Local SEO can feel overwhelming. There’s your Google Business Profile, reviews, listings, website pages, content and links, all on top of running your business. The key is not doing everything at once. It’s doing the right things in the right order.
That’s where a 30 60 90 day marketing plan comes in. This plan breaks local SEO into three simple phases, so you know exactly what to focus on each month. It works for brick-and-mortar stores and service-based businesses alike, and you can start it any time of year.
What We’ll Cover
- What Is a 30 60 90 Day Marketing Plan for Local SEO?
- Before You Start: Set Your Goals and Baseline
- Days 1 to 30: Build Your Local SEO Foundation
- Days 31 to 60: Optimize Your Website and Content
- Days 61 to 90: Build Authority and Momentum
- How to Measure Your Progress at Day 90
- What Comes After Day 90?
- Tips for Sticking to Your Plan
1. What Is a 30 60 90 Day Marketing Plan for Local SEO?
A 30 60 90 day marketing plan is a roadmap that breaks your marketing into three 30-day phases. Each phase builds on the one before it:
- Days 1 to 30: Fix the foundation, like your Google Business Profile, listings and tracking.
- Days 31 to 60: Improve your website, pages and content so Google and customers understand what you offer.
- Days 61 to 90: Build authority with links, reviews and ongoing content, and keep the momentum going.
Local SEO is the process of helping your business show up when people nearby search for what you offer, in Google Search, Google Maps and AI search tools. A 90 day SEO plan keeps that work organized, so you make steady progress instead of jumping between tasks.
2. Before You Start: Set Your Goals and Baseline
Before you change anything, write down where you are today. That way, at day 90, you’ll know exactly what improved.
Pick one or two goals. For example:
- Show up in the map pack for your top 3 services
- Get more calls or bookings from Google
- Increase reviews from 5 a month to 15 a month
- Drive more foot traffic to your store
Record your starting numbers. Note your current calls, direction requests and website clicks from your Google Business Profile, your website traffic from Google Search Console, your map pack rankings for your top keywords, and your total number of reviews and average rating.
Run a quick audit. A local SEO audit shows you what’s broken and what to prioritize. You can also book a free Google audit call with our team, and we’ll point out your biggest opportunities.
3. Days 1 to 30: Build Your Local SEO Foundation
The first 30 days aren’t the most exciting part of local SEO, but they’re the most important. If your basic business information is wrong or incomplete, everything else you do will be less effective.
Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Claim and verify your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already. Then complete every section: your primary and secondary categories, services, hours, holiday hours, description, attributes, website link and booking link. Add real photos of your storefront, team and work. Avoid choosing the wrong Google Business categories, since it’s one of the most common ranking mistakes.
Clean Up Your Business Listings
Make sure your business name, address and phone number (often called NAP) are exactly the same everywhere online, including Yelp, Facebook, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places and industry directories. Keep a simple checklist of every listing so you can update them all quickly when something changes. Here’s how to fix your NAP and fix duplicate business listings.
Start a Review System
Don’t wait until day 60 to start collecting reviews. Set up a simple system now to ask every customer for a review, and respond to every review you get. Here are tips to get more positive reviews.
Set Up Tracking
Make sure Google Search Console and Google Analytics are set up and tracking key actions, like form submissions, calls and bookings. You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
Fix Quick Technical Issues
Check that your website works well on phones, loads quickly and has no broken pages. Most local customers will find you on their phones, and a slow or hard-to-use site sends them straight to a competitor. Check your Core Web Vitals in Search Console for speed and usability issues.
4. Days 31 to 60: Optimize Your Website and Content
With your foundation in place, it’s time to make sure your website clearly tells Google and customers what you do and where you do it. By the end of this 60 day SEO plan checkpoint, your most important pages should be fully optimized.
Do Local Keyword Research
Find the words your customers actually use to search for your services, like “emergency plumber in Chula Vista” or “best brunch in North Park.” Our guide to keyword research techniques for local SEO walks you through it.
Optimize Your Key Pages
Start with your homepage and most important service pages. For each one:
- Keep the URL short and descriptive
- Write a unique title tag with the service and your city
- Use clear headings that include your main keywords naturally
- Write a meta description that explains the page and includes a call to action
- Make sure the page content answers the questions customers actually have
Add Service and Location Pages
Every main service needs its own page, so it can rank for that service. If you serve several cities or have multiple locations, create a helpful page for each area with real, unique information, like directions, local photos, team members and testimonials from customers in that area. Here’s how to build service area pages the right way.
Improve Your Internal Linking
Link your pages together in a way that makes sense. Your homepage should link to your service pages, your blog posts should link to related services, and your location pages should link to the services offered there. This helps visitors find what they need and helps search engines understand how your pages connect.
Add Local Business Schema
Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand your business details, like your name, address, phone number and hours. Here’s how to add local business schema to your website.
5. Days 61 to 90: Build Authority and Momentum
The last 30 days are about showing Google that your business is active, trusted and well known in your community.
Earn Local Links and Mentions
Links from other local websites tell Google your business is legitimate. Sponsor a local event, partner with complementary businesses, join your chamber of commerce or get featured in local news. Here are 15 ways to build local backlinks, plus community outreach ideas for local businesses that can lead to natural mentions.
Publish Helpful Local Content
Your customers are a great source of content ideas. What questions do they ask over and over? Turn those into blog posts, videos or FAQ sections. You can also write about local events, seasonal tips or projects you’ve completed in your area. Plan it out with a local SEO content calendar so you keep publishing after day 90.
Stay Active on Your Google Business Profile and Social Media
Post updates, offers and events on your Google Business Profile, add new photos regularly and keep responding to reviews. Use social media to share your content, connect with locals and promote events. Businesses that depend on visitors, like attractions, tours and restaurants, should also stay active on platforms like TripAdvisor and Yelp. Here are more social media strategies for local businesses.
Review What’s Working
Check your numbers against the baseline you recorded before day 1. Which pages are getting more traffic? Which keywords moved up? Where are calls and bookings coming from? Use what you learn to plan your next 90 days.
6. How to Measure Your Progress at Day 90
At the end of your 30 60 90 day marketing plan, compare these numbers to where you started:
- Google Business Profile actions: Calls, direction requests, website clicks and bookings
- Map pack rankings: Where you show up for your top keywords in different parts of your service area
- Website traffic from Google: Clicks and impressions in Google Search Console
- Leads: Form submissions, calls and bookings from your website
- Reviews: How many new reviews you got and your average rating
- Listings: How many listings are now accurate and consistent
Don’t panic if every number hasn’t jumped yet. Some changes show up quickly, like a more complete Google Business Profile, while others take months to build. Here’s how to read an SEO report so you know what the numbers mean.
7. What Comes After Day 90?
Local SEO isn’t a one-time project. Your competitors keep improving, Google keeps changing, and your business keeps growing. After day 90, start your next plan:
- Keep the habits going, like asking for reviews, posting updates and publishing content
- Expand to more service pages, locations or keywords
- Fix anything your day 90 review showed wasn’t working
- Set new goals for the next quarter
Wondering if you’ll ever be able to take a break? Here’s what to know about when you can stop doing local SEO.
8. Tips for Sticking to Your Plan
- Don’t try to do it all at once. Pick a few tasks each week. Small, steady progress beats a burst of work followed by months of nothing.
- Block time on your calendar. Even an hour or two a week adds up over 90 days.
- Get your team involved. Your front desk can ask for reviews, and your staff can share photos and content ideas.
- Remember the customer experience. Local SEO brings people through your door, but your team keeps them coming back. A well-trained staff that delivers a great experience is what turns new customers into loyal ones.
- Get help if you need it. If you’d rather focus on running your business, a local SEO partner can handle the plan for you.
Prefer to go day by day? Our 24-day DIY local SEO checklist gives you one small task for each day.
Robert & Liz, RebelFish Local CoFounders, doing local volunteer work.
We are RebelFish Local and are here to help you with all your SEO needs. Download our free resource for 5 Hacks That Will Get You On Page 1 Of Google today, and start climbing to the top of Google!