Map pack or organic results? That is the wrong question. You need to be the obvious local choice in both, and they are won differently.
The Problem
You do better work. You have more experience. You have been in your community longer. But their trucks are everywhere and their project board is full weeks out.
That is not a quality problem. It is a visibility problem.
When a homeowner searches for an HVAC company, a plumber, or a roofer, the contractors who show up in Google Maps, the local pack, and the top of the results get the call. Not the best contractor. The most findable one.
That is exactly what local SEO is built to fix. Based in Asheville, NC, working with contractors nationwide.
The Diagnosis
The question I hear constantly: "We have been in business for 20 years. Why is that new company outranking us?" It is almost never about the quality of the work. Google weighs three things, and most contractors have never actively managed any of them.
How well Google can tell what you actually do. A profile that says "contractor" competes with everyone; one that says what you specialise in competes with far fewer.
Where you are relative to the searcher. The one signal you cannot change, which is exactly why the other two have to be built properly.
How well known and well cited you are. Reviews, local links, and consistent listings. This is where twenty years of reputation should be paying off, and usually isn't.
Referrals and reputation build a great business. They do not build any of these three signals, which is why the twenty-year contractor loses to the two-year one online.
The Work
Not a single tactic. Six workstreams that run together, across every touchpoint where a customer might find you.
One of the highest-conversion assets you own. Categories, services, photos, posts, and the Q&A most contractors never touch.
Most agencies stop at Google Maps. Apple Maps, Bing Places, and the directories your customers actually use get the same treatment.
Local keywords on the pages that matter, fast loading on the phone your customer is holding, and a site Google can read without guessing.
Google ranks local experts, not generic websites. Service pages, location pages, and articles that prove you work where you say you do.
The chamber, local news, trade associations, community sponsorships. Every link verified do-follow before it is recommended.
Reviews are social proof and a ranking factor at the same time. A systematic process beats remembering to ask when a job goes well.
Coverage
Customers do not just search on Google any more. A growing share start in an AI tool and never see a results page at all.
Worth Knowing
If you serve customers at their location and do not list a public address, which is how most plumbers, electricians, HVAC companies and landscapers operate, your profile needs to be set up differently. Getting this wrong is one of the most common reasons a good contractor is invisible in the map pack, and it is fixable in an afternoon.
Who This Is For
The Program
The full local SEO and lead generation program, built only for home service contractors. Not keyword stuffing, not manufactured reviews, and not quick wins that evaporate in three months. Foundations that compound.
The Phases
Three phases, in order. Weekly check-in calls and monthly reports with a video walkthrough throughout, so you always know what is happening and why.
Weeks 1–4
A thorough review of your entire online presence: your website, your Google Business Profile, your local citations, and the competitors already taking the calls you want.
Months 1–6
Execution. Profile optimization, citation building and cleanup across every map platform, on-page and technical work, and content published on a schedule rather than in bursts.
Ongoing, quarterly
Local SEO is not a one-time project. Markets shift, competitors adjust, and ranking factors change. Every quarter we review what moved and adjust the plan against it.
Deliverables
Pricing
One plan, no contracts, and you own everything. Most agencies sell three tiers so the middle one looks reasonable. There is one here.
$2,000/month
Month to month · Cancel anytime
For contractors and engineering firms with complex needs, multi-location operations, competitive markets, commercial work, or a business that needs web design and SEO built together from scratch.
Every custom engagement starts with a full strategy conversation. We scope the work to match your market, your growth targets, and where you are today.
Results
Started with no digital presence under a previous brand name. A full rebrand, new site, and weekly content moved average Google position from 41 to 11.
Design, build, brand, strategy & weekly content by Gridwork.
Read the case study →A review generation system plus local SEO took a summer camp from invisible to dominant in local search.
Content & SEO by Gridwork. Site designed and built by Openbox9.
Read the case study →Built topical authority in post-frame construction and earned organic traffic that compounds without ad spend.
SEO & content by Gridwork.
Read the case study →Objections
The five questions that come up on almost every call.
You will typically see early indicators within 60 to 90 days: improved Google Business Profile engagement, better rankings on lower-competition terms, and more calls. Meaningful compounding results take 6 to 9 months. Anyone promising page one in 30 days is selling something else.
Traditional SEO targets rankings across any audience. Local SEO is built to make you show up for people searching in your service area, which means the map pack, your Google Business Profile, and location-specific content carry far more weight.
Yes. Most of the contractors I work with are service area businesses. There is a specific approach for hiding your address while still maximising local visibility, and getting it wrong is one of the more common reasons a good contractor is invisible in the map pack.
You get a custom tracking dashboard showing Google Business Profile conversions, keyword rankings, organic traffic, and call volume. Monthly reports come with a plain-English video walkthrough, and we do a weekly check-in call.
The Gridwork Momentum System starts at $2,000 per month, month to month, no contracts. Pricing scales with market size and competitive landscape. You will get a straight answer on the strategy call, not a proposal a week later.
Free Resources
Most contractors I talk to are good at their trade. Really good. But when it comes to getting found online, they're either doing too much, doing it in the
Read the guide →A competitor from 40 miles away is outranking you in your own city because they built a page for it. Here is how location pages work and how to fix it.
Read the guide →You've got solid reviews. Four-point-eight stars, a couple dozen happy customers who took the time to write something real. You do good work and it shows.
Read the guide →Reviews
Jon Johns
Macaw Plumbing & Tankless · 6 months ago
Working with John has been a great experience. He is very detailed when it came to building each page of our website. He is currently working on our local SEO. He also does all the market research for your area like in Asheville or your exact market. He makes it easy and you feel like a part of the team.
Caroline Smith
6 months ago
John is super professional and knowledgeable at marketing. You won’t find a better, customer service oriented marketing manager for your business in Asheville. Thanks Gridwork Marketing!
Tanya McSween
3 years ago
John took the pressure off working on our website’s SEO ourselves. He provided tons of data and research on how to help our site work better and reach where we want to reach.
Free SEO & Website Review
If you are done watching competitors with less experience get the calls that should be coming to you, let's fix that. No obligation, and you keep the findings whether or not we work together.
Two minutes. Company, website, and the service area you want to win.
Your Google Business Profile, your map pack position, your citations, and what your competitors rank for that you don't. Real work, not an automated PDF from a tool.
What is working, what is capping your local visibility, and what I would fix first if it were my business.
Thirty minutes on a call. No pitch deck, no pressure.
If it is a fit, we start. If it is not, you keep the review and the plan and go run it yourself.
This comes to me, not a queue. I never take more than 10 clients at a time, so the person reviewing your site is the person who would do the work. You will hear back within one business day.
Prefer to talk first? Book a 30 minute strategy session instead.