Google Business Profile
Claimed, complete, correctly categorised and actually posted to. The single biggest lever in local search, and the one most businesses set up once and never open again.
Local SEO
SEO in St Helens
Local search for St Helens businesses. Getting you into the map pack and the results under it, so people looking for what you do in this town actually find you.
The problem
Ranking first is not the same as being found
Search for almost any trade or service in St Helens and Google puts three map results above everything else, with a map next to them. Those three take most of the clicks before a single normal result is read.
The map pack is not decided by the same things as the normal results. It is your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your address and how consistent your details are everywhere else.
So a site can sit at position one in the normal results and still be the fourth thing on the page. That is the situation most St Helens businesses are actually in, and it is why a technical audit on its own would miss it entirely.
It also cuts the other way. A business with a thin website and a well kept profile often beats a better site that has ignored the profile completely.
What I do here
Four things that move local rankings
Local landing pages
A real page for each area you serve, with content that is genuinely different. Twelve pages with the town name swapped is a doorway, and Google treats it as one.
Reviews and citations
A steady flow of reviews rather than ten in one week, and your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear. Inconsistency here quietly costs you the map pack.
Technical foundations
Speed, crawlability and structured data, so the rest of the work is not wasted on a site Google struggles to read in the first place.
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. Warrington is fifteen minutes down the road and the same approach applies here.
Areas I cover
Nearby towns I also cover
Same work, same standard. If you are just outside St Helens I am still local to you.
Wigan
Local search for trades and services across Wigan.
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 St Helens
Building the site rather than ranking it.
Have a look
Also covering Prescot, Rainhill, Haydock, Billinge, Newton-le-Willows and Ashton-in-Makerfield.
Common questions
Local SEO, answered plainly
Do I need a physical address in St Helens?
For the map pack, yes. Google wants a real address in the area, and it verifies it by posting you a card.
If you work from home you can hide the address and show a service area instead, which is what most trades round here do. What you cannot do is use a virtual office or a mailbox. Google has got very good at spotting those, and a suspended profile is a much worse problem than not having one.
How long does local SEO take in a town this size?
Faster than a national campaign, because there is less to beat.
A claimed and properly filled in Google Business Profile can move within weeks. Reviews and consistent details take a couple of months to tell. Getting the website itself ranking for the town takes longer, usually three to six months, because that is competing against businesses who have been there for years.
Anybody promising you the map pack in thirty days is either lucky or lying.
What if I cover St Helens but I am based outside it?
That is common and it is workable, but be straight about it.
You will struggle in the St Helens map pack without an address in St Helens, because that is what the map pack is for. What you can do is rank in the normal results for St Helens searches, with a page that genuinely covers the town rather than one that swaps the name in. That is the difference between a page Google keeps and a page it quietly stops showing.
Is St Helens actually competitive for this?
Less than Liverpool or Manchester, which is the opportunity.
Most of the local trades and services here have a Google profile nobody has touched since it was created, no reviews worth reading, and a website that has never been looked at properly. The bar is low. That is not a criticism of them, it is just where the work is.
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 St Helens?
Book a call and I will look at your profile and your site, and tell you which of the two is actually holding you back.
Book a call (opens in a new tab)