Most business owners have no idea what's actually wrong with their website. They know it's not generating calls but they don't know why. And getting an agency to tell them usually costs money they haven't budgeted for. Here's how to do it yourself for free. Step 1: Open Claude and set the context Start with this prompt: "You are a local SEO expert who specializes in auditing websites for small local service businesses. I'm going to share information about my website and I need you to tell me exactly what's hurting my rankings and what to fix first. Ask me any questions you need before you start." Let Claude ask its clarifying questions. Answer them honestly. The more context you give, the better the audit. Step 2: Give Claude your homepage content Copy the text from your homepage and paste it in. Then ask: "Based on this homepage content, what is my H1 heading doing for my SEO? Is it optimized for my primary service and city? What should it say instead?" This alone will surface one of the most common and most damaging SEO mistakes on local business websites. Step 3: Check your page titles Open your website in Chrome. Right click anywhere on the page and select "View Page Source." Press Ctrl+F and search for "title". Copy the title tags you find and paste them into Claude with this prompt: "Here are the page titles from my website. Are they optimized for local SEO? Which ones need to be rewritten and what should they say?" Step 4: List your pages and services Tell Claude every service you offer and every city you serve. Then ask: "Based on these services and locations, what pages should my website have that it currently doesn't? What am I missing that's costing me organic traffic?" The answer will almost always reveal gaps you didn't know existed. Step 5: Ask for a priority list Finish with this: "Based on everything we've covered, give me a prioritized list of the top 5 things to fix on my website. Start with what will have the biggest impact on my local search rankings."

Your online reputation moves fast. A negative review, a mention on a local Facebook group, a complaint on Yelp, if you're not monitoring it, you're always reacting late. Google Alerts fixes that. It's free, takes 5 minutes to set up, and runs automatically in the background. Here's how to set it up: Go to google.com/alerts. Sign in with your Google account. Create these four alerts: Alert 1: Your business nameType your exact business name in quotes. Example: "Rico Plumbing Services." This catches every mention of your business across the web, reviews, articles, directories, social media posts that Google indexes. Alert 2: Your business name without quotesSame name but without quotes. This catches variations and misspellings. Alert 3: Your name + cityExample: "plumber Austin" or "HVAC repair Denver." This monitors what's being said about your trade in your market, new competitors, local news, community mentions. Alert 4: Your owner nameIf you're the face of the business, set an alert for your own name. Referrals and mentions happen more than you think. Settings to use:Frequency: As it happens. You want to know immediately, not in a weekly digest.Sources: All.Region: Set to your country.Deliver to: Your email. What to do when an alert fires: If it's a positive mention, engage with it. Thank the person, share it, use it as social proof. If it's a negative mention, respond quickly and professionally. The faster you respond to a complaint the better chance you have of resolving it before it spreads. If it's a competitor mention, read it. Understanding what customers are saying about them gives you insight into gaps you can fill. This takes 5 minutes to set up and runs forever. Most contractors don't know it exists. Do you currently have any system for monitoring your online reputation? Drop it below.

This one comes up constantly. And the answer is: myth. Mostly. Here's the truth. Review quantity matters but it's not the only signal and it's not even the most important one. Google weighs three things when it comes to reviews: Recency. A profile with 200 reviews but the last one was 8 months ago looks inactive. A profile with 40 reviews and 4 new ones this week looks like a thriving business. Google rewards the second profile more often than the first. Velocity. How consistently reviews are coming in matters more than the total number. 2 to 3 reviews per week over 6 months beats 50 reviews in one month and then nothing. Content. Reviews that mention your service and city are more valuable than generic ones. "Great service" does less work than "best AC repair in Phoenix, showed up same day and fixed the problem in an hour." So yes, more reviews help. But a competitor with 80 well-distributed, keyword-rich recent reviews will often outrank someone with 300 old generic ones. The goal isn't to collect reviews. It's to build a consistent system that generates them continuously. The myth that gets contractors in trouble: thinking that once they hit a certain number they can stop asking. You never stop asking. The cadence is the strategy. True or have you seen something different in your market? Drop it below.

Yan has been running SEO for local service businesses for years and dropped a gem in the comments this week that I wanted to bring to the front for everyone. Not all Google reviews are created equal. Google has a program called Local Guides, people who actively review businesses, add photos, answer questions, and contribute to Google Maps consistently. Google recognizes them with a badge and, more importantly, gives their reviews more weight in the algorithm. A single detailed review from a Local Guide can outperform several generic five star reviews from regular users. Their reviews tend to show higher in your profile, get more helpful votes, and carry more trust signals with Google. How to spot a Local Guide:When you look at your reviews, you'll see a small badge next to some reviewers that says "Local Guide" with a level number. The higher the level, the more active they are on Google Maps. How to increase your chances of getting them:Local Guides are by nature people who love leaving reviews. They're usually highly engaged customers who are already inclined to share their experience. The key is making the ask easy and personal at the right moment. If a customer mentions they use Google Maps a lot, or you can see from their profile that they've left many reviews before, that's your signal. Make the ask extra personal. "Your review would genuinely mean a lot to us" lands differently coming from a real conversation than an automated text. You can't guarantee a Local Guide will review you. But you can create the conditions that make it more likely. Yan, since you've been getting Local Guide reviews consistently, what's your approach? Drop it in the comments. The community would love to hear it directly from someone doing it.

Been meaning to post this for a while, went back through my notes from Jason's live call and still find myself referencing things he covered. He pulled up profiles live, broke down exactly what was working and what wasn't, and didn't rush through anything. Every question got a real answer, not a generic one. What stood out most was how patient he was with everyone, questions at every level and he treated each one like it mattered. If you haven't been to one of these calls yet, make sure you don't miss the next one. Completely worth it. Thanks Jason 🤝