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Local SEO Academy

Win the customers searching near you, on Google, on Maps and in AI answers.

Lessons
30 lessons
Chapters
10 chapters
Reading time
~150 minutes
Price
Free, no signup
Start the first lesson

First up: How local search works

How local search decides who ranks, a Google Business Profile filled in properly, location pages that avoid the spam pattern, reviews, and the signals AI assistants use.

Written for: Owners and marketers of businesses tied to a place: clinics, trades, restaurants, service-area businesses, agencies with local clients.

Levels: 14 beginner, 16 intermediate, marked per lesson and shown under each lesson title.

  1. Win the customer searching near you

    Why the business down the road ranks and you don't: the rules of the map pack, local organic results and AI recommendations.

    Chapter 1 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. How local search works· Start here5 minRelevance, distance and prominence: the three things Google weighs for every local search, and which ones you can move.
    2. The map pack versus local organic results5 minTwo different result types with different rules, and why you need a plan for both.
    3. Local ranking factors you can control5 minYour profile, your pages, your reviews and your citations, ranked by how much they move the needle.

  2. Your Google Business Profile, done properly

    The single biggest local lever. Most profiles are half-finished; a complete, accurate, active one is the fastest win in local SEO.

    Chapter 2 of 10

    4 lessons~20 min

    1. Claim and complete your profile5 minEvery field that matters, what to put in it, and the ones people leave empty.
    2. Categories and services5 minYour primary category decides which searches you can appear for. Choose it like it matters, because it does.
    3. Photos, posts and questions5 minThe activity signals that keep a profile alive and give searchers a reason to pick you.
    4. Profile mistakes that get you suspended5 minKeyword-stuffed names, fake addresses and other guideline breaches that cost businesses their listing.

  3. Target the searches that bring customers

    Find the 'near me' and city searches your customers actually type, and point each one at the right page.

    Chapter 3 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. 'Near me' and city searches5 minHow people search locally, what Google does with their location, and what that means for your keywords.
    2. Service-plus-location keyword mapping5 minBuild the grid of services and places you serve, then decide which cells earn a page.
    3. Local keyword research, step by step5 minVolume, intent and competition for local terms, using free tools and your own Search Console data.

  4. Build pages that rank in every town you serve

    Location and service pages done right rank everywhere you work. Done wrong they read as spam. Here is the line.

    Chapter 4 of 10

    4 lessons~20 min

    1. Service pages that rank5 minOne page per service, built around what a customer needs to know before they call.
    2. Location pages without the spam5 minReal local content for each area you serve, and the thin-page pattern that gets filtered.
    3. Service-area businesses5 minRanking without a storefront: how to set up your profile and pages when you travel to customers.
    4. Your homepage for local search5 minWhat a local homepage must say in its first screen, and how to make it rank for your main service and city.

  5. Turn reviews into rankings and customers

    Reviews rank you, convert visitors, and tell AI assistants you're the safe choice. A system beats hoping.

    Chapter 5 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. Getting reviews consistently5 minA simple, guideline-safe routine that produces a steady flow of reviews instead of a burst and a drought.
    2. Responding to reviews5 minReply to every review, including the bad ones, in a way that wins the next customer reading it.
    3. Reviews and AI recommendations5 minHow assistants use review volume, recency and content when someone asks for the best nearby.

  6. Send Google the local signals it wants

    Consistent business details across the web, local schema, and a site that loads fast on a phone in a car park.

    Chapter 6 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. NAP consistency and citations5 minWhy your name, address and phone must match everywhere, and how to fix the listings that don't.
    2. LocalBusiness schema5 minThe structured data that tells Google exactly what and where you are, and how to validate it.
    3. Speed and mobile for local sites5 minLocal searches happen on phones. Make the call button reachable and the page fast.

  7. Get named when someone asks AI for the best nearby

    How ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity pick local businesses, and how to be the one they name.

    Chapter 7 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. How AI assistants pick local businesses5 minThe sources assistants lean on for local recommendations, and why most of them are things you already control.
    2. Being the business AI names5 minProfile completeness, review content, consistent details and citable pages, in the order that matters.
    3. Tracking your AI visibility locally5 minCheck what assistants say when asked about your service in your area, and watch it change over time.

  8. Earn the local links that lift you

    One relevant local link beats ten random ones. Press, sponsorships and partners that lift you on Google and in AI.

    Chapter 8 of 10

    2 lessons~10 min

    1. Local link building5 minWhere local links actually come from: directories that matter, local press, suppliers and community pages.
    2. Partnerships and sponsorships5 minTurn the relationships you already have into mentions and links, without it feeling like marketing.

  9. Run local SEO across multiple locations

    Multiple branches or service areas change the game: one profile per location, a real page for each, and a brand that stays consistent.

    Chapter 9 of 10

    2 lessons~10 min

    1. One profile per location5 minSet up and manage several Business Profiles without them competing with each other.
    2. Scaling location pages5 minA template that stays useful at ten or fifty locations, and the duplicate-content trap to avoid.

  10. Prove it, then own your market

    Track the calls, directions and clicks local search earns you, find the quick wins, and follow a 90-day plan.

    Chapter 10 of 10

    3 lessons~15 min

    1. Tracking calls, directions and clicks5 minThe local metrics that connect search to revenue, and where to read them.
    2. The 30-minute local quick-wins audit5 minA fast, repeatable check of your profile, pages and reviews that produces a ranked to-do list.
    3. Own your local market in 90 days5 minA phased plan from claiming your profile to compounding local authority.

What a lesson looks like

All 30 have the same shape: the mechanism first, then one thing to do, then the free tool that does it. Nothing is held back, so the page below is the whole page. 28 of the 30 link at least one free tool from inside that block, and the Mark as complete control at the foot of each lesson is what fills the meters beside the chapters above.

The opening of the lesson How Google ranks a page: the chapter it sits in, Lesson 1 of 4, the title, a one-line summary of what it covers, and a row giving its reading time, its level and the date it was last reviewed.
The opening of one lesson: the chapter it belongs to, its place in that chapter, a one-line summary of what it covers, and a row giving reading time, level and the date it was last reviewed. Every lesson in the academy opens this way.

The dashboard prompts, the trade group and the map pack

Local search gets learned in these four places long before anyone opens a curriculum. What each one does well, and where it stops.

The profile dashboard's own promptsHow it worksIt is looking at your real listing, so it names the field that is empty and no lesson can match that. It is a completeness meter: it asks for hours and photos with the same weight as the primary category, which is the field that decides which searches you can appear in at all.Local SEO track4 lessons and 20 minutes on the profile, ordered by what moves a ranking rather than by what is blank: Categories and services first, then Profile mistakes that get you suspended, which is the one a completeness meter never raises.
Asking owners in the same tradeHow it worksSame town, same category, real outcomes: the closest thing to a controlled test anyone has. It is also a sample of whoever is in the group, and a guideline change reaches it as a rumour long before it arrives as a fact.Local SEO trackIt separates the guideline from the habit: Profile mistakes that get you suspended is 5 minutes on the rules that cost businesses their listing. On what actually happened to the business two streets away, the group holds evidence that no curriculum has.
Copying whoever ranks above you in the map packHow it worksTheir categories, review count, photos and site are all visible, so it produces a target rather than a theory. Distance from the searcher is in the ranking too, and that part does not copy.Local SEO track3 lessons in Win the customer searching near you take relevance, distance and prominence apart, which is where copying stops being useful, and Local ranking factors you can control is what is left once distance is taken out of it.
Paying a service to submit your listingsHow it worksIt pushes one set of details to a directory list in bulk, which is faster than any process you would build by hand and worth the money at volume.Local SEO trackNAP consistency and citations is the half a submission cannot reach: the record that still carries the old address is usually a sponsor page, a supplier's stockist list or your own site's structured data, and none of those are on a submission list. 5 minutes, ending on a free validator pointed at your own homepage.

Questions before you start

Do I need an account to read this?
No. All 30 lessons are public pages with no signup, no email and no paywall, and the free tools their actions run on open without an account too.
What happens to the lessons I mark as read?
They are written to this browser's local storage and nowhere else. Nothing reaches a server, so the count follows the browser rather than you: another device, a private window, or cleared site data each start again at zero, and we cannot restore it because we never held it.
Do I have to read it in order?
No. The order is the one that costs the least backtracking, and every lesson states what it assumes, so the chapter that matches today's problem reads on its own. Start here is a recommendation, not a gate.
How long does the whole track take?
About 150 minutes of reading across 30 lessons in 10 chapters, counted from the lesson files at 220 words a minute. The doing takes longer than the reading, because every lesson carries one thing to go and do.
Is this pitched at beginners or at people already working in SEO?
The 30 lessons break down as 14 beginner, 16 intermediate, and each one carries its level under its own title. The chapters climb, so the later ones assume the earlier ones.
Is the curriculum an advert for the product?
The lessons link out where a step needs a tool: 18 of our 42 free tools appear across 28 of the 30 lessons, and none of them ask for an account. Nothing in the track is held back for a paid plan.
How current is it?
Every lesson shows the date it was last reviewed under its title, and the most recent review in this track is 2026-08-22. Lessons explain the mechanism before the tactic for the same reason: how ranking is decided outlives whichever tactic was working the week it was written.

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