Local SEO agency in Boston

Boston is the largest area I serve, and I am 20 miles west in Framingham. Below is how the top 3 on Google Maps changes from one Boston neighborhood to the next, and what I do, in order, to put a local business in it within 90 days.

Why I made a page just for Boston

I am Brandon Medina, one person, and I run BCM Results from Framingham, Massachusetts. I work with local businesses anywhere. Boston is the largest area I serve, and I am 20 miles west of it on the Mass Pike, in Framingham.

Google's help page on local ranking says local results come down to relevance, distance and prominence. In Boston, distance does a lot of the work, because the city is really a set of neighborhoods cut apart by water, highways and parks.

There is no single top 3 in Boston

Google draws a new map for every search from the spot where the searcher stands. Someone typing "dentist" in Copley Square gets one set of three businesses. Someone typing it at Ashmont station gets a different three. You can be first from one neighborhood and ninth from the next.

Beacon Hill, North End, Back Bay, South End and the Seaport

Businesses sit door to door here, a short walk from Boston Common, the Public Garden and Copley Square. Distance separates almost nobody, so the right primary category, a complete profile and steady recent reviews are what put a business on Newbury Street, Hanover Street, Tremont Street or Seaport Boulevard ahead of the one next door.

Fenway, Allston and Brighton

Commonwealth Avenue and the Green Line B branch run from Kenmore Square past Boston University to Boston College. Maps here spill over the city line: a search in Allston often shows Brookline and Cambridge businesses, so you compete with two towns.

Charlestown and East Boston

Charlestown sits across the river with the Bunker Hill Monument and the Orange Line at Community College. East Boston sits across the harbor with Maverick Square, Logan Airport and the Blue Line. Google's distance factor is how far you are from the searcher, not how long the drive is, so a searcher at Maverick Square can see a North End business before the far end of Eastie. Saying East Boston or Charlestown by name on your profile and website wins that tie.

South Boston and Dorchester

Both are long. Southie runs from Broadway station and Andrew Square out to Castle Island. Dorchester runs from UMass Boston down Dorchester Avenue through Fields Corner to Ashmont, with the Red Line alongside. A business on West Broadway and one at Ashmont are almost never in the same top 3.

Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Mattapan

Centre Street, Jamaica Pond, the Arnold Arboretum and Forest Hills anchor JP. Roxbury sits between JP and downtown, near Northeastern University. Blue Hill Avenue runs down to Mattapan Square and the end of the Mattapan Trolley. Franklin Park sits between all three, and Google's distance measure does not care about the park.

Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Roslindale

The corner of the city, where the commuter rail, not the subway, is the train. Hyde Park Avenue, Washington Street and Centre Street tie the three together. A searcher in West Roxbury or Readville sees Dedham, Milton and Needham businesses in the same pack, so your profile and website should say your neighborhood by name, not just "Boston".

Who this fits in Boston

My plan fits a business that people find by searching a service plus a place:

• Contractors and home services, where the service area matters more than the office address.
• Med spas and salons around Newbury Street and the South End, where real photos and steady reviews do the work.
• Dentists, who win on category and recent reviews.
• Gyms near Kenmore Square and Allston, where hours and a booking link matter.
• Auto shops, whose map is wider because people drive to them.
• Cleaners, who work across the city and need one page per area.
• Restaurants from Hanover Street to Fields Corner, where "near me" is the whole game.
• Law and accounting offices downtown, where the searcher chooses on reviews.

It fits a business that is doing well and wants more, not one at zero or about to close.

How it works in my plan

I run everything in one order, the same order Google notices it. Together it is Google Maps ranking; each step has its own page.

1. Google Business Profile, rebuilt category by category. Primary category picked from what the top 3 already use, every section complete: services with descriptions, real location photos, a booking link, questions and answers, a weekly update, a reply to every review.
2. Website optimization. Title and headline that say the service and the place. Name, address and phone in the footer, identical to the listing. The Google map embedded. One clear call to action. One page per service, one per area, all linked. Fast on a phone. Schema markup.
3. A review system your team can run. One tap link, a script for the moment the customer is happiest, a reply to every review. Steady reviews every month beat a burst and then silence.
4. Citations cleaned up. Name, address and phone made identical on every site that lists you. The slow part, so it starts early.
5. Retargeting on Google and Meta. People who already found you keep seeing you on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. A small budget, ten to twenty percent of a cold budget, not paid per new click. It does not move your Maps position.
6. A dated rank grid every month. The same search from the same spots across your part of Boston. Red dots where you are not in the top 3, green where you are.

What happens after you reach out

1. A free marketing analysis by email within 2 business days, or we go through it on a call.
2. A one page plan: scope, price, date and what "done" means. You approve it before any money moves. Then the first invoice, then access instructions within 24 hours.
3. The work, in the order the plan says.
4. More of what works.

The 90 day line

I get your business into the top 3 on Google Maps and the organic results for its main search term within 90 days. If it is not there in 90 days, billing pauses until it is and restarts from the next billing cycle. That is written in the terms of service.

One business per industry per area, so if I work with a dentist in Jamaica Plain, I do not take the dentist across Centre Street. Cost, contract and timing are in the questions below, and I never promise days.

What you do

• About an hour at the start. You give me access to your Google Business Profile (two clicks) and your website login.
• Ask customers for a review with the link, at the moment they are happiest.
• A short check in each month when the rank grid comes in.
• Patience, because the calendar above is real.

Things I will not do, and you should not either

• No stuffing keywords into the business name, and no changing it back and forth. Both can get the listing suspended.
• No buying reviews and no gating reviews (only sending happy customers to Google).
• No giant service area on a new listing. It dilutes you everywhere. Start tight, then widen.

The towns around Boston

The same rule, a new map from where the searcher stands, is why I keep one page per town (all of them on the areas page):

• Cambridge, across the Charles River, with Harvard Square, Central Square and MIT.
• Somerville, north of Charlestown, with Davis Square and Union Square.
• Brookline, between Fenway, Allston and Jamaica Plain, with Coolidge Corner.
• Newton, west past Brighton on the Mass Pike, with the Green Line D branch stops.
• Quincy, south of Dorchester over the Neponset River, on the Red Line.
• Framingham, west on Route 9 and the commuter rail.

A ten minute check you can do tonight

1. At your front door, search your main service plus your neighborhood on your phone. Note the three names. Do it again from across the neighborhood. Different names?
2. Is your primary category the same as theirs?
3. Open your profile. Every section filled? Services with descriptions? Photos from your real location? A post this week? Every review answered?
4. When was your last review? More than a month ago is the first thing to fix.
5. Hover over your website tab. Does the title say what you do and where?
6. Footer: name, address and phone spelled exactly as on your profile? A Google map on the page?
7. One page per service and one per area, or is it all on the home page?
8. Load your site on a phone on cellular, not wifi. Count the seconds.

Stuck on more than two? My article on why you are not in the top 3 goes through each one.

Questions people ask

To find out where you actually stand, send your business name and Google Business Profile through the form on the home page and I will email you a free marketing analysis within 2 business days.