Local SEO & Google Business Profile
Local SEO in Melbourne. Get into the map pack.
When someone nearby searches for what you do, three businesses show up on the map. We help you earn a place in those three, honestly, and keep it.
Northside Plumbing
4.9(214)
Plumber in Coburg. Open 24 hours.
- Calls this month
- +86%
- Direction requests
- +41%
Quick answer
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the work that gets a business into Google's map results and "near me" searches. It covers your Google Business Profile, reviews, consistent business details across directories, and locally relevant pages on your website. For service businesses in Melbourne, the map pack is often where most calls come from.
How the map pack works
Google says local results are based on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the searcher) and prominence (how well known and well reviewed your business is).
You can't change distance, and you shouldn't try: fake addresses and virtual offices break Google's guidelines and get profiles suspended. But relevance and prominence are completely in your hands, and most Melbourne businesses leave them half done.
Your Google Business Profile, done properly
Your profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website. We complete every field that matters and keep it active:
- The right primary and secondary categories
- Every service listed with a clear description
- Service areas set correctly (no fake addresses)
- Real photos of your work, team and vehicles
- Regular posts with offers, updates and recent jobs
- Opening hours, booking links and holiday hours
Reviews, the honest way
Reviews are one of the strongest local ranking signals and the biggest trust signal for customers. The honest way to get more is simple and it works: ask every happy customer, make it easy with a direct link or QR code, and reply to every review, good or bad.
We'll never buy reviews, write them for you, or filter who gets asked ("review gating"). Fake reviews breach Google's policies and Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has taken businesses to court over them.
Want to know what this would look like for your business?
Citations and consistent details
Google cross-checks your business name, address or service area, and phone number (often called NAP) across the web. When directories show old phone numbers or different business names, it chips away at trust.
We audit and clean up your listings on the directories that matter in Australia, including Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Yellow Pages, True Local, Hotfrog and StartLocal, plus industry-specific directories for your trade or profession.
Suburb pages without the spam
Many agencies create dozens of near-identical "plumber in [suburb]" pages. Google calls these doorway pages and treats them as spam. We only create an area page when there's something genuinely useful to say: local projects, travel times, council rules, or the specific problems you solve in that area.
Done this way, a handful of strong area pages beats fifty thin ones, and never puts your site at risk.
What local SEO costs.
Month to month, with no lock-in. A Google Business Profile check is included free with every new website we build.
| What you need | Typical price (ex GST) | What drives the cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free local SEO audit | $0 | Your profile, reviews, citations and map rankings compared with your top three competitors. |
| Local plan | $199/month | Profile management, regular posts, review strategy, citations and 10 tracked keywords. |
| Growth plan | $499/month | Everything in Local, plus service-area content, technical fixes and link building. |
| Multiple locations | Custom quote | Separate profiles and location pages for businesses with more than one site. |
Guide prices only. You get a fixed quote after a free call, and it only changes if the scope does. See all packages and pricing.
How local SEO runs.
Free audit
We check your site speed, technical health, Google Business Profile and top competitors, then show you the three things we'd fix first.
Keyword plan
We map the searches that bring you paying customers (not just traffic) to the pages that should rank for them.
Fix the foundations
Technical fixes first: speed, indexing, titles, schema and internal links. These are often the quickest wins.
Content and local signals
New service and suburb pages, Google Business Profile posts, reviews and citations, added steadily each month.
Plain-English report
Every month: what we did, what moved, what didn't and what's next. Month to month, so we keep earning your business.
Questions, answered.
Something we haven't covered? Just ask.
A new or improved profile can start appearing for nearby searches within a few weeks. Moving into the top three for competitive searches usually takes three to six months of steady reviews, posts and on-site work.
Yes. Businesses that visit customers (tradies, cleaners, mobile services) can set up a service-area profile with the address hidden. You'll rank best close to where the business is actually based.
In the map pack, distance limits how far you can reach. In the normal search results, genuinely useful service-area pages on your website can help you appear for searches in the suburbs you serve.
There's no magic number. What matters is having more recent, detailed reviews than the businesses you compete with. A steady flow of a few reviews a month beats a burst of fifty and then nothing.
Posts have a small direct effect, but they keep the profile active, give customers reasons to call and show Google the business is operating. We treat them as a trust signal as much as a ranking one.
You can rank on the map without one, but a fast website with a page per service strengthens relevance and converts far more of the people who find you. The two work best together.
Related pages.
- Google Business Profile guideA step-by-step optimisation guide for Melbourne businesses.
- SEO MelbourneThe full SEO service: technical, content and authority.
- Areas we serveMelbourne regions and the businesses we work with there.
- SEO for tradiesLocal SEO for plumbers, electricians and builders.
- Local SEO for tradies guideHow trades businesses get more calls from Google.
- Free local SEO auditSee how your profile compares with competitors.
Own your suburb.
Get a free local SEO audit. We'll compare your Google Business Profile with your top three competitors and show you what to fix first.