Long are the days gone when with a quick SEO fix you can jump on the first page of Google. Local SEO is not what it used to be. There are lots of Google algorithms specifically designed against quick SEO tactics. No matter how big or small the SEO company Google doesn’t want their results manipulated.
SEO still works but it takes more time and experience. For a business to jump from page 3 of Google to page one it takes even more than one year. Yes, you read it right. Years.
Trust carries a lot of weight in local search. Accumulating trust points that give Google confidence the business is real, trusted and really located there takes time.
Local SEO is targeting the right keywords and business category, rankings monitoring, few high quality links and many local citations. This process cannot happen overnight otherwise Google will detect you are trying to manipulate rankings. Getting a single link or citation is not going to move the rankings significantly. There is hardly any single action these days that will make a difference given the complex local search algorithm we have today. BBB, Angie’s list, Yelp, Chamber of Commerce and industry association links boost trust that the business is real and it has a real physical location. The older the link or listing the more trust is gained.
A fake business listing won’t bother with a Business License, County Taxes, BBB listing, and would not even be approved. In local there are all kinds of scams, fake businesses, even companies that try to hijack competitor listings. There are also lots of businesses that try to set up fake listings in different cities just to try to rank.
Quick SEO results are not possible anymore. Google AdWords is the way to go if you’re after quick results.