Search "dentist Makati", "coffee shop Legazpi Village" or "notary Ayala Avenue" on your phone. At the top is a map with three businesses, each with a rating, hours and a call button. Most people choose from those three and never scroll further.
Those results are not paid ads. Google picks them using signals you can influence. Getting them right is called local SEO.
I'm Aldrian Loyola, a web developer in the Philippines. I am a developer, not an SEO agency, and I will be clear about which parts I do myself and which parts are yours.
How Google chooses local results
Google has said publicly that local ranking depends on three things:
- Relevance. How well your business matches what the person searched for.
- Distance. How close you are to the searcher or the place they named.
- Prominence. How well known and trusted the business appears, based on reviews, mentions around the web and the strength of your website.
You cannot change your distance. You can improve relevance and prominence.
What I do: the website
Clear, specific pages
One page for each main service, written the way customers search. "Teeth whitening in Makati" on its own page does more than a single line in a long services list.
Location details Google can read
Your business name, address and phone number, written exactly the same on every page and matching your Google listing. I add structured data, a format search engines read directly, with your address, hours and service area.
Speed and mobile layout
Google measures how fast your pages load and whether they work on phones. I build lean pages and fix slow ones. See website speed optimization.
Titles and descriptions
Each page gets a title and description that name the service and the place, written to earn the click.
A site Google can crawl
A sitemap, clean addresses, no broken links and Google Search Console set up, so new pages are found quickly.
Pages that convert
Ranking is only half of it. The page must make it easy to call, book or inquire. See lead generation websites.
What you do, with my guidance
Some parts of local SEO must be done by the business owner. Google requires it, and it would be wrong for me to do them in your name.
Google Business Profile
This is the listing that appears on the map. You claim it and verify it yourself, usually by a code sent by phone, email or video check. I walk you through each field:
- The right primary category, which matters more than most owners realise.
- Service areas and exact address.
- Hours, including holidays.
- Services and products.
- Real photos of your premises, team and work.
- A link to the correct page of your website.
Reviews
Reviews strongly influence both ranking and whether people choose you. Ask satisfied customers for an honest review and reply to every one. I can set up a short link and a printed QR code that makes leaving a review easy. I will not write, buy or trade reviews, and you should avoid anyone who offers to. Fake reviews break Google's rules and can get a listing suspended.
Consistent listings
Your details on Facebook, business directories and other sites should match your website and Google listing. I give you a checklist of the main ones to correct.
Local SEO for Makati in particular
Makati searches are often very specific. People name a village, a street or a building: "clinic near Greenbelt", "law office Salcedo Village", "printing shop Chino Roces".
- Name your landmarks. Mention your building, street and nearby landmarks in the text, as you would give directions.
- Describe who you serve. Office workers at lunch, residents of nearby villages, companies in the district.
- Mind your hours. Much of the Makati crowd is weekday and daytime. Accurate hours prevent bad reviews from people who arrive to a closed door.
- Parking and access. A line about parking, the nearest station or a building entrance answers a real question and is the kind of detail that helps relevance.
What to expect, honestly
- It takes time. Changes to a website and a Google listing usually take weeks to show, sometimes months.
- No one can guarantee a position. Results depend on your competitors, your reviews and Google's own changes. Be careful with anyone who promises number one.
- It keeps working. Unlike ads, which stop the day you stop paying, a well-built site and a healthy listing keep bringing visitors.
My standard of work
- Lakeside Smile Studio: a sixteen-page practice website where every page has its own title, description and search tags, plus a generated sitemap. It scored 100 for SEO and accessibility in Lighthouse testing.
- Origin Code Technology and National Business Concepts: business sites built with clear service pages and contact paths.
How we would work together
- Review. I look at your website and your current Google listing, and note what is missing.
- Plan and fixed quote for the website work.
- Website fixes: pages, structure, speed, location details.
- Guided setup of your Google Business Profile, with you as the owner.
- Checklist for reviews and other listings.
- A check a few weeks later in Search Console, to see what is appearing.
Find out where you stand
Send me your website address and business name. I will reply with what I see and a fixed quote for the website side. You can also run the free website check first. Start a project or send a message.
