Local SEO in Ottawa. Getting you into the map.
When somebody searches for what you do, a box of three businesses appears above everything else, with a phone number and a directions button. Most people tap one of those three and never scroll. This is the work that puts you in it.
For a plumber or a dentist, the map box is the whole game. Most people never scroll past it.
Somebody standing in Barrhaven searching for your trade gets three businesses, a star rating and a call button, before a single website appears. If you are not one of the three, the rest of your search work is being read by nobody. The good news is that this is the most fixable part of search: it is mostly your listing, your reviews and whether your details are consistent — and all three are things somebody can go and do.
Four things, and one you cannot change.
Worth knowing before you buy this from anyone, because it explains why a guarantee is impossible.
Your profile
Claimed, and filled in properly. The right category above all — pick the wrong one and you are competing in the wrong race. Then hours, phone, services, photographs that are not from eight years ago.
Your reviews
How many, how recent, and whether you reply. A steady trickle beats a burst two years ago. This is also the bit an actual human reads before deciding, which makes it worth more than its ranking weight.
Saying the same thing everywhere
Your name, address and phone number, matching across every directory that lists you. When an old address is still floating about, Google is less sure which listing is real, and less sure means less shown.
How far away you are
The searcher's distance from you is a large part of the answer, and nobody can move your shop. This is exactly why anybody promising you the top of the map is either guessing or lying.
You can check every one of these.
Open your listing on your own phone afterwards. Either the hours are right or they are not. That is the point of doing it this way.
See the wider SEO workFind the listing and prove it is yours
Most businesses already have a listing somebody else created, sometimes years ago by a supplier or a customer. We track it down, claim it properly, and get rid of the duplicates that split your reviews across two entries.
Fix what is wrong on it
Category first, because it decides which searches you are even eligible for. Then hours including holidays, the services you actually offer, and photographs of the real place. Something is nearly always wrong here, and it is usually the fastest win available.
Make your details agree everywhere
We go looking for every place your business is listed and get the old address, the dead phone number and the misspelled name corrected. Dull, slow, and one of the more reliable things you can do.
Give you a way to ask for reviews
A link or a card that makes it easy for a happy customer, and a habit of asking at the right moment. We will not write them, buy them or hide the bad ones — that is against Google's rules and it is how listings get suspended.
Tell you what changed
How many people found you, how many rang, how many asked for directions. Google reports this, and it is more honest than a ranking number, because it is what actually happened rather than what position a robot saw.
The shortcuts that get listings suspended.
These are all things you will be offered by somebody. They work briefly, and then they do not, and the recovery is worse than never having done it.
Buying reviews
Against Google's rules, increasingly easy for them to spot, and the penalty lands on you rather than on whoever sold them. A suspended listing takes real work to get back.
A fake address nearer town
Renting a mailbox to look closer to the city centre is a well-known trick and a well-known way to lose the listing entirely. If you work from home there is a proper way to set that up, and we use it.
Keywords stuffed in your name
Changing your business name to "Ottawa Emergency Plumber 24/7" when that is not your name. Competitors report it, Google reverts it, and it counts against you.
Promising you the top three
The map changes with where the person is standing. Two customers searching the same words from different streets get different answers. Anyone selling you a position is selling something they do not control.
A listing that is claimed, correct and complete. Duplicates gone. Your details matching everywhere we can reach. A way of asking for reviews that does not feel like begging. And Google's own numbers each time — how many people saw you, rang you, or asked for directions. Slower than a guarantee, and it is still there next year.
The ones people actually ask.
If yours is not here, ask it directly — you will get an answer from the person who would do the work.
Regular search work is about your website appearing in the ordinary list of blue links. Local work is about the map box that appears above them, with three businesses, their ratings and a directions button. Different box, different rules. The map box is decided mostly by your Google Business Profile, how close you are to the person searching, and your reviews. Your website matters, but it is not the main lever.
Usually one of four things: they have claimed and filled in their profile and you have not, they are physically nearer the person searching, they have more and fresher reviews, or your business details are inconsistent across the web so Google is not confident which listing is real. The first and last are fixable in days. Distance is not fixable at all, which is why nobody can promise you the map.
Yes, and not only for ranking. They are the first thing a person reads before they tap. What we can help with is a sensible way of asking every customer, so reviews arrive steadily rather than in a panic. What we will not do is write them, buy them, or filter out the unhappy ones. That breaks Google's rules and it is the kind of thing that gets a listing suspended.
That is common, and it is one of the quieter reasons a listing underperforms. Old directory entries, a previous address, a phone number from two moves ago. We find them and get them corrected or removed so your details say the same thing everywhere. It is dull work with an outsized effect.
Yes. Google supports service-area businesses, where you hide the address and list the areas you cover instead. Set up wrongly it can cost you visibility, and setting a fake address to fake proximity gets listings suspended. We set it up the way Google expects.
Not to begin with. A profile can bring you calls on its own, which is why this work is worth doing first for a lot of businesses. A website makes it stronger and gives people somewhere to go once they are interested, but the listing does not wait for it.
Next
Go and look at your listing now.
Search your own business on your phone and see what a customer sees. If the hours are wrong, or there are two of you, or the photographs are from the old place — that is the job, and we will price it within two to three business days.