Most local SEO is keyword chasing. A service page here, a blog post there, hoping it adds up to authority. The Core 30 works differently: your website doesn't exist to rank. It exists to make your Google Business Profile rank.
Search for your service in your city. If a map with pins appears, that's the game.
Around 44% of clicks on a local search page go to those three businesses in the map pack. The drop from position three to position four is a cliff. Everyone below the map is fighting for what's left.
Blog posts don't put you in the map. Your Google Business Profile does, and your website is what tells Google that profile is legitimate.
Google gives you boxes. Most businesses leave half of them empty. We fill every one — the full 750-character business description, hours including holiday hours, attributes, products, and Q&A seeded with real questions before a competitor writes something unhelpful in that space. Only the first 250 characters of that description show before someone clicks "Read more," so the opening two sentences carry the weight. Completeness is a ranking signal on its own — Google's own data says customers are 2.7x more likely to see a business as reputable when its profile is complete.
Google allows up to 10 categories. Most businesses pick one and stop. We map the categories that match what you actually do — usually 3 to 5, but the right number depends on the business, not a quota. Adding categories you don't really serve works against you: Google warns against category stuffing, and loosely related categories dilute relevance instead of adding to it. Each category then gets its own page on your site.
Most businesses list zero services in their profile. That's free real estate sitting empty. We add 20 to 30 services, each with a real description — every one is another chance for Google to match you to what someone typed. Google recently cut the service description field from 1,000 characters to 300, so each one has to say what the service includes and who it's for without filler.
Google notices the difference between a profile that's maintained and one that's abandoned. We post at least weekly — updates, offers, events, and specific services. It's a steady activity signal, not a burst followed by six months of silence.
We upload 20 to 30 photos to start, then add at least one every week — team members working, finished projects before and after, trucks and equipment, your shop inside and out. Fresh photos are an activity signal. A profile that gains new images every week reads differently to Google than one that hasn't changed since setup.
This is where the name comes from. Your homepage links to every category page, with 50 to 70 words introducing each. Each category page links to its service pages, again with 50 to 70 words each. Each service page runs 1,000 words or more on that one specific service. That lands around 30 pages for most local businesses — enough depth to prove topical relevance, without padding your site with thin pages nobody reads.
Before anyone writes anything, search the target keyword. Map appears? That's a profile opportunity — a blog post won't touch it. No map? Then a blog post makes sense.
Most local businesses have this backwards. They publish blog content every month while their profile sits half empty and their category pages don't exist.
Audit. We pull apart your profile, your site, and your top three competitors.
Architecture. We map your Core 30. You approve the page plan before anything gets written.
Build. We write the pages and wire the internal linking.
Alignment. We bring your profile in line with the site.
Ongoing. Posts, photos, reviews, links, and reporting every month.
It doesn't fit if you sell nationally, run e-commerce across the country, or chase keywords with no local intent. We'll say so on the first call.