Guides
Plain-language help for local business owners on getting found online and keeping your marketing going.
How much time do you have?
Topic
Start here
Not sure where to begin? Pick one and follow it, one step at a time.
Get found on Google
Claim your listing, fill it in, add photos and check how it shows up.
Build a review habit
Ask for reviews, get more of them and answer every one.
Start a posting habit you can keep
Give every post a job, pick a pace you can hold, know what to post and plan your first 90 days.
Before you hire anyone
Know what marketing costs and what to ask before you pay.
Your Google profile
Claim it, fill it in and keep it right.
Check How Your Business Shows Up on Google, and Fix What Is Wrong
A 20 minute check of what customers actually see when they search for you, plus how to handle duplicate profiles, wrong details and someone else's listing.
How to Choose Your Google Categories, Services and Service Area
Pick the right primary category, add your services, and set a service area or hide your address, with the exact clicks and Google's own rules.
How to Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile
Step by step: find out if your business already has a Google profile, claim it or create one, pick a verification method and fix the usual snags.
How to Write Your Google Business Description
What goes in the 750 character description on your Google profile, what to leave out, a fill-in outline, and a prompt to get a clean first draft from AI.
Check Your Hours Before the Holidays
Write your holiday hours once, then update five places: Google, Facebook, Instagram, your website and your directories. Includes the exact steps for Google special hours.
Which Photos to Put on Your Google Listing
Real photos beat clever captions. Which photos to add to your Google listing first, the exact steps, the file sizes Google accepts and what to skip.
How to Set Up a Google Business Profile
A step by step checklist for setting up a Google Business Profile: claim it, verify it, fill in every section and keep it accurate. Links to a detailed guide for each step.
Getting found nearby
What helps people near you find you on Google.
How to Write a Service Page That Answers Your Customers
One page for each main service, with a plain layout, real questions and a clear next step. Includes an outline, a check list and a prompt to get a first draft.
Local Search in Plain Words
How Google picks local results, in plain words: relevance, distance and prominence. What each one means and the exact steps you can take this week.
Make Your Name, Address and Phone Number Match Everywhere
Small differences in your business name, address or phone number confuse customers and search. Make a master copy, then check each place in about an hour.
Website or Google Listing: Which Matters More?
Which matters more for a local business, your website or your Google listing? Both, in that order. A one afternoon check of each, and how to make them agree.
How to Get Found on Google as a Local Business
A step by step order of work for getting found on Google as a local business: your profile, matching details, photos, reviews, a website that backs it up, and steady posting.
Reviews
Ask for them, answer them and make it a habit.
How to Answer a Google Review, Good or Bad
A simple way to answer Google reviews in three lines, how to reply calmly to a bad review, and a prompt for drafting replies with AI without making things up.
How to Ask for a Google Review Without Feeling Awkward
Exact words for asking customers for a Google review, the right moment to ask, how to get your review link, and the one rule that matters most.
How to Get More Google Reviews
A simple system for getting more Google reviews: get your review link and QR code, put them where customers are, ask every time and answer every review.
Posting and content
What to post, how often, and how to keep it going.
Give Every Post One Job: Plan a Week of Posts in 30 Minutes
The six jobs a small business post can do, how to give each post one, match jobs to your week, end every post with a next step and check what worked.
How to Set Up Facebook and Instagram for Your Business
Create a Facebook Page, switch Instagram to a professional account, connect the two, and fill in every detail so it matches your Google profile and website.
How to Use AI to Write Your Marketing Without It Making Things Up
Build a one page facts sheet, give it to any AI chat tool with one rule, and check the draft. A simple way to get posts, replies and pages that are true.
A 90 Day Posting Plan You Can Copy
A simple 90 day posting plan for small businesses: pick three themes, rotate them week by week, start with one post a week, then look back and adjust.
Nothing to Say? Post One of These Seven
Seven post ideas for any week when you have nothing to say, a fill-in line for each, and how to pick a posting pace you can actually keep.
What to Post on Your Google Business Profile
Four things worth posting on your Google Business Profile, the exact steps to publish one, how often to post and an honest answer on whether posting helps.
How Often Should a Small Business Post on Social Media?
How often a small business should post on social media: pick a pace you can hold, a simple schedule by time available, and how to batch your posts in one sitting.
What to Write on a Small Business Blog
Topic ideas for a small business blog and a step by step way to write one article in about an hour, with a prompt for a first draft.
Plan and check your results
A simple plan, and a quick way to see what is working.
Check Your Own Marketing in 30 Minutes a Week
Five questions and where to look for each answer, so you can see what is working in about 30 minutes. A simple weekly check with a page to copy.
How to Review Your Own Marketing Every 90 Days
Pick what to count, write it down weekly, ask people how they found you, then look back each quarter and plan the next one in 20 minutes.
How to Tell If a Change to Your Marketing Worked
Change one thing, write down the date, give it time, then compare before and after. A plain way for a local business to tell what helped.
What a Real 90 Day Plan Looks Like, With a Sample
The four steps of a 90 day marketing plan (plan, do, check, adjust), why a quarter beats a month, a labeled sample, and how to write your own in about 30 minutes.
For your type of business
Plans for restaurants, salons and home service pros.
Marketing a Restaurant in the West Valley
A step by step plan for West Valley restaurants: get your Google hours right, make reviews easy to leave, show the real place and plan posts for the slow weeks.
Marketing a Salon, Spa or Esthetician Business
Five habits for salons, spas and estheticians, with steps: pick the right Google categories, list services, share work with permission, rebook clients and fill slow days.
Marketing an Electrician, Plumber or HVAC Company
A step by step plan for home service pros: set up your Google listing with a service area, list each service, use before and after photos and keep your hours honest.
Before you spend money
What things cost, and what to ask before you pay anyone.
What an SEO Audit Is, and What to Ask Before You Pay for One
An SEO audit is a checklist review of your site. Here is what one covers, what it cannot promise, and the questions to ask before paying anyone.
What Marketing Really Costs for a Local Business
Four places the money and time go when you market a local business, why a cheap post tool is not the whole job, and what Grid Pulse Media charges.
These guides cover the everyday parts of marketing a local business: setting up and keeping your Google Business Profile accurate, getting found when customers search nearby, asking for and answering reviews, deciding how often to post, and knowing what to write on your blog. Each one is written for owners who are short on time, with plain steps you can act on this week.
If you would rather not do any of it yourself, Grid Pulse Media plans, writes and posts all of this for you on a 90-day plan. See what we run for you or get started.