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Local and B2B SEO

Most SEO advice was written for  informational websites. If you sell to other businesses or serve customers in a specific area, that advice usually does not apply. Local buyers search with geographic intent. B2B buyers search by product spec, industry term, or supplier name. Getting either of these right starts with understanding how your actual customers search, not what the standard playbook says.

Why This Is Different

Generic SEO treats every business the same. A hydraulics distributor, a facilities company, and a home remodeling contractor do not have the same buyers, the same search behavior, or the same competition.

B2B buyers often know exactly what they want. They search by product code, application, or industry term. Consumer-facing keyword strategies miss them entirely.

Local buyers search with intent and proximity in mind. Ranking well in maps and local results requires a different set of signals than ranking in standard organic search.

She has worked in industrial distribution, facilities management, and home services. She understands how buyers in those industries search and what gets them to pick up the phone.

What This Includes

For local businesses:

  • Google Business Profile setup and optimization
  • Location pages built to rank for city and neighborhood searches
  • Local citation building and consistency across directories
  • Multi-location SEO
  • Map pack and near me optimization

For B2B businesses:

  • Keyword research based on how buyers and procurement teams actually search
  • Product and service page optimization for industry-specific terms
  • Technical SEO for sites that have not been updated in years
  • Content strategy for long sales cycles and multiple decision makers
  • SEO audits and ongoing reporting

How I Work

I start with how the business gets found today. Most businesses have more organic presence than they realize, and most of it is pointed at the wrong terms or the wrong locations.

After that I look at the gap between how the business describes itself and how customers actually search for it. Those two things are usually further apart than anyone expects.

From there I work through fixes in order of impact. For local businesses that typically means the Google Business Profile and location pages first. For B2B it usually means the core product or service pages and the industry-specific terms they are not currently ranking for.

Right Fit / Not Right Fit

Works well for:

  • Local service businesses with one or more locations
  • B2B companies selling to businesses, not consumers
  • Industrial, distribution, facilities, trades, and home service businesses
  • Companies where the competition is local or regional

    Not the right approach for:

    • National ecommerce stores competing at scale
    • Businesses with no physical location or defined service area
    • Companies that need ecommerce SEO — that is a different set of tactics covered on the eCommerce SEO page

    Featured Work

    What I Work With

    SEO touches every layer of a website. Here’s where my hands-on experience lives:

    • Keyword Research & Strategy — finding the terms your audience actually uses and building a content plan around them
    • On-Page Optimization — titles, meta descriptions, headers, internal linking, and content structure that search engines and readers both love
    • Technical SEO — site speed, crawlability, schema markup, and fixing the issues that hold rankings back
    • SEO for eCommerce — product page optimization, category structure, and driving organic traffic that converts
    • Local SEO — optimizing for geographic searches and Google Business Profile to capture nearby customers
    • Content & Blogging — writing and structuring articles that rank, inform, and build authority over time
    • SEO Audits & Reporting — measuring what’s working, identifying gaps, and tracking progress with the right tools

    Does Any Of This Sound Familiar

    • You rank for your company name but almost nothing else
    • You have two or three locations but only one shows up in local search
    • A national directory or chain is outranking you for searches in your own city
    • Your B2B buyers search by product spec or application and you are nowhere in those results
    • Customers say they found you through a referral but you suspect they searched first
    • Your site gets traffic but it is not the right people

    Let’s Connect

    I’m open to new marketing opportunities and always up for a good conversation over coffee.

    If you’re looking for a marketing professional who can hit the ground running, let’s talk.

    Contact Cathy Gray

    Areas of Expertise

    Digital Marketing
    Full Stack Marketer
    Local SEO & SEO
    eCommerce SEO
    Customer Journey
    Customer Experience

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