What's included in ongoing local SEO
- Google Business Profile - setup or cleanup, categories, services, photos, and review-response guidance
- On-page SEO - titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, and internal linking across your site
- Structured data - LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQ schema so search engines and AI assistants can read your business facts directly
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) - answer-first page structure, FAQ schema, and clear business facts so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity cite you instead of a competitor
- Local content - service and area pages written to answer the questions your customers actually ask
- Tracking and reporting - Google Search Console and Analytics, with a plain-language monthly summary of calls, clicks, and rankings
What is AEO, and why it matters now
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization - optimizing your site so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini) pull your business as the answer when someone asks them to recommend a service near them. More and more people skip the list of blue links entirely and just ask an assistant. SEO and AEO overlap - clean structure, fast pages, and accurate facts help both - but AEO leans harder on answer-first writing and machine-readable structured data. I build every page that way by default, so you're not retrofitting it later.
One-time SEO setup vs. monthly SEO
If you're getting a new site, a baseline SEO setup is already included in my web design options: basic local SEO in Starter, stronger local SEO in Growth, and advanced tracking/integrations in Custom Growth System. Monthly SEO is for businesses that want to keep climbing after launch - new content, ongoing optimization, and visibility tracking. You can start, pause, or stop any month; I don't lock clients into long contracts.
How long does local SEO take to work?
Honest answer: expect the first measurable movement in 4–8 weeks (Google Business Profile and on-page fixes tend to show up first), and meaningful ranking gains in 3–6 months. Anyone promising page one in two weeks is guessing or worse. I'll show you exactly what was done and what changed every month.
Why SEO from the person who built the site matters
Most SEO problems for small businesses are technical: slow pages, broken heading structure, missing schema, duplicate content. Because I build websites myself, I fix those at the source instead of filing tickets with a separate dev team. That's the advantage of a solo practice - one person owns the whole stack. My enterprise support background (4+ years troubleshooting 20+ production systems at a telecom) means diagnosing issues methodically is the default, not an upsell.
Who this is for
Local SEO pays off fastest for businesses where one new customer is worth hundreds of dollars: HVAC, plumbing, contracting, and clinics. Restaurants benefit most from Google Business Profile and direct-booking work.
Get a clear route before you commit
Tell me your goal and I will send the recommended service, timeline, and fixed next step.