11 Steps that I Choose to Build a Foundation & Scale Local Business with Example

Can I give you more personalized advice on what’s working and what’s not?

With the words like generative AI, AIO (Artificial intelligence optimization) , GEO (generative engine optimization), things become complex for the digital world.

It’s the time where 95% of the early age founders & startup are unsure about the way they're heading to!

But let me redefine this- How & what should be the planning to initiate it?

Let me take an example that you have just started plumbing business in California.

Now, being a new business, we have to tackle 4-things:

1. No Brand Awareness
2. Highly Competitive Market
3. Limited Marketing budget
4. Poor local Visibility

so to counter these challenges, here are the steps that I personally follow:

1. Market Research: Understanding Your Target Audience

Research shows that understanding customer needs is crucial for any business growth strategy.

For plumbers, the key target audience often includes homeowners, landlords, property managers, and commercial building owners.

Customer Demographics:

• Homeowners aged 30-60 typically search for services related to home repairs, including plumbing.
• Property managers and landlords need plumbing services for maintenance and emergency repairs.
• Commercial property owners often require large-scale plumbing installation and maintenance.

Customer Pain Points:

• Emergency repairs (e.g., burst pipes, clogged drains)
• Routine maintenance and inspections
• Water heater installation and repair
• Cost transparency and service reliability

Okay, so being specialized as a plumber or being present in that local area, you can directly as your ongoing customers and can conduct household/ commercial level surveys or analyze online reviews to identify the problems in much better way.

Once, you understand specific customer pain points in your area, you got to acknowledge it and then, work on it.

2. Keyword Research and Strategy

Now, have a excel file listing keywords around the services that you offer along with the city/county that you serve in.

• Primary Keyword: “Plumbers in California”
• Related Keywords: Identify long-tail keywords like “emergency plumbers/ 24 hour plumber in California,” “affordable plumbers in California,” “licensed plumbers in California,” etc.
• Local Keywords: Target city-specific terms like "Plumbers in Los Angeles," "Plumbers in San Francisco," or other cities in California.
• Specific Problem related keywords like water heater repair in california, clogged drain repairs in los angeles

To find out these types of keywords, we can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz.

& These tool will also help us to do competitor analysis.

3. Competitor Analysis

Usually, I tell every other marketer that you can learn best of the best from your competitors. How?

• Analyze the top competitors currently ranking for the "Plumbers in California" keyword.
• What are they good/bad at?
• Identify the content gaps, backlink strategies, and technical SEO strengths.
• Pay attention to their Google My Business (GMB) profiles, on-page SEO, and user experience.

Till now, you will be able to figure out your own unique value proposition - what exactly you can offer either it's the top notch service, faster response time or affordable solutions.

I've one for you.

4. Building an Emergency Response Strategy

Research shows that customers are more likely to hire a service provider who can respond quickly in emergency situations. Plumbing emergencies often require immediate action, and businesses that offer 24/7 services have a higher likelihood of converting leads.

• Emergency Service Marketing: Emphasize 24/7 availability in all marketing materials, including your website, Google Ads, and GMB listing. Highlight fast response times and customer testimonials related to emergency services.

5. Create & Optimize Google My Business (GMB) Profile

Initially, you create your GMB profile and make sure to add everything that required to your audience such as the locations you service in california, NAP details, relevant photos, regular post and getting reviews.

• Claim and Verify: Ensure you have claimed and verified your Google My Business profile for every location you service in California.
• Complete Information: Add accurate and consistent business details such as:

Business name

Address (with California locations if available)

Phone number (NAP consistency is crucial)

Website URL

Service

hours

Category (choose "Plumber")

• Photos & Reviews: Add photos while working at your work, photo with the client, post that on your google map listing and then encourage your customers to leave reviews. Respond promptly to all reviews (positive or negative).
• Service Area: Clearly define the service areas within California you cover.
• Regular Posts: Use GMB to post updates, offers, and articles.

6. Create a Professional Website:

Again, I take the help of my competitors - how they showcase their services or I come up with my own plan such as

"sharing a visuals flow chart that how would it be to have us on board"

for example: A website that showcase a client booking an appointment on call/online described about the plumbing related problem and then a plumber got assigned with in 2 minutes and in next 20 minutes to 1 hour (depending on how far is the location), plumber is reaching out to the place.

Meanwhile, if possible, he shared 1 or 2 temporary solutions to actually solve the emergency part.

Isn't it great?

Editorial Calendar

Now, based on my keyword research, I will prepare editorial calendar to mention the required working along with the timeline.

While doing this, I will ensure your website showcases your brand effectively with clear messaging, easy navigation, and professional design.

I will Include FAQ, testimonials, case studies, and certifications to build credibility.

Service Area Pages:

Created separate location-specific service pages for each city with highly localized content. For example, "Plumbing Services in Los Angeles" included details about specific neighborhoods and communities, as well as customer reviews from that area to build trust.

Blog/Vlog Section

Write blog posts or create video that address plumbing issues specific to California (e.g., "Common Plumbing Problems in California Homes, seasonal maintenance advice").

Note: 70% of the local business based website forgot about NAP consistency. It has to be same like your GMB listing.

7. Local Directories & Citation Websites | Building Backlinks

Not all the directory or citation websites are good so it's necessary to check them before building your profile out there.

Citation Building:

Having your business listed on local directories such as Yelp, Angi, HomeAdvisor, and others improves local SEO. Studies have shown that businesses with accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) information across multiple directories have better search rankings.

Local backlinks:

Even, you can target local businesses such as listing yourself on the electrician based service provider website in california.

And then there are so many strategies like niche backlinks, guest posting etc.

SEO is the foundation and If you are getting result organically, it's a time to go beyond and look for the PPC/SMM model.

8. Digital Advertising (PPC & Social Media)

Research conducted by WordStream shows that businesses earn $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads.

Paid advertising allows plumbers to target users searching for urgent services, such as “emergency plumbers near me.”

• Google Ads: Target high-intent keywords like “emergency plumbing,” “24/7 plumber,” and specific services like “water heater installation.” Focus on geotargeting to make sure ads are only shown to users within your service area.
• Social Media Advertising: Facebook Ads can be effective for local businesses by allowing hyper-targeted campaigns based on location, demographics, and even behavior. Research shows that local service ads on Facebook can achieve up to a 9.21% click-through rate (CTR).

So you may start with the allocated small budget to run ads, highly targeted PPC campaigns and measure results using conversion tracking tools like Google Analytics.

9. Customer Retention and Loyalty Programs

Research by Bain & Company reveals that increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25-95%. Retaining existing customers is far more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

• Loyalty Programs: Implement a loyalty or referral program where customers receive discounts or free services for recommending your plumbing business to others.
• Follow-Up Services: After completing a job, offer customers an annual plumbing inspection at a discounted rate. Regular follow-ups keep your business top of mind and encourage repeat business.

Use automated CRM tools like HubSpot or Mailchimp to keep track of customer interactions and set up reminders for annual service offers.

Implemented an automated email system to follow up with customers post-service, thanking them and encouraging them to leave reviews. Customers were also asked to schedule annual maintenance, driving repeat business.

I find it helpful for creating brand recall value & then a client is in need, they call you straight-forward.

10. Online Reviews and Reputation Management

According to research by BrightLocal, 91% of consumers read online reviews before contacting a local service provider, and businesses with positive reviews are trustworthy to 82% of potential customers.

• Encourage Reviews: After each job, send follow-up emails or texts requesting a review on platforms like Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Offer small incentives, such as a discount on future services, to encourage reviews.
• Responding to Reviews: Respond to both positive and negative reviews. Studies show that businesses that respond to reviews earn 33% more revenue on average than those that do not.

11. Utilizing Technology to Improve Service

Implementing technology to streamline operations can help your plumbing business run more efficiently and provide better customer service.

• Plumbing Management Software: Software like ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro allows you to manage appointments, track service calls, and provide accurate estimates and invoicing. Research shows that businesses using such tools improve service response times and reduce manual errors.
• Online Booking Systems: Implementing an online scheduling system on your website can allow customers to book services easily. Research from Accenture shows that 55% of consumers prefer to interact with businesses digitally.

Invest in a plumbing CRM that integrates with your website, allowing customers to request quotes and book appointments directly.

Conclusion - Use of AI in Growing Local Business

Okay so you can take the help of chatGPT/Gemini for content creations by giving such commands

"Consider yourself as an SEO specialist and generate detailed, localized service pages targeting different cities in California"

and let me know the answer that you got and is it helpful to you or not?

For me, it created 2-3 templates with all the required SEO optimized content including meta descritption, H1, H2 and so on. It can automatically generate FAQ for you.

Natural Language Processing (NLP):

AI can help you generate content that is optimized for conversational queries. This is important for voice search (e.g., “Where can I find an emergency plumber near me?”), which is growing in popularity.

And so on...!

In my next article, I will write about "How we can get benefit from AI to rank any local business"

Till then, let me know - what I missed and please add your experience to this article.