Showing up when someone nearby searches
For a local business the profile often decides more than the website does. Claimed properly, categorized for what you actually sell, and backed by reviews that arrive because you ask rather than because you got lucky.
For a local business the profile often decides more than the website does. Somebody searching nearby sees three results before they see anybody's homepage.
The single most common reason a good business does not appear is a primary category that does not match what people search for. It takes minutes to fix and almost nobody checks it.
Businesses that get reviews consistently are not luckier. They ask every time, in the same way, without anybody having to remember.
Nobody legitimate does. We build the way they get asked for and help you answer them. Anything else is a risk to the listing itself.
What setting it up properly involves
Most of this is a one-off, and most of it has never been done on the listings we look at. We check what state yours is in before quoting any of it.
Claimed, verified, and yours
Including the awkward cases: a listing somebody else created, a duplicate competing with itself, or a profile still owned by whoever built your last website.
Categories and services
The primary category chosen for what people actually search for, secondary categories set behind it, and your services listed properly instead of left to be inferred.
Areas, hours and the details
Service areas that match where you really go, hours that are right including holidays, and the attributes that quietly decide whether you appear in a filtered search.
Photographs that are yours
Real photographs of the work and the people, kept current. A profile with nothing but a logo and a stock image reads as abandoned, and customers treat it that way.
A review request that actually goes out
A short, repeatable way of asking at the point the customer is happiest, built into how you already finish a job rather than depending on anyone remembering.
Questions and posts kept alive
The questions people ask on your listing answered by you rather than by a stranger guessing, and the profile updated often enough to look like a business that is open.
Being found beyond the map is a wider job than the listing. That is SEO & GEO →
Setting it up is this. Answering them is Managed AI.
This page
The profile claimed and configured, the categories right, the details current, and a repeatable way of asking customers for a review. Done once, properly.
Managed AI
The ongoing part. Reviews and mentions watched continuously, responses drafted in your voice, anything serious escalated to a person, and nothing posted until you approve it. Only worth it if you do not want to answer them yourself.
Questions we get about listings and reviews
- Someone else set up our listing and we cannot get into it. Can you fix that?
- Usually. It is a common situation, normally a previous web designer, a marketing agency or a former employee. There is a recovery process for claiming a profile somebody else controls. It takes patience rather than cleverness, and it is worth doing because the listing is yours regardless of who created it.
- Can you get bad reviews removed?
- Only if they break the rules, and honest negative reviews do not. Where one is fake, from a competitor, or clearly against policy, it can be reported and sometimes comes down. The more reliable answer is a steady flow of genuine reviews, which moves an average far more dependably than fighting individual ones.
- Will you write reviews for us?
- No. It is against Google's rules, it risks the listing you depend on, and it is obvious to customers more often than people expect. What we build is the asking: consistent, easy, at the moment the customer is happiest.
- Who answers the reviews once they start arriving?
- Your choice. Many clients answer their own and just want the profile set up properly, which is all this is. If you would rather not, that is what Managed AI does: reviews watched continuously and a response drafted in your voice, with nothing posting until you approve it.
- We have no storefront. Does this still apply?
- Yes, and it is set up differently. A service-area business hides its address and lists the areas it covers instead. Getting that wrong is a common reason a contractor or a consultancy fails to appear at all, and it is an easy thing to check.
- How much does it cost?
- The setup is a defined piece of work, quoted once we have seen the state of your listing, and often smaller than people expect. Keeping it current can sit inside a managed arrangement or be left with you.
We'll look at your listing first
Tell us the business name and we'll check what state the profile is in, who controls it, and whether the categories are costing you searches you should be winning.