You are paying for activity, not outcomes.
Monthly reports full of "tasks completed" and ranking screenshots, while the enquiry count stays flat. Effort is not the deliverable. Booked work is.
Why most local SEO underdelivers
Most businesses buy local SEO activity, then wonder why nothing rings.
The gap is rarely effort. It is focus. When the same retainer is split across too many accounts, or priced too low to do the work properly, the campaign produces motion without movement.
-
-
The work is spread thin across a cheap retainer.
Budget local SEO usually means a shared offshore team touching dozens of accounts. Nobody owns the result, so the hard parts (entity signals, real links, conversion tracking) quietly never get done.
-
Nobody is optimising for where buyers actually decide.
Buyers compare you in the Map Pack and inside AI answers long before they reach your homepage. If your profile and your citable content are weak, you lose the sale before the click.
What local SEO services cover
Three pillars, run as one system.
Proper local SEO is not a single tactic. It is 3 search surfaces working together: your Google Business Profile, local organic rankings, and the AI engines that now answer buyers first. Fund one and skip the others, and you compete with one hand tied behind your back.
How to choose a provider
How to choose a local SEO agency, company, or consultant.
"Local SEO services" covers everything from a $300 listings tool to a specialist running your whole local presence. Before you sign anything, run any provider past the 4 checks below, then see how the 3 common options actually compare.
-
Ask who touches the account, by name.
A local SEO agency, company, or SEO consultant should tell you exactly who runs the work and how many other clients they carry. If the answer is vague, the work is being spread thin.
-
Make them show conversion tracking, not rankings.
A ranking screenshot is not a result. A good provider reports leads, calls, and revenue, and wires that tracking up before any optimisation starts.
-
Check they cover AI search, not just classic Google.
A 2026-ready local SEO specialist builds entity signals and citable content for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews, because those answers now sit above the organic results.
-
Refuse lock-in contracts and guaranteed rankings.
No one can guarantee a specific position. A provider confident in the work bills month-to-month and earns the renewal, rather than trapping you in a 12-month term.
| What to compare | In-house DIY | Typical agency | Specialist (Search Scope) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who actually does the work | You, between everything else | Junior account manager plus offshore team | Dorian directly, on every account |
| Full-time SEO experience | Whatever you can self-teach | Account manager: 1 to 3 yrs | Since 2013, SEO only |
| Accounts per person | One (yours) | Often 20 to 40 per manager | A deliberately small book |
| Google Business Profile suspension recovery | Reinstatement form lottery | Out of scope or charged extra | In-house, included, 295 of 300 reinstated |
| AI search optimisation (GEO) | Usually skipped | Just being added in 2026 | Built in from day one |
| Location and service pages | One templated city page | One templated city page | Intent-matched per location and service |
| Link building approach | Cold outreach, mostly ignored | Bulk outreach plus cheap directories | Relationship-based, sector-relevant links |
| Reporting | GA4 default, no attribution | Vanity metrics dashboard | Custom dashboard: leads, calls, revenue |
| Contract | No contract, no accountability | 6 to 12 month lock-in, exit fees | Month-to-month, 30-day notice |
A bigger agency is not automatically better, and a solo consultant is not automatically more focused. What matters is who does the work, how many accounts they carry, and whether they measure leads or just rankings.
Your first 90 days
What actually happens, week by week.
No mystery retainer. Here is exactly what gets built, and in what order, before the first lift in enquiries typically lands.
- FoundationDays 0 to 14
Audit, access, baseline, first links.
- Link building starts on day one, while the audit is still running
- Full GBP, on-page, technical, link, and AI-citation audit
- GA4, GSC, and GBP access set up and owned by you
- Conversion tracking on calls, forms, and bookings
- Location and competitor mapping
- Strategy doc with a prioritised quarter plan
- Foundation fixesDays 15 to 45
Technical, GBP, on-page corrected.
- Technical issues resolved: speed, schema, indexing
- GBP rebuilt: categories, services, posts, photos, Q&A
- Location and service page architecture set up
- On-page rewrites for the top commercial pages
- Review generation system live
- Link building running every week while the fixes go in
- ExecutionDays 46 to 90
Content and AI signals ship weekly. Links are already landing.
- Location and service landing pages published
- Link building continues, now pointing at the new location and service pages
- Answer-block content built for AI citation
- Map Pack movement on lower-competition terms
- First measurable lead lift typically lands here
- CompoundDay 90+
Links never stop. Reporting every month.
- Plain-language monthly report from our custom dashboard
- Lead, call, and revenue attribution
- Quarterly strategy review
- GBP suspension monitoring, reinstatement included
- Link building never stops: new links secured every month
- AI citation tracking, plus continued work to get you mentioned in the sources AI tools cite
Honest timeline. Established domains with existing authority move faster.
Brand-new sites take longer. Anyone guaranteeing rankings in 30 days is either lying or about to penalise you. Speed
also depends on how competitive your market and category are.
Who this is for
Local SEO that earns its retainer, if you are the right fit.
Honest answer up front: we are not for everyone. The strategy call is a 30-minute conversation, not a pitch dressed up as one. If we are not a fit, we will tell you on the call and point you somewhere that is.
- ✓ An established local or service-area business with working opsYou have a real site, a real service, and customers already. We rebuild from the foundation rather than papering over cracks.
- ✓ You have tried local SEO before and it underdeliveredMost clients come to us after an agency. The diagnosis usually starts at the Google Business Profile and ends in the AI engines.
- ✓ A budget from $1,999 + GST a month is realisticThat is where Local Growth starts, for one location in a less competitive niche. Competitive niches such as legal, medical and finance need the Partner retainer from $4,000 + GST a month. Below $1,999, the work needed to compete in a local market generally cannot be done properly, whoever you hire.
- ✓ You can give us some of your time, especially early onYou do not need to know SEO. We do the work and spare you the daily tasks, but we need your input: questionnaires and business details in the first weeks, and your approval on some decisions along the way. A quick reply keeps the work moving.
- ✓ You can absorb more enquiries when they arriveWhen local SEO works, the phone rings more. Make sure your team and intake are ready before we open the tap.
30 minutes. No pitch deck. No proposal at the end unless you ask.
We are probably not the right fit if…
- ✕ You are shopping purely for the cheapest local SEO quote in your inbox.
- ✕ You want a guaranteed number one ranking and a contract that promises it.
- ✕ Your business is brand-new and pre-revenue with no working website.
- ✕ You cannot absorb more enquiries because intake and ops are not ready.
- ✕ You want one supplier handling SEO, ads, social, design, and copy.
We will say so on the call. We optimise for your revenue, not our retainer count.
Clients across Australia
Proof, in their words.
Based in Perth and working with businesses Australia-wide. Perth business? Local SEO Perth is the page for you.
SEO since
The founder
Meet your senior SEO consultant, Dorian Menard
Founder. SEO only, since 2013.
Specialising in SEO since 2013. Founder of Search Scope. I work directly with every client on strategy and execution. No account managers, no offshore teams, no templated retainers.
My work covers multi-location and franchise SEO, organic and national SEO, local SEO, Google Maps, GBP and GMC reinstatement, technical audits, and AI search visibility. I work with established businesses and multi-location networks that want a senior specialist, not a service package.
2013
In SEO since
200+
Clients since 2021
295 of 300
GBP reinstatements
1
Specialist on your account
Pricing
Straight pricing, no lock-in.
4 ways to start. The Search & AI Authority Partner retainer for ongoing growth in competitive markets, Local Growth for one location in a less competitive niche, the Search Foundation Sprint to fix the whole foundation in one go without a retainer, and a flat-fee citation cleanup for businesses with messy name, address, and phone data scattered across the directory web.
For smaller businesses
Local Growth
The same Maps, organic and AI work as the Partner retainer, scaled to one location in a niche that is not highly competitive. Month to month, 30 days notice.
From
$1,999
+ GST a month
What's included
- Month 1: your foundation, scaled to one location. If you did a Sprint first, you skip it and start on growth work.
- 1 high-value page created or upgraded every month (service, location or answer page), plus technical health watched and fixed
- Link building from day one and every month after, including editorial coverage in real publications
- Your Google Business Profile managed: 2 posts a week, photos, and review requests sent to every customer within Google’s rules
- Your key questions checked in AI answers every month, plus work to get you named in the sources those tools cite
- Rank tracking, a Maps grid, AI tracking, and call and form tracking, with a monthly report and a 30-minute call
- A strategy review every quarter, and the plan for the next one
Who it fits. One location, in a niche that is not highly competitive. Legal, medical, finance and other competitive niches, or more than one location, need the Partner retainer. The 90-day movement guarantee covers the Partner retainer, not Local Growth. What moves the price: a second location, a tougher niche or more pages a month. Past that, the Partner retainer fits better.
No commitment
Search Foundation Sprint
The whole foundation in one go: website, Google Business Profile and your name across the web. One-off, about 4 to 6 weeks, then it closes.
From
$1,500
+ GST one-off
What's included
- The diagnosis: the 25-point technical audit, a Google Business Profile review, a check of how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini answer your key questions, and a check that your business details match across the web
- The website: critical technical fixes, 1 priority page fully optimised plus 3 lighter pages, schema across the whole site, and an llms.txt file with an AI reference page
- Your Google Business Profile, where relevant: categories, services, description, hours and attributes corrected, your own photos uploaded, and a posting plan for the next 90 days
- Your name across the web: 1 brand fact document as the single source of truth, profiles and directory listings created or corrected, 1 Wikidata entry where eligible, and 10 short factual write-ups published from the fact document
- Handover: a roadmap (done, next, later, needs a developer, and worth doing with ongoing help), a reference guide, a recorded walkthrough, and 30 days of email questions. Then the Sprint closes.
From $1,500 + GST is the starting scope, for a smaller site. Larger sites and multi-location businesses get a tailored quote. Everything in the audit with implementation (from $999 + GST), plus your Google Business Profile corrected, your business named consistently across the web (fact document, profiles, Wikidata where eligible, 10 write-ups), an llms.txt file with an AI reference page, and a full handover pack. Not included: link building, ongoing posting, writing beyond the pages above, and rebuilds or development work.
Standalone product
Professional Citation Cleanup
For businesses that have changed address, traded under a different name, or built up inconsistent listing data across the directory web over the years.
Clean citations are critical in the AI-SEO era. They are how engines confirm who you are, and they also help you avoid Google Business Profile suspensions.
Flat fee
$599/location
+ GST
What's included
- Digital footprint audit included
- Manual citation verification and cleanup
- Enhanced business directory management
- Real-time progress tracking
- Multi-location support
- Consistent NAP across the directory web
Most cleanups complete within 30 days. Multi-location pricing available, book a call to discuss.
FAQ
Local SEO services questions.
The 30-minute strategy call answers the rest. No pitch deck. No proposal at the end unless you ask.
Dedicated industry pages
Local SEO built around your industry.
Trades
Professional
Property
30 minutes · One specialist · No obligation
Ready for local SEO that earns its keep?
A straight 30-minute conversation with Dorian, the person who does the work. You leave with a clear view of where you are losing local buyers, what it costs to fix, and whether we are the right team for it.
No lock-in contracts Specialising in SEO since 2013 Founder-led from first call