA guidance and Google's policy, with replies to good and bad reviews alike.

   1. 3.1 What the law now says
   2. 3.2 Asking every customer
   3. 3.3 Replying to reviews
   4. 3.4 Showing reviews on your website and in adverts

   Practical output A review compliance check, a review request routine in use, replies to every review and compliant review displays.

4. 04 Local SEO basics and citations 3 lessons

   The basics that help Google connect the business with its services and area: the words customers use, consistent directory listings and real local mentions, without buying junk.

   1. 4.1 The words customers use
   2. 4.2 Citations and directories
   3. 4.3 Local links and real-world mentions

   Practical output A terms sheet, a clean citation log and a short list of link opportunities.

5. 05 A website that brings enquiries 4 lessons

   What a small, lawful website must do to turn a visit into a call, message or form, what the law requires on it, and how to choose a build option you own.

   1. 5.1 What the site has to do
   2. 5.2 What the law requires on the site
   3. 5.3 Build options, costs and ownership
   4. 5.4 Structured data and connecting the site to the profile

   Practical output A website plan or revised site with lawful claims, company details, privacy notice, cookie handling and Search Console connected.

6. 06 Tracking enquiries 3 lessons

   Recording where every enquiry came from and how fast it was answered, so time goes on what works.

   1. 6.1 Recording where every enquiry came from
   2. 6.2 Answering the enquiries you've earned
   3. 6.3 The monthly one-page report

   Practical output An enquiry log with sources and response times, and a first monthly report.

7. 07 Using AI for content, with care 2 lessons

   Saving writing time with an AI assistant without breaking the rules or publishing nonsense, and checking how AI assistants describe your business.

   1. 7.1 Drafting with an AI assistant
   2. 7.2 Being found by AI assistants

   Practical output Edited AI-assisted content, an AI use checklist and a snapshot of AI assistant results.

Fit

Who it is for.

UK owners of local service businesses and sole traders who do their own marketing: trades, repair, cleaning, beauty, clinics and professional services.

Questions

Before you ask.