Local SEO Checklist for San Diego Businesses: Website + Google Business Profile

Part 1: Google Business Profile (do this first, it is free)

• Claim or create the profile at business.google.com. Remove duplicates.
• Business name exactly as it appears on your site and signage. No keywords stuffed into the name.
• Primary category: the most specific one that fits (Plumber, not Contractor; Dentist, not Doctor).
• Secondary categories for everything else you do.
• Service area: the cities you actually serve. Hide the address if you work from home.
• Phone and website: identical to the site. Use a UTM on the website link so you can see profile traffic.
• Hours, including holidays. Wrong hours cost reviews.
• Services: list every service with a description and, where possible, a price.
• Photos: exterior, interior, team, work. Post new ones weekly.
• Description: 750 characters, plain language, what you do and where.
• Q&A: seed it with your FAQs and answer every question.
• Posts: an offer, an update or a project every week or two.

Part 2: the website

• A page for each service, written to answer the search: what, cost, timeline, FAQs.
• A page for each city or neighborhood, with content that is true only for that place.
• Name, phone and service area on the homepage and contact page, matching the Business Profile.
• Title tags with the service and city; one H1 per page.
• LocalBusiness (or the specific type), Service and FAQPage schema.
• Internal links: every service page links to city pages and vice versa.
• Under one second on mobile. Test at pagespeed.web.dev.
• A sitemap submitted in Google Search Console.
• Click-to-call and a short form on every page.

Part 3: reviews

• Get your review link from the Business Profile and save it as a text-message template.
• Ask every happy customer, the same day, by text.
• Reply to every review, good and bad, within a day.
• Ask customers to mention the service and the city in the review; it helps ranking and it is honest.
• Aim for 10 reviews in the first month and 25 in three months.

Part 4: citations and links

• Same name, phone and city on Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Nextdoor and your industry directories.
• Fix any listing with an old address or phone. Inconsistency hurts.
• Get listed by your suppliers, associations and the local chamber.
• Ask clients and partners to link to your site where it makes sense.

Part 5: tracking

• Google Search Console: verify the site, submit the sitemap, check the Performance report monthly for queries with impressions but no page.
• Business Profile insights: calls, direction requests, website clicks.
• Count calls and form leads weekly, by source if you can.

What to expect

Everything in Parts 1, 2 and 5 is included when we build a site. Parts 3 and 4 are yours to do, and they are the half of local ranking that no website can do for you.