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01 · SEO · 06/06

Local SEO.

Not to decorate your Google profile. Not to tick presence. For searches that convert.

You lay Google Business Profile, coherent local citations, LocalBusiness schema, geo-targeted content. For brands with physical presence, this is the channel that brings the most qualified inquiries at the lowest acquisition cost. Six months to settle in.

By Camille · Voice & content

Get my local presence quotedSee the Brasero mission

02 · OPERATION NOTE · OPS LOCAL SEO

Local SEO, decoded

The field report

You have a physical presence (shop, workshop, lodge, restaurant). You rank poorly on craft + city queries. Your Google Business Profileyour business listing on Google Maps and Search is not optimised or your reviews are managed haphazardly. Often the moment.

The cost of waiting

Without framed local SEO, you leave craft + city searches to your direct competitors. That is 70 % of purchase-intent queries for B2C physical brands according to Semrushprofessional SEO audit and keyword tool 2026. The shortfall is invisible: prospects who look for you do not find you.

In black and white

A Google Business Profileyour business listing on Google Maps and Search well ranked on your craft in your target cities. Coherent info everywhere: NAPidentical name-address-phone everywhere. A readable LocalBusinessthe tag describing a local business to Google tag. Per-city content ranking on more precise queries.

The manoeuvre

We start with a local presence audit, before laying any content. Google Business Profileyour business listing on Google Maps and Search optimised, coherent presence on directories (Yellow Pages, Yelp, sectoral), LocalBusinessthe tag describing a local business to Google tag wired, long-form content per city. We work with your sales team, never replacing it.

The lock that breaks

Qualified inquiries at the lowest acquisition cost of the marketing mix. A presence in the top 3 Google local packthe Google map + 3 local listings box results on your target cities. A clean base to amplify on newsletter and social networks behind.

03 · WHAT WE WON'T WRITE IN AN RFP

Local SEO is a direct acquisition tool. Not a Google presence box-tick.

Local SEO is only useful if you turn visits into qualified inquiries. Otherwise, it's bouncing traffic and a Google Business Profile that just reassures the board. The right question before signing: who on your side will respond to inquiries coming through the profile, in under 4 working hours? If the answer is fuzzy, the right order is sales pipeline framing first, then local. The broader agency vs freelance vs in-house debate sits here.

  • 01

    Lowest-cost inquiries

    Craft + city searches turn into inquiries in 8-15 % of cases, vs 1-3 % on cold Meta Ads. Acquisition cost divided by 4 to 8 on B2C physical-presence brands.

  • 02

    Google local pack held

    You show up in the first 3 local pack results (map block at the top of Google) on your target cities. That is 40 % of mobile clicks on craft + city queries. Maximum visibility without depending on Meta or Google Ads.

  • 03

    Reviews turned into leverage

    Your Google Business Profile reviews become an acquisition channel, not a burden. Post-visit solicitation, response management, review tags to surface with stars in Google results.

  • 04

    You keep local ownership

    Your Google Business Profile access, directory presence and procedures stay. If you change provider tomorrow, the local presence keeps producing. No dependency on an opaque someone.

04 · THE MISSIONS THAT PROVED IT

We deployed it on these grounds.

Brasero estate, corporate retreats and weddings in Liège province

Brasero Group

Hospitality & events · 2 sites in Liège province

24-month local SEO Verlaine + Malmedy.

Read the Brasero mission
Battlekart, immersive indoor karting in Verlaine and Malmedy

Battlekart

Indoor leisure · immersive karting · 2 sites in Liège

Local presence Verlaine + Malmedy over 24 months.

Read the Battlekart mission
Amecam Van Conversion, mobile workshops and converted vans in Wallonia

Amecam Van Conversion

B2B pro vehicle conversion · Wallonia

GBP profile + Wallonia citations over 3 years.

Read the Amecam mission

05 · THE PLAY-BY-PLAY

Four steps. Six weeks for the base. Six months to see rankings move.

  1. STEP 01

    We audit the local presence.

    Full mapping: Google Business Profile, directory presence (Yellow Pages, Yelp, sectoral), reviews, Schema.org (opens in a new window) tags. Audit via Semrush (opens in a new window) (professional SEO tool) of positions on craft + city. Action plan prioritised by business impact before touching the profile.

  2. STEP 02

    We freeze the info and city scope.

    Name, address, phone harmonised across all sources, what we call NAP (name-address-phone identical everywhere). Target city list validated by you (3-8 typically for a Belgian SME). Sign-off before directory corrections. No silent drift.

  3. STEP 03

    We lay the base then feed it.

    Google Business Profile optimised (categories, photos, services, posts), directory presence corrected, LocalBusiness tag (local business) wired. First batch of 3 per-city contents (1 per priority target city) published alongside. No production freeze.

  4. STEP 04

    We compare 6 months before vs after.

    Local pack and organic positions tracking on craft + city in Google Search Console + Semrush. Inbound qualified inquiries volume monitoring via form and direct call. Dashboard wired directly to GBP statistics + Search Console. Notion handover to your team.

06 · THE FLOW AT A GLANCE

The path each search takes between a target city and a qualified inquiry.

OPS ZONELIÈGEprovince · 3 to 8 target cities50.6326° N · 5.5797° EBE-WAL-LGGOOGLE BUSINESSPROFILEcategories · photos · posts · reviews60%of local mobile clicksCITATIONSDIRECTORIESYellow Pages · Yelp · sectoralNAPcross-source coherenceSCHEMA.ORGLOCALBUSINESSJSON-LD · openingHours · geoLLMreadable Claude · ChatGPTCONTENTGEO-TARGETED1 page per target city3-8cities typicallyQUALIFIED INQUIRIES+5 to +25 / month / city · SME B2C"the neighbourhood corner we keep tending" · Camille · content & SEO

A geographic zone held by 4 levers: GBP, coherent citations, LocalBusiness schema, geo-targeted content. For brands with physical presence, the most profitable channel.

07 · NOT YET FOR YOU IF

Three cases where local SEO is not the top priority.

  • You have no real physical presence.

    Without an address, workshop, store or client reception, Google Business Profile cannot validate over time. Local SEO becomes a chore that fights with Google on verifications. Better to invest the budget on national SEO and pillar content.

  • Your sales pipeline does not follow incoming inquiries.

    A well-ranked profile brings 5-20 additional monthly inquiries. If they wait 48h for an answer or drop into the void, the cost will not be paid back. The right order is sales pipeline framing first, then opening the local floodgates.

  • No one on your side will reply to reviews.

    Reviews left un-answered weigh negatively on local pack ranking. If no internal resource is planned to respond within 7 days (15 minutes per review), Google progressively demotes the profile.

08 · THE QUESTIONS WE ACTUALLY HEAR

Questions whispered after the second meeting. Honest answers.

On the Belgian B2C market in 2026, Semrush benchmarks (professional SEO tool) converge: a physical brand without framed local SEO leaves 60-80 % of its direct buying traffic to competitors. The gap depends on competition in your target cities. The real cost is not the lost traffic, it is the acquisition cost exploding on other channels to compensate. The broader agency vs freelance vs in-house debate sits here.

Not enough. Google Business Profile captures 60 % of local mobile clicks in Belgium in 2026. Yellow Pages and other directories bring NAP coherence (name-address-phone identical everywhere) that reinforces GBP, but generate only 5-10 % of direct local traffic. Both together form the base. GBP alone is also not enough, directory presence credibilises it. On the site side, clean technical SEO remains the prerequisite.

No direct sanction documented as of late 2026. However, Google progressively demotes inactive profiles (no posts in 6 months), inconsistent ones (NAP varying across directories) or with very few reviews getting a reply. A well-maintained profile stays boosted. An abandoned profile becomes invisible, without explicit alert. See the Brasero mission, multi-site physical presence held month after month.

Belgian SME B2C 2026 market range, 6 months post-implementation: +5 to +25 additional monthly inquiries per well-maintained target city. On tourism and restaurant brands, this rises to +30 to +60. The real gap depends on competition and review quality (pillar pages and satellite plan). For your specific case, we quote after audit.

Maintenance side: 1 internal day per month to post on Google Business Profile, reply to reviews and feed 1 per-city content. To keep those pieces in your voice without us, the copywriting writing grid acts as the guardrail. Semrush monitoring side (professional SEO tool): 100-200 € HTVA monthly depending on query volume. If we leave, you keep the Notion doc + GBP access + relay procedure in 1 week. Total ownership.

Yes. We do this on 70 % of our local missions. The rule: who steers the Google Business Profile and the per-city editorial line. If your community manager stays pilot on posts and reviews, we frame the strategy and review. If we steer, they feed in photos and field events. We never step on the other agency without saying so. On the per-city content production side, briefed AI writing holds the pace city by city.

Field note

Local SEO is not a Google profile filled in passing. It is a neighbourhood corner you tend to, a storefront you keep clean. When cared for, prospects push the door at the lowest acquisition cost in the mix. When neglected, Google looks away and you end up renting Meta to buy back your own neighbours. We lay it down whenever there is a serious physical presence to tell.

Camille · Voice & content
CamilleVoice & content · HeySquad

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