Google Business Profile
Claimed, complete, correctly categorised and posted to. In a town this size it is what separates the three businesses in the map pack from everybody underneath them.
Local SEO
SEO in Wigan
Local search for Wigan businesses. A bigger town than the ones around it, which means more competition in the map pack and more to be won by getting it right.
The problem
A bigger town is a harder map pack
Wigan is large enough that most trades already have somebody established in the three map results, and those three take the clicks before a normal result is read. That is a higher bar than the smaller towns around it.
It also has a real town centre and a spread of outlying areas, so a search from Standish and a search from Ashton can return different businesses for the same words.
So the useful question is not "how do I rank in Wigan", it is which parts of Wigan you can realistically win and whether the jobs there are worth having.
That is a decision worth making before any money is spent, and it is the first thing I would look at rather than something I would sell you around.
What I do here
Four things that move local rankings
Area by area pages
Wigan is not one place. Standish, Ashton, Hindley and Orrell can each return different results, and a page that says something real about each is worth more than one that lists them.
Reviews and citations
A steady flow of reviews, and your name, address and phone identical everywhere. In a competitive map pack this is often the whole difference.
Technical foundations
Speed, crawlability and structured data, so the rest is not wasted on a site Google struggles to read.
Nearby result
+101%
Non branded organic clicks for Camcoat Performance Coatings in Warrington, over six months
Branded searches stayed flat over the same period, so the growth came entirely from people who did not already know the name.
Areas I cover
Nearby towns I also cover
Same work, same standard, across this side of the region.
St Helens
The town I am based in, and know best.
Have a look
Warrington
Technical and local SEO across Warrington.
Have a look
Widnes
Local search across Widnes and Runcorn.
Have a look
Web design in Wigan
Building the site rather than ranking it.
Have a look
Also covering Standish, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Orrell and Leigh.
Common questions
Answered plainly
Will I show up in the map pack outside my own town?
Usually not, and it is better to know that now.
The map pack is tied to where you actually are. If your address is in one town you will struggle to appear in the three map results for the next one along, however good your website is.
What you can do is rank in the normal results underneath, which is a real source of work and is what a proper page for that town is for.
How many reviews do I actually need?
Enough to look like a going concern, and arriving steadily rather than all at once.
Ten genuine reviews spread over a year beats thirty that appeared in a fortnight, because the second pattern is what review farms look like and Google knows it.
What matters more than the count is that they are recent, that they mention what you actually did, and that you reply to them.
Is it worth doing if I only cover a small area?
Often it is worth more, not less.
A small area means fewer businesses competing for the same searches, so the work needed to get to the top of them is smaller. The trade is that there are fewer searches to win, so it only pays if the jobs are worth something.
If your average job is a few hundred pounds and up, the numbers usually work.
What happens if I move premises?
Tell me before you do, not after.
Your address is one of the strongest signals in local search, and changing it resets some of what you have built. It is manageable, but it needs the profile, the website and every directory listing changing together.
Done piecemeal it leaves you with conflicting addresses across the internet, which is the single most common reason a profile quietly stops ranking.
What clients say
In their words, not mine.
The level of detail and commitment Aaron brings is unmatched. From SEO to design, everything was delivered with precision and care. Our online visibility has never been better.
Aaron’s work speaks volumes. From start to finish he understood our brand and vision. The end result was a powerful, sleek website that truly reflects who we are.
Aaron built the site from scratch and it was the first time the brand actually looked like us online. He handled the design and the build end to end, and I could update it myself afterwards without going back to him every time.
We use Aaron for development we would rather not hand to a junior. The work comes back the way it was specced, on the date he said, and it goes out under our name without us having to check it twice.
Aaron set up the shop and the tracking, and explained what was worth doing and what was not. He was straight about where the money was better spent, which is not what you usually get.
Want to be found in Wigan?
Book a call and I will tell you which parts of Wigan you can realistically win, and whether it is worth the money.
Book a call (opens in a new tab)