Web & AppsLocal Search
Local SEO in Melbourne
Ruana Soul Studio works on local search for Melbourne businesses: the Google Business Profile, the map pack and the 'near me' queries that end in a phone call or a walk-in. It covers profile setup and optimisation, the categories and service areas you appear under, review handling, local landing pages and the directory listings that have to agree with each other.
Most local searches never scroll past the map.
What every engagement includes
Google Business Profile setup
Claimed, verified and filled in properly — categories, service areas, hours, attributes and the description. The unglamorous part that decides whether you appear at all.
Category and service-area strategy
Picking the primary category is the single highest-leverage choice in local search, and most profiles get it by accident.
Photos that do work
A profile with real images of the place, the team and the work outperforms one with a logo. We shoot them if you need them.
Review handling
How to ask, when to ask, and how to reply — including to the bad ones, which are read more closely than the good ones.
Local landing pages
A page per suburb or service area, written to be useful rather than spun from a template. Thin duplicate pages do more harm than none.
Consistent citations
Name, address and phone made to agree across the directories that matter, because disagreement is a ranking signal in the wrong direction.
Measurement
Calls, direction requests and profile views tracked, so local work is judged on outcomes rather than impressions.
Who it's for
Businesses with a premises
Cafés, studios, salons, clinics and shops, where being found nearby is most of the marketing.
Trades and service-area businesses
Who do not have a shopfront but do have a radius they work within.
Practices and consultancies
Where a local search is how a new client finds their first shortlist.
Multi-location businesses
Where each location needs its own profile and its own page, managed so they do not compete with each other.
How it works
- 01 · AUDIT
The current profile, the competitors appearing above you, and the queries you should be winning.
- 02 · FIX
Categories, information, photos and the listings that disagree.
- 03 · BUILD
Local pages worth landing on, linked properly from the site.
- 04 · SUSTAIN
Reviews, posts and updates, because a profile that stops moving slips.
- 05 · REPORT
Calls and direction requests, not vanity numbers.