SEO is real work. It's just not a secret.
Most small business owners we meet are paying somebody every month for "SEO." When we ask what they get for it, the answer is usually a report they don't read and a bill they're afraid to cancel.
Good people do this work well, and some jobs really do need a pro. But for a local business, the core of it is a short list of things done every month by someone who actually knows the business. That someone should be you, with an assistant doing the heavy lifting.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. This is the bite-sized version.
What this won't do: promise you a ranking. Nobody can honestly promise that, and Google says so itself. What we can promise is that you'll know exactly what's being done, why, and what it's producing.
Twelve chapters. All of it.
The short list
What actually moves a local business in Google, Bing, Apple Maps and AI assistants in 2026, from the platforms' own published guidance.
- Google Business Profile
- Reviews, every one answered
- Helpful content about real work
- Technical basics, consistent name, address and phone, local links
One-time setup
60 to 90 minutes, once, with exact clicks.
- Business Profile, Search Console, Bing, Apple Business Connect
- Google Analytics
- Your one true name, address and phone record
- Sitemap and search-engine pings
The machine
Eleven jobs your assistant runs, each labeled for how much it does on its own.
- A monthly check-up report on the 1st
- Blogs and case studies from your real jobs
- Weekly Business Profile posts and review replies, drafted
The 30-minute month
The human part, minute by minute, so the whole job fits in half an hour.
- Five numbers to watch
- What to do when each one moves
- A first-90-days plan
The guardrails
The rules that keep your name clean.
- No fake or paid-for reviews (FTC rule, 2024)
- Google's spam policies in plain English
- Own every account yourself
34 prompts
Copy, paste, done. Check-ups, blog briefs, case studies, review replies, listing audits, competitor snapshots.
- Plus what you're usually paying for, what you can own yourself, and when hiring help is worth it
First business day of the month. Half an hour.
Your assistant runs its check-up at 7:00 AM on the 1st and lines everything up. Then it's your turn.
- 3 minRead the check-up report.Five numbers, what moved, three actions.
- 3 minAnswer the assistant's three questions.A job to write up, an upcoming offer or event, anything that changed.
- 10 minApprove and publish this month's article.Fix any fact it flagged for you to confirm, then publish.
- 4 minPaste four Business Profile posts.Scheduled a week apart, written from your real jobs.
- 5 minReviews.Send the ask to last month's customers and post the drafted replies.
- 5 minOne proof piece.Approve a case study with the customer's OK, or send one local-link email.
It does about 95%. You keep your name on your work.
It just runs
- The monthly check-up and report
- The technical audit, and fixes on simple sites it manages
- Keyword and competitor snapshot, quarterly
- The listing check and review count
Why: these only read data. Nothing public changes.
You read it, you click
- Blogs and case studies
- Business Profile posts
- Review requests and replies
- Local-link outreach emails
Why: anything published in your name gets your yes first, and Google only lets approved apps post to a Business Profile, so most people paste. About a minute a post.
Only you can
- Verify and log in to Google, Bing, Apple and Yelp
- Fix a listing that needs your login
- Take the job photos
- Ask for the review, face to face
Why: those platforms check that a real owner is there, on purpose, and a bot should never hold your passwords. And no bot can shake your customer's hand.
We ran it on ourselves first.
Before we handed this kit to anyone, we pointed it at schreiergroup.com, this site. Here's what the check-up found on September 29, 2026.
Blocking issues
Nothing stopping Google from reading the site. 60 pages checked out of 348 in the sitemap on this run.
Lighthouse, mobile
Performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO on the home page. Largest paint in 2.1 seconds, zero layout shift.
It caught our own miss
Most of the pages it checked, our AI Hype Audit verdicts, have no main heading and no share image. It's one template fix, and it's on our list. We're showing it here on purpose.
Search Console wasn't connected for this first run, so the report marked traffic as missing instead of guessing. From here on, this page gets the same monthly check-up the guide describes, and we'll update these numbers after each run. That's the point: if the kit is good enough for our site, it's good enough for yours.
When to hire help anyway
- Google has flagged your site
A manual action in Search Console or a suspended Business Profile. Recovery takes specific experience. - You're moving a big site
A migration done wrong can wipe out years of traffic. - You compete nationally
Not "plumber in Greeley." More like "online mattress store." - You run paid ads
Google and Meta ads are a different skill with real money on the line every day. That's a job for an ads specialist.
Download the guide and start this month.
Questions? Let's talk.
You may have questions about this, and that is exactly how it should be. Read it, share it with your team, then book a time and we'll walk through it together: what to set up first, where your business stands today, and what moving forward looks like.
Book a time: https://cal.com/schreiergroup