This is the checklist I run when I audit a local trade business's online presence. Thirty items, grouped into Google Business Profile, on-page, and schema/performance/off-site. Tick every one and you'll outrank roughly 90% of your local competition - because most of them have ticked maybe ten.
The order matters. Don't start at #15 and skip the GBP work - the foundation has the highest ROI per hour spent.
Google Business Profile (10 points)
- Profile claimed and verified with the correct business owner.
- Primary category set to the most specific match (e.g. 'Plumber' not 'Contractor').
- All applicable secondary categories added (up to 9).
- Service area or address fully populated and accurate.
- Opening hours, including bank holidays, kept current.
- Services list populated with descriptions and prices where possible.
- At least 20 high-quality, original photos uploaded (not stock).
- One Google Post published per week (offer, job, reminder, FAQ).
- Every review responded to within 48 hours.
- Q&A section seeded with 5+ real questions and your own answers.
On-page (10 points)
- Homepage H1 follows the pattern 'Service in Town' (e.g. 'Boiler Repair in Sunderland').
- Unique title tag and meta description for every page.
- One service-plus-area page per main service for each main town covered.
- Each service page has 600+ words of genuinely useful content.
- Sticky tap-to-call button visible on mobile across every page.
- Real, attributable Google reviews embedded near every CTA.
- Phone number, email and full address consistent across the entire site (NAP).
- Internal links between service pages, location pages and the blog.
- Image alt text describes the image, not the keyword.
- Sitemap.xml submitted to Google Search Console.
Schema, performance & off-site (10 points)
- LocalBusiness schema (or specific subtype) on the homepage.
- Service schema on every service page with areaServed populated.
- FAQPage schema on pages with three or more genuine Q&As.
- BreadcrumbList schema across all deep pages.
- Lighthouse mobile performance score above 85.
- Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds on 4G.
- All images served as WebP (or AVIF) and lazy-loaded below the fold.
- HTTPS everywhere - no mixed content warnings.
- Consistent NAP across at least 15 UK directories (Yell, Checkatrade, Trustpilot, FreeIndex, Scoot, your trade body, local council, etc.).
- Active monthly Google Business Profile post and at least one new review per month.
How to use this checklist
Score yourself out of 30. Anything below 15 means you're losing work to competitors who've done the basics. Anything above 24 means you're already in the top quartile of your local market - keep going and the compounding gets quietly serious.
For deeper dives on specific items: see the Google Business Profile optimisation guide, the complete local web design guide, and the 11 local website mistakes piece.
FAQs
How long does local SEO take to work?
For a brand new site, expect 8–12 weeks before Google trusts the pages enough to rank them outside the first few impressions. For an existing site that already has Google Business Profile activity, well-executed changes (schema, service-plus-area pages, reviews) can move rankings within 2–4 weeks.
Do I need to pay for an SEO tool?
Not at first. Google Search Console, Google Business Profile insights, and PageSpeed Insights are all free and cover 80% of what a local trade business needs. Add a paid tool (Ahrefs, Semrush, BrightLocal) only when you're consistently shipping content and want to track ranking progress.
Are citations still important?
Yes, but the bar is consistency more than volume. Twenty citations with identical NAP (name, address, phone) on the right directories - Yell, Checkatrade, Trustpilot, your trade body, local council business directory - beats 200 inconsistent ones.
Should I write blog posts?
Only if you can sustain one a month for at least six months. Two posts and silence is worse than no blog at all. If you can sustain it, focus posts on customer questions ('how much does a new boiler cost in Newcastle?') not industry news.
How many reviews do I need to rank?
Roughly: 10 for credibility, 30 to compete in most local map packs, 100+ to dominate. More important than the number is recency - five reviews in the last three months outweighs fifty from three years ago.