Most local SEO advice tells you to "claim your Google Business Profile" and stops there. That's step one of about fifteen. If you run a local or multi-location US business, here's the checklist we actually walk clients through every quarter — in the order it matters.
1. Confirm your Business Profile data hasn't drifted
Business hours change for holidays and never get reset. Categories get edited by someone on the team who didn't know better. Photos go stale. Once a quarter, open your Google Business Profile and check: primary category, service area, hours, and that your most recent photos are actually current.
2. Audit your citation consistency
Your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) should match exactly across Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, and industry-specific directories. Even small inconsistencies — "St." vs. "Street" — create ranking friction over time.
3. Check review velocity, not just review count
A business with 40 reviews from two years ago looks less active to both customers and Google than one with 15 reviews trickling in weekly. Build a simple, consistent ask into your service completion process instead of running occasional review pushes.
4. Review your service-area pages for real specificity
If you serve multiple cities or neighborhoods, each location page needs to say something genuinely true and specific about that market — not just swap the city name into a template. Thin, duplicate location pages are one of the most common reasons local SEO stalls out.
5. Check your Map Pack competitors, not just organic ones
The three businesses in the Map Pack for your top keyword are often not the same businesses ranking organically. Look at what they have that you don't: review count, categories, photos, or proximity — then decide what's actually fixable.
Putting it into a routine
None of this is complicated on its own — the failure mode is usually that nobody owns it consistently. Block 90 minutes once a quarter, work through this list, and you'll catch most of the drift that quietly costs local businesses their rankings.