Local SEO for small business still rewards owners who take charge of it, but the work has moved from fixing separate mobile sites to managing your Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent listings. Derek's core advice holds up, but his mobile checklist doesn't.
The Original Tip Does It Still Work? Then vs. Now Local SEO Today Cleaning Company SEO Local SEO Audit Citations Do It Yourself? Quick Summary FAQ
Editor's note: This article first appeared in January 2014 as Tip #27 in CBT's Guerrilla Marketing series by CBT co-founder Derek Christian. We've kept the original tip below and added an October 2026 update on local SEO for cleaning businesses.
The Original 2014 Tip: Keeping Up With SEO
Search Engine Optimization is more of a time commitment than a financial one, but even more important and successful than many paid advertising opportunities.
SEO is a scary, amorphous set of letters to many business owners still. Okay, so here's the skinny. SEO means filling in all of the blanks in the background of each page of your website so that Google can find your webpages when someone searches for those words or topics.
Think of it like some of the front and back matter on books: 1-paragraph description on the back cover, table of contents at the beginning, and an index at the end. Those are the sorts of words and phrases you're looking for for each page of your website.
The trick: YOU need to be doing this YOURSELF and not relying on your outsourced web designed to know enough about the cleaning industry or your cleaning clients' needs and desires to do this well.
Use these 5 tips to help you get a handle on your SEO:
- It's an absolute necessity: by failing to crate content that is optimized for mobile, your web presence effectively falls behind others who are working to get their content recognized by search engines like Google.
- Using proper redirect is key: if you're old-school and still maintaining both a standard website and a mobile website separately, this is very important.
- Responsive design is a good solution: If you're beginning or near to going into a website redesign phase, make sure the site "skin" you select is responsive, which means it shows up "right" on a phone or tablet.
- Ironing out the kinks is imperative: check out the official Google Developers list of common problems, like slow loading, faulty redirects, and more
- Maximize visibility of mobile content: make sure your mobile site (if you have one) is registered with Google so that it can boost your search rankings and result.
Read the full article at SmallBizTrends.com.
Does Derek's SEO Advice Still Work?
Half of it does. Derek's central point, that owners should understand their own SEO instead of leaving it to a web designer, is as sound today as in 2014.
His mobile checklist has aged, though. Google now uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking, and it recommends responsive web design as the easiest setup to maintain. A single responsive site, tested on a phone with our guide to making your website more mobile friendly, replaces all five of his mobile tips. Our verdict: the advice has evolved.
Then vs. Now: How Small Business SEO Has Changed
The biggest shift is where local customers find you. In 2014, SEO mostly meant tuning your website, while today much of the competition happens in Google Maps and local search results.
Small Business SEO in 2014 vs. Local SEO Today
| Factor | 2014 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | Maintain a separate mobile site and set up redirects | Use one responsive site, since Google indexes the mobile version |
| Main focus | Page titles, descriptions and keywords on your website | Google Business Profile, reviews and website content working together |
| Where customers find you | The organic results | Google Maps, local search results and the organic results |
| Business listings | Online directories and the yellow pages | Google, Bing, Apple Maps and a consistent set of citations |
What Local SEO for Small Business Means Today
Local SEO means showing up when nearby customers search for what you do. Google says its local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking.
In practice, local SEO for small business owners comes down to a few habits. Optimize your Google Business Profile with accurate business hours, services and photos, a step CBT first recommended in Guerrilla Marketing Tip #2, and add images from our tip on taking before-and-after pictures. Keep your business name, address and phone number identical everywhere. Ask satisfied clients for reviews and reply to them. Use a local keyword, such as your service plus your city, in page titles and headings, and give each core service its own page.
Local SEO for Cleaning Companies
SEO for cleaning companies has one feature most local guides skip: you go to the customer. Under Google's Business Profile guidelines, a service-area business should hide its address, and its overall service area shouldn't extend more than about two hours of driving time from where the business is based.
Good cleaning company SEO also means using your real name. Google's guidelines say your profile name should reflect your real-world business name, so adding "Best House Cleaning" to it risks your listing. Put specific keywords in your services, description and website instead. For more on-page ideas, see these SEO tips for your cleaning business.
Most advice on SEO for cleaning business websites also skips the residential and commercial split. Homeowners and facility managers search with different words, such as maid service versus janitorial, so give each audience its own page.
How to Run a Simple Local SEO Audit
A basic local SEO audit needs no paid tools. Search for your company and services the way a potential customer would, then work through this checklist.
Local SEO Audit Checklist for a Cleaning Business
| Area | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Correct category, services, business hours, service area and recent photos |
| Name, address and phone | The same spelling and format on your website, profiles and directories |
| Reviews | Steady new reviews and a reply to each one, positive or negative |
| Website on mobile | Pages load quickly, read easily and show a tap-to-call number |
| Service pages | One page per core service with a local keyword in the title and heading |
| Citations | No duplicate, outdated or misspelled listings on major sites |
Repeat it each quarter and after any move, phone change or rebrand.
Local SEO Citations: What They Are and Where to List
A citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number. Keeping them identical means customers and search engines see the same details everywhere.
Start with the major search platforms. Bing Places for Business is free and can import listings from Google. Apple's Apple Business lets you control how your company appears in Apple Maps, including your logo, hours and images. Then add Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, your chamber of commerce and any cleaning association directories.
Links matter too, since Google counts how many websites link to your business as part of prominence. Our tip on writing for other blogs is one way to earn them, and CBT's guide to getting the reviews and citations your website deserves covers structured and unstructured citation sources.
Can You Do Local SEO Yourself?
Yes, most cleaning business owners can handle the bulk of it. Google's own guidance says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself, and it says outside help is most useful during a site redesign.
That is Derek's point, updated. The core listings cost mainly your time, while agency fees vary widely by market and scope. If you hire help, Google suggests asking what results to expect and in what timeframe. Keep ownership of your profile and website logins either way.
Quick Summary
- Local SEO for small business still works best when the owner understands it and stays in charge.
- Separate mobile sites are obsolete, because Google indexes the mobile version of a responsive site.
- Your Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent name, address and phone number now drive local visibility.
- Run a quick local SEO audit each quarter and fix inconsistent citations as soon as you find them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Much of local SEO costs time rather than money, since core listings such as Bing Places for Business are free and you can update your own Google Business Profile. Agency fees vary widely by market and scope, so get a written description of the work before you sign. Keep ownership of your profile and website logins either way.
Yes. Google's own guidance says the owner of a small local business can probably do much of the work themselves, starting with an accurate Google Business Profile, steady reviews and consistent listings. Outside help is most useful for technical work or a website redesign.
Yes, especially for a cleaning business that serves a defined local area. Google still bases local results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and it says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. What has changed is that your Google Business Profile and reviews matter as much as your website.
A citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number, such as a listing on Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yelp or your chamber of commerce directory. Keep every citation identical so customers and search engines see the same details. For a service-area cleaning business, follow each platform's rules on hiding your address.
There is no fixed timeline, and Google advises asking any SEO provider what results to expect and in what timeframe. Treat local SEO as ongoing work: keep your profile current, ask for reviews after every job and run a quick audit each quarter.
Author
Recommended Reading
We hope you enjoyed this one — here are a few more posts we think you'll find just as useful.
To kick things off, take a look at The #1 Local SEO Rule: Does Your Website Have What Search Engines Want?, diving into the searcher-first rule behind local SEO, the role of keyword intent and the parts of a complete local strategy.
Also on our list is How to Build Backlinks to Boost Local Web Traffic to Your Site, diving into safe ways to earn local backlinks, from link reclamation and guest posts to the link schemes worth avoiding.
We'd also recommend Google My Business listings for Cleaning Companies, diving into proximity-based ranking for cleaning company listings, the value of Google Posts and photos, and steps for reporting.
We'll wrap up with Can a Cleaning Business Make You Rich?, which looks at typical cleaning business profits by company size, realistic profit margins and the pricing habits that separate high earners.
