A LocalFrame Playbook · 01
Do local customers need to find you on Google?
Then this is for you.
For plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, roofers, landscapers, dentists, chiropractors, vets, lawyers, accountants, salons, spas, restaurants, cafés, studios, gyms, mechanics, movers, cleaners, tutors, florists, photographers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers — and any other business where someone types "[your service] near me" into Google.
02 · The reality
Three businesses get most of the calls.
When someone Googles your service, only the three businesses in the little box at the top get clicked. It's called the Local 3-Pack. Below is what it looks like for "plumber tampa fl" — but the same shape shows up whether you're a dentist, a salon, or a yoga studio.
Places
Tampa Bay Plumbing Co.
2.1 mi · 1234 N Florida Ave
Open · Closes 8 PM
Bayshore Plumbing & Drain
3.6 mi · 4501 W Kennedy Blvd
Open 24 hours
Gulfcoast Plumbing Services
4.2 mi · 8810 Anderson Rd
Open · Closes 6 PM
More places >
The grey dots on the map? Real local businesses. None of them get the call.
Curious where you sit in the 3-pack right now? We'll Google your business on the call — with you on the line.
Book a 15-min call arrow_forward03 · The diagnosis
So why aren't you in that box?
Usually one of four reasons. Often all four.
No real website.
A Facebook page isn't a website. A 2018 Wix template isn't either.
A half-built Google Business Profile.
No fresh photos. Outdated hours. Wrong categories. Google ranks it accordingly.
No city-specific pages.
"We serve the area" doesn't rank for "[your service] in [city]." Each city needs its own page.
You're missing from the directories Google checks.
Yelp, BBB, Apple Maps, Bing, Yellow Pages — if you're not there (or your info doesn't match), you don't rank.
04 · A common trap
Wix. Squarespace. GoDaddy.
Why they won't get you found.
Nothing wrong with a cheap site builder — except they don't rank. You're paying every month for a site Google quietly ignores, while your competitor across town is on page one.
Templates Google has seen 10,000 times.
Your site looks like every other plumber, dentist, or salon on the same builder. Google sees boilerplate and demotes accordingly.
Slow load times. Bloated code.
Drag-and-drop builders generate heavy JavaScript that drags page speed down. Google penalizes slow sites in local rank.
No SEO foundation under the hood.
No schema markup. No city pages. No service-page structure. Just a homepage that says "we serve the area." Google has no idea what to rank you for.
A brochure — not a lead engine.
No real CTA strategy. No lead-capture flow. No trust signals where they matter. Visitors land, then leave without calling.
A real website is built for ranking and conversion from day one. That's not a feature you tick on a template — it's the architecture of the whole site.
Already paying for a builder that doesn't rank? 15-minute call. We'll show you what a real site looks like.
Book a 15-min call arrow_forward05 · The framework
Google ranks local businesses on three things.
Not seven. Not twenty. Three. Get all three right and you start showing up. Miss one and you sit on page 4 next to the dental floss ads.
A real website.
Service pages, city pages, a contact form that works. Proof you're a real business.
A polished GBP.
Categories, services, hours, photos, posts, reviews. Active. Updated. Honest.
A clean citation network.
Same name, address, and phone across 30+ directories Google trusts. Yelp. BBB. Apple Maps. The rest. This is our local citation service, and the audit that comes first is free.
06 · The connection
They don't work alone. They feed each other.
Most business owners think Google Business Profile is the whole game. It's not. It's the final output of a system that runs upstream.
Your Website
Service pages. City pages. Schema. The source of truth.
Google Business Profile
Pulls from your site. Validated by citations. Ranked by signals.
The Google 3-Pack
Where the calls actually come from.
Google literally reads your website to decide what your Business Profile means. No website (or a bad one) and your profile has nothing to point to. That's why you can't shortcut this with "just claim your GBP." It doesn't work.
07 · The strategy
One page per city. Every. Single. City.
Your competitor in Tampa has a page called "Plumber in Tampa, FL." Their competitor in St. Pete has one for St. Pete. Yours says "we serve the Tampa Bay area." Guess who ranks. This is how Google understands geography. We build one page per city you cover — the way we do for Surrey and Vancouver ourselves.
tampabayplumbing.com › tampa
Plumber in Tampa, FL — 24/7 Emergency Service
Licensed Tampa plumbers serving Hyde Park, Westshore, Ybor City…
phoenixsmiles.com › phoenix
Dentist in Phoenix, AZ — Family & Cosmetic
Phoenix family dentistry. New patient offers. Arcadia, Biltmore, Paradise Valley…
austinhairco.com › austin
Salon in Austin, TX — Cuts, Color & Balayage
South Congress salon. Book online. Austin's best balayage, gloss, and bridal…
[your-domain].com › [city]
[Your Business] in [Your City]
This is the page we'd build for you — matched to your trade, your city, and the way locals actually search.
tampabayplumbing.com › st-petersburg
HVAC Tech in St. Petersburg, FL
St. Pete HVAC repair & install. Snell Isle, Old Northeast, Crescent Lake…
vancityroofing.ca › vancouver
Roofer in Vancouver, BC — Free Inspection
Vancouver roofing experts. Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, East Van…
[your-domain].com › [city-2]
[Your Business] in [Next City Over]
A second city you serve. Same template, locally rewritten, ranks independently.
torontoyogalab.com › toronto
Yoga Studio in Toronto, ON — Drop-In Classes
Yorkville studio. Vinyasa, yin, hot. Beginner-friendly. Class packs available…
[your-domain].com › [city-3]
[Your Business] in [A Third City]
5 cities. 10. 20. Whatever your service area covers, we build one page each.
Real examples on the left. The dotted ones are where your business goes — same idea, your trade, your cities.
Want a city-page plan mapped out for your business? Free 15-minute audit. No deck. No pitch.
Book a 15-min call arrow_forward08 · The engine
Your Google Business Profile is the engine.
It generates an estimated 80% of local-service leads. But Google only ranks profiles tied to a real website. We wrote up the difference between the two in Google Business Profile vs. a website.
- checkCorrect categories & services
- checkFresh photos & weekly posts
- checkA 5★ review flow built in
- checkQ&A & Messages monitored
Tampa Bay Plumbing Co.
Plumber in Tampa, FL
Directions
Save
Call
Website
1234 N Florida Ave, Tampa, FL 33602
Open · Closes 8 PM
(813) 555-0142
tampabayplumbing.com
Reviews
"Showed up in two hours, fixed the leak, fair price. Don't even bother calling anyone else." — Jamie R.
09 · The trust layer
Google trusts you when other directories trust you.
Your business needs to appear in 30+ trusted directories with the exact same name, address, and phone number. Google quietly cross-references all of them. One inconsistency — an old phone number on Yelp, a wrong suite number on BBB — and your rank drops.
Same name. Same address. Same phone. Everywhere. That's the trust signal Google watches for.
10 · What we ship
Here's exactly what we do for you.
No fluff. No strategy decks. The work that moves you into the 3-pack.
A real website — live in days, not months.
One page per city you serve — written, not auto-generated.
Google Business Profile setup, optimized, and tied to your site.
Citation network — 30+ directories, all matching.
Monthly tune-ups and a real conversation about what's working.
Ready to ship all of this for your business? Quick chat. Real walkthrough. Honest pricing.
Book a 15-min call arrow_forward11 · The math
Does it actually pay for itself?
Yes. Fill in your numbers — the shape is always the same.
- What one new customer is worth to you
- $ your value
- New calls/month once you're in the 3-pack
- ~10
- Close rate (typical for local-service trades)
- ~50%
- Monthly revenue from those calls
- 5 × your value
- Our service costs
- Less than one new customer
One new customer typically pays for our service. Everything after that is margin. A $400 plumbing call. A $2,500 dental crown. A $40 yoga membership times 60 months. Different trade, same shape.
12 · Our process
Here's how we actually do it.
No mystery. Seven steps from sign-up to you ranking — and showing up where customers are searching.
We research your market.
Who's ranking in your city? What pages got them there? What gaps can we exploit? We map the field before we touch a line of code.
We plan your keyword structure.
Every service. Every city. Every "near me" variation. Mapped to specific pages on your site so each one ranks for its own slice of demand.
We build your site.
Custom homepage, service pages, city pages, contact flow. Hand-built around your business — not a template. Schema markup baked in.
We optimize your Google Business Profile.
Categories, services, photos, posts, hours, attributes. Tied to your new website so Google sees one consistent business.
We build your citation network.
30+ directories — Yelp, BBB, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yellow Pages, the lot — with matching name, address, and phone everywhere.
We launch and monitor.
Site goes live. GBP verified. Citations seeded. Ranking tracking begins. We watch the first 30 days closely and tune as we go.
We show you real data, month over month.
Which keywords moved. Which pages climbed. Which cities are heating up. Real numbers — not a vanity dashboard.
Go deeper
The parts of the system, one at a time.
Everything above is the overview. Each piece below is the detailed version, written for the owner who wants to understand it or do it themselves.
Local citation service
What citations are, which platforms matter by country, and how we audit, clean and build yours.
NAP consistency
Why one wrong suffix on Yellow Pages costs you, and the order to fix listings in.
Citation cleanup
Wrong, duplicate and outdated listings: claim, correct, merge or suppress.
Business Profile vs. a website
Which one you actually need, and why the answer is usually both.
Local SEO in Surrey
The map pack in BC’s fastest-growing city, block by block.
Local SEO in Vancouver
Why density makes the visible radius a few blocks, and what to do about it.
How to rank a local business on Google
The full guide, start to finish.
13 · Next step
Want to see what your 3-pack looks like right now?
Book a 15-minute call. We'll Google your business with you on the line, show you where you sit today, and what we'd ship to move you up. No deck. No pitch. Just the audit.
Built & designed by LocalFrame. We build websites & local SEO systems for service businesses across the US & Canada.
