Services
Local SEO for Melbourne businesses, built to actually rank
When someone nearby searches for what you do, Google shows three businesses on a map before anything else. Local SEO is the work that gets you into those three: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your listings across the web, and pages that prove you actually serve the areas you say you do.
the problem
You can rank on page one and still be missing from the map
For a search like "accountant near me" or "electrician open now," most people never scroll past the map. Three businesses get the calls, and everyone below them fights over what's left.
Getting into those three is its own game. It runs mostly on your Google Business Profile, your reviews and how consistently your business details appear across the web, not just your website. That's why a business with a great site can still be invisible on the map, while a competitor with a better-kept profile takes the enquiries.
And most profiles are set up once and then forgotten: the wrong primary category, old opening hours, a handful of reviews from three years ago. Google notices, and so do customers.
top AI search visibility factors for local businesses are citations
Whitespark's 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report found that three of the five biggest factors in whether AI search tools recommend a local business are citations: consistent mentions of your business across the web. Listings were treated as old news for a decade. Now they help decide whether AI answers recommend you at all.
Whats included
Everything local SEO covers
Google Business Profile optimisation
The right primary category, services, hours, photos and attributes, all kept current. Your primary category is the single most important field on the profile, and it's the one most often wrong.
Citations and NAP consistency
Your business name, address and phone number, identical across Google, Apple Maps, Bing and Australian directories. Mismatches make Google less sure you're who you say you are.
Map pack strategy
Working out which searches you can realistically win on the map from where you're based, and focusing effort there instead of chasing the whole city.
Review generation, done by the rules
A steady system for asking every customer for a review, built to comply with Google's policies and the ACCC's rules on reviews and incentives.
Service-area pages
Genuinely useful pages for the areas you actually serve, each written for that area. No copy-paste suburb pages that Google treats as spam.
Local rank tracking
Grid tracking that shows where you appear on the map across the areas you serve, not just from one spot.
Three things decide who shows up on the map
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Here's what that means in practice, including the part nobody can change.
Relevance
How well your profile and website match the search. This is the most controllable factor: categories, services, descriptions and on-site content. It's usually where the quickest wins are.
Distance
How far you are from the person searching. You can't change it, and anyone promising top map spots across all of Melbourne from one address is overselling. What you can do is win clearly in the areas closest to you, and build pages for the areas you genuinely serve.
Popularity
How well known and trusted your business looks: reviews, how recent they are, mentions across the web and links from local sites. It takes the longest to build and is the hardest for competitors to copy.
how it works
From local audit to monthly map tracking
Fix the foundations first, then build the reviews and signals that move you up the map month by month.
01
Local audit
Your profile, citations, reviews and current map rankings across the areas you serve, compared with the three businesses currently beating you.
02
Fix and verify
Correct categories, clean up inconsistent listings, and make sure everything about your business says the same thing everywhere.
03
Reviews and local content
Set up a compliant review system and publish pages for the areas you actually serve.
04
Track and refine
Monthly map tracking and reporting on calls, direction requests and website clicks from your profile, so you see enquiries, not just rankings.
See our full pricing guide →
Local SEO is part of the all-inclusive SEO package, from $1,000 a month, month to month. There's no separate local fee and no tier where it's left out. Businesses with several locations are quoted case by case.
What local SEO includes, and what it costs
A profile you set up once, or local SEO done every month
Most Google Business Profiles get set up once and then left alone. Here's how that compares with local SEO that keeps working after the setup.
A profile set up once and left alone
The primary category gets picked at setup and never revisited, even as your services change.
Reviews only arrive when customers remember, so your newest one might be months old.
Your name, address and phone number drift out of date across directories every time something changes.
Web design and SEO from Troov
Categories, services and details are reviewed regularly against what nearby customers actually search for.
Every customer gets asked the same way, so fresh reviews keep coming in, within Google's and the ACCC's rules.
Your business details are kept identical everywhere they appear, so Google trusts the listing.
Who we work with
Supporting established service businesses across Melbourne.
Accounting & Financial Services
Your clients trust you with their finances. Your website should reflect that same level of professionalism. We build and manage online presences for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and financial planners who want to attract quality clients without lifting a finger on the digital side.
Landscaping & Trades
You're busy on site. The last thing you need is another thing to manage. We handle your website, social content, and Google profile so your online presence keeps working while you're out on the tools.
Legal & Professional Services
First impressions matter in law. We design websites that communicate credibility and trust from the first scroll, then keep them updated with fresh content and strong local visibility.
Medical & Allied Health
Patients are searching for you online before they ever pick up the phone. We make sure what they find is professional, up to date, and easy to navigate across every device.
Every client gets a website designed around their business, not a template with their logo dropped in. And every client gets ongoing management as standard, because a website that isn't maintained is a website that falls behind.
Only need one half?
A new website is the starting point. If you want someone looking after it and growing it month to month, that's a separate service.
Can I pay Google to rank higher on Maps?
No. Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. You can pay for ads that appear above or inside the map results, but that's advertising, not local SEO, and it stops the day you stop paying.
Can I offer customers a discount for leaving a review?
Only on strict terms. The ACCC says any incentive has to apply whether the review is positive or negative, and the review has to disclose it was incentivised. Google's own policies go further and don't allow incentivised reviews on Google at all. The safe approach is to ask every customer for honest feedback, with no reward attached.
Can I just ask my happy customers for reviews?
No. Only asking customers you expect to be happy is known as review gating, and Google has banned it on Business Profiles since 2018. We set up a system that asks every customer the same way, which keeps your profile safe and your reviews believable.
I don't have a shopfront. Can I still show up on Google Maps?
Yes. Service-area businesses, like trades and mobile services, can hide their address and list the areas they serve instead. Distance is still measured from your verified location, though, so you'll rank most strongly near your base.
Do Google Business Profile posts help my ranking?
Probably not directly. In a nine-week controlled test tracking 441 keywords, Sterling Sky found no ranking movement from posts. They can still help people choose you once they've found you, so we use them for that, not as a ranking tactic.
Get in touch
Want to see where you actually show up on the map?
Send through your business name and we'll show you where you appear on Google Maps across the areas you serve, and what's keeping you out of the top three.
