Help nearby customers find you — in Google, on Maps, and in the local pack.
Local SEO in Melbourne is how a business gets found by nearby customers on Google and Google Maps — in the map pack, the local results, and on its Google Business Profile. That's what I set up and keep tuned for small businesses right across Melbourne and Victoria.
45 minutes · Google Meet · free Health Check included
Recognition
Usually because customers who are right around the corner still can't find them — or because a Google Business Profile has been sitting untouched while others move above them on Maps. It tends to look like one of these:
Customers nearby search on Google Maps and your business doesn't show up — or sits well below others who aren't any closer.
The Google Business Profile hasn't been touched in a year or two — old hours, wrong categories, no recent posts — so nearby searchers see a competitor first.
You rank fine for your own business name, but not for the local searches — '[your service] near me' — that bring in new customers.
It shouldn't take a marketing background to know why nearby customers aren't finding you. Someone who can plainly sort out your Google Business Profile, the local terms worth targeting, and the tracking to see it working is usually enough.
How the map pack works
Google's own explanation of local ranking comes down to three things. Knowing them is most of the job:
Relevance. How well your business matches what someone searches for — which is why complete, accurate Google Business Profile categories and details matter so much.
Distance. How close you are to the searcher, or to the area they're searching in. You can't move your shopfront, but you can make sure Google knows exactly where you are and who you serve.
Prominence. How well-known and well-regarded your business is — from genuine reviews and mentions across the web to your broader search presence. It's the part that builds over time.
No one controls these outright, and no one can buy a better organic spot in the local results — anyone who guarantees a #1 on Maps is guessing. What I can do is get every factor you do control into the best shape it can be. Local SEO builds on the same clean foundations as the rest of your search presence — if you want the broader picture, see my SEO consultant service.
What I do
Local SEO is the map-pack and Maps side of getting found. It's steady, practical work — most of it centred on your Google Business Profile and a site that clearly serves the places you work. Here's what that covers:
Claimed and verified, with the right categories, service areas, hours, description and photos — and kept current with posts. For most local businesses, this is where the enquiries come from.
Research into what nearby customers actually type — '[service] near me', suburb-level searches, the questions people ask — mapped to the right page on your site.
Your name, address and phone the same everywhere they appear — directories, listings, your own site — so Google trusts who and where you are. Confusion here quietly holds local ranking back.
LocalBusiness structured data — address, hours, area served, service list — so search engines understand the essentials without having to guess.
A simple, honest way to ask happy customers for a review — no incentives, no gating, nothing against Google's rules. Genuine reviews feed into how prominent you look locally: one contributor among several, not a guarantee.
Tuning everything that decides whether you show up in the three-listing local pack and on Maps for the searches that matter near you.
Briefs for the pages worth having — your service areas, the questions locals ask — written to help a real person, not to stuff a keyword. I brief and review; the writing stays with you or your writer.
Google Business Profile insights, calls, direction requests and website clicks tracked cleanly alongside GA4 and Search Console — so you can see whether local search is actually bringing people in.
LocalBusiness + Service schema (address, geo, areaServed, opening hours) · Google Business Profile (categories, services, service-area setup, posts, photos) · NAP / citation consistency across reputable directories · review-acquisition flow (Google-compliant — no gating, no incentives) · GBP Insights + GA4 + Search Console for local performance · Bing Places for the Microsoft/Copilot side. All set up cleanly, all reported in plain language.
Want the plain-English detail first? I wrote a guide to local SEO for Melbourne businesses — what actually moves the needle on Maps and in the local pack.
Google Business Profile
For most local businesses, the Google Business Profile does more for Maps and the local pack than anything on the website. Optimising it is usually the first thing I work on, and it comes down to four things:
The right categories and services. Categories tell Google what you do, so the primary one has to match your main service, with secondary categories and a full service list behind it.
Accurate details and service areas. Your name, address or service area, hours and phone kept exactly right, and the same as your website and directory listings.
Photos, posts and questions. Recent photos, regular posts and answers to common questions on your site and profile, so anyone comparing you can see the business is active.
Reviews, and what the profile records. A genuine way to ask for reviews, replies to the ones you get, and the calls, direction requests and website clicks the profile records, tracked alongside your analytics.
If your business isn't showing on Google Maps at all, start with my guide to why a business doesn't show up on Google. It covers verification, suspensions and the other common causes.
Where I work
I'm based in Melbourne and happy to meet clients anywhere across the city: the CBD and inner suburbs, the north and west, the east out to Ringwood, Boronia and the Dandenong Ranges, the south-east through Dandenong and Berwick, and the bayside suburbs down to Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. Geelong too. Anywhere else in Australia, I work remotely, and I'm happy to travel when a project needs it.
Local SEO is location-specific work, so I tune it to wherever your customers actually are: one suburb, a service area across several, or a regional town. It's built on one real, well-kept Google Business Profile and a site that genuinely serves the places you work — not a stack of near-identical "SEO in [suburb]" pages. Google treats those as doorway pages, and they don't help anyone.
You work directly with me — one person, start to finish. You'll always know exactly who's doing your local SEO, because it's me.— Nathan Schram · Local SEO, Melbourne
An agency suits businesses that need large-scale output across a big team. A consultant suits businesses that want direct access, plain answers, and someone who'll tell them when something isn't worth doing. If that's you, this is built for how you like to work.
Recent SEO work
Mobile wellness service
A mobile IV business working in Victoria and Western Australia. I built its new website, help people find it on Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT, and run its Google ads.
Animal rescue charity
A volunteer-run animal rescue. I built the website it uses today, and I'm building its new one.
My own software studio
My own small software studio. I designed and built its website, and I keep it running and easy to find on Google and in AI tools.
What I don't do
Honest scope — and with local SEO, some of the "services" out there are things you actively shouldn't buy.
If something sits outside the default scope and there's a real reason to do it, ask anyway. The honest discipline runs both ways: you have to agree to the scope, and I have to be confident I can deliver it to a standard worth my name.
Pricing
Here's how the money usually works, in plain numbers. Most local SEO work with me takes one of three shapes:
Audit
Free
In-Depth version from $300
A clear read on where you stand in local search and Maps, with fixes you can action yourself or hand to another provider. Free as the Basic Digital Health Check on every call; the In-Depth version — checked against your actual Google Business Profile and accounts — starts at $300.
Setup
Quoted
to scope, after the call
Claiming and optimising the Google Business Profile, sorting out citations and local schema, setting up the review flow and the tracking — then a window to see it working. Project-based, quoted to scope after the call.
Ongoing
~$1,000/mo
from around, to your scope
Keeping the profile active, watching the local rankings and reviews, and shipping the next round of work each month. Suits competitive local markets. From around $1,000/month, quoted to your scope — see Looked After.
ACNC-registered charities: 25% off all paid services.
45 minutes · Google Meet · no obligation
FAQ
Start
Wondering whether local SEO would bring more customers through the door? Book a 45-minute call. I'll run a free Basic Digital Health Check on your site and Google Business Profile beforehand and walk you through it — so the conversation starts from a clear picture of where you stand locally.
45 minutes · Google Meet · no obligation
Every call ends with one — a plain-English read on where you stand in local search today. No charge, no catch.
The PDF is yours to keep regardless.
Last updated: 17 October 2026
