The times they are a-changin’. The foundation isn’t.

You can ask Bob Dylan (“The Times They Are a-Changin’”), or you can ask us. A business has always grown the same way: people see you, they know you exist, and they know you do good work. Then they give you more work, and you get to do more good jobs.

That was true in 1969 and it is true now. Only the tools changed. This map is what it takes today: a customer finds you, decides to trust you and gets in touch, and you measure it and keep it working.

The five areas of a business, man

Each blob is one area of the business. Tap a piece and watch it light up everything it feeds.

Every piece of the map, by stage.

1 Found: Where they first see you

Google Business Profile: The box with your name, map pin, hours, photos and reviews that Google shows when someone searches for you or for your trade nearby.
Google Maps ranking: Where you appear in the map results ("the three on the map") for searches like "plumber near me". It changes from street to street.
Search (SEO): Your website showing in the normal Google results under the map, for the searches your customers make.
AI answers: What ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers, Perplexity and Claude say when someone asks them about your trade in your town.
Directories and listings: Your name, address and phone on Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, trade directories and so on.
Social media: Your Facebook, Instagram or TikTok pages and the posts on them.
Paid ads: Google Ads and Facebook ads that put you on top of the results or in front of people nearby.

2 Trusted: What makes them pick you

Reviews: Star ratings and written reviews on Google and elsewhere, and your replies to them.
Your website: The pages that say what you do, where, for how much and how to get you.
Speed and Lighthouse: How fast your pages load and react. Google’s Lighthouse (in Chrome, or PageSpeed Insights) tests performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO.
Works on phones: Text you can read, buttons you can tap and nothing sliding sideways on a phone screen.
Real photos: Photos of your own jobs, team, vans and premises, not stock pictures.
Security and access: HTTPS, a domain in your own name, logins you control, backups.
Structured data: Hidden labels on your pages that tell search engines your business name, address, hours, services and FAQs.

3 Contacted: How they reach you

Calls: A phone number people can tap from your profile, ads and every page.
Online booking: A calendar where people pick a time themselves, with confirmations and reminders.
Quote and contact forms: Short forms that ask only what you need to give a price.
Missed-call text-back: An automatic text to anyone whose call you miss, with a link to book.
Online shop and payments: Selling online with card payments, stock and shipping connected.

4 Measured: How you know it works

Search Console: Google’s free report on which searches show your site, how often, and which pages are indexed.
Analytics: Counting visits, where they came from and what they did, with the visitor’s consent.
Call and booking tracking: Counting the calls, bookings and forms each source brings.
Map rank checks: Checking where you show on Google Maps from several points across your area, every month.
Competitor watch: Watching the three businesses that beat you: their reviews, profile, pages and ads.

5 Kept up: What keeps it working

Review replies: Answering every review within a couple of days, in your own words.
Posts and new photos: Regular updates and new photos on your profile and social pages.
New pages: A page for each job, area or question customers search for that your site does not answer yet.
Updates and backups: Keeping the site, plugins and hosting up to date and backed up.
Monthly report: One page each month: calls, bookings, reviews, where you rank, and what to do next.