Local SEO & Google Business Profile Specialist for Local Service Businesses

ABOUT THE ROLE Apex Studio Films is seeking a dependable Local SEO and Google Business Profile Specialist for ongoing, project-based client work. Apex produces professional video, motion graphics, design, websites, and campaign content for local businesses and commercial clients. We are expanding our ability to help clients become more visible in Google Search and Google Maps, strengthen their local online presence, measure organic performance, and turn that visibility into calls, forms, bookings, and qualified leads. This is not a paid Google Ads position. We need someone who specializes in local organic visibility, Google Business Profile management, on-page local SEO, citations, reviews, Search Console, and client-ready reporting. The right specialist can perform the work hands-on while thinking strategically about services, locations, search intent, competitors, website structure, reputation, conversions, and long-term business growth. WORKING RELATIONSHIP This is a remote, long-term freelance opportunity supporting Apex client accounts as they become available. Work will be assigned and approved per client or project. Hours, account volume, and monthly income are not guaranteed. Each assignment will have an agreed scope, budget, timeline, access level, and reporting requirement. Apex will own the client relationship, strategy approval, creative direction, and production process. The selected specialist will initially work behind the Apex Studio Films brand as an agency partner. Direct client communication or meeting participation may be added later after trust has been established. The first engagement will be a real paid audit, Google Business Profile optimization, local SEO setup, or client-account assignment. We will not request unpaid speculative work. TYPICAL CLIENTS Our clients are primarily U.S.-based local and service businesses, including barbershops, landscaping and construction companies, churches, professional services, hospitality businesses, and other appointment- or lead-driven organizations. Some clients operate from one storefront. Others are service-area businesses or may operate multiple locations. Candidates must understand the differences between storefront businesses, service-area businesses, hybrid businesses, and multi-location organizations. All work must follow Google’s current eligibility, representation, ownership, review, and content guidelines. GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE RESPONSIBILITIES Depending on the account, responsibilities may include: • Auditing existing Google Business Profiles for completeness, accuracy, eligibility, and policy risks • Reviewing ownership, verification, duplicate profiles, suspensions, access, and account structure • Selecting appropriate primary and secondary business categories • Optimizing business descriptions, services, products, attributes, hours, service areas, appointment links, and other available profile fields • Maintaining consistent business names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, and operating information • Recommending and organizing appropriate photos, videos, logos, cover images, and visual updates • Publishing approved Google Business Profile posts, offers, events, or updates when appropriate • Monitoring profile health and identifying unauthorized or inaccurate changes • Reviewing questions, answers, customer feedback, and other profile activity when available • Developing compliant review-request and reputation-management processes • Drafting professional review responses for Apex or the client to approve • Helping identify and report clearly fraudulent or policy-violating reviews through legitimate Google processes • Evaluating competitors appearing in Google Maps and local search results • Monitoring local visibility, profile interactions, calls, website visits, directions, bookings, and other available performance indicators • Maintaining organized records of profile changes, recommendations, and results The client must retain ownership of their Google Business Profile. Apex and the specialist will use authorized manager access. Candidates must not claim, transfer, merge, rename, or materially alter a client profile without documented approval. LOCAL SEO RESPONSIBILITIES Depending on the approved scope, responsibilities may include: • Performing local SEO audits covering the website, Google Business Profile, citations, competitors, rankings, content, and tracking • Conducting local keyword research based on services, locations, customer needs, and search intent • Mapping keywords to appropriate service, location, and supporting pages • Evaluating titles, meta descriptions, headings, page copy, URLs, images, internal links, calls to action, and local relevance • Recommending or implementing approved on-page SEO improvements • Evaluating existing service pages and location pages for usefulness, uniqueness, accuracy, and search intent • Recommending new service, city, neighborhood, FAQ, project, case-study, or supporting pages when justified • Avoiding thin, duplicated, mechanically generated, or doorway-style location pages • Auditing indexing, crawlability, redirects, broken links, canonical tags, sitemaps, robots directives, mobile usability, and other relevant technical issues • Monitoring Google Search Console for indexing problems, performance changes, search queries, pages, and opportunities • Reviewing GA4 or other available analytics for organic traffic, engagement, conversions, and trends • Evaluating local business schema and other appropriate structured data • Auditing business citations and name, address, and phone consistency across relevant directories • Correcting or recommending corrections to inaccurate, duplicate, or outdated listings • Identifying legitimate local directories, associations, sponsorships, publications, partnerships, and authority-building opportunities • Recommending ethical local link-building and digital public-relations opportunities • Monitoring local rankings and visibility by service and geographic area • Preparing clear recommendations for Apex’s website, content, design, video, and campaign teams The specialist should be able to implement straightforward changes in common website systems when access and scope permit. Advanced website development, major redesigns, custom code, extensive copywriting, or complex technical repairs may be assigned to another specialist and priced separately. REVIEWS, CITATIONS, AND AUTHORITY All work must follow legitimate, sustainable practices. Apex will not approve: • Purchased, fabricated, incentivized, or employee-generated reviews that violate platform policies • Review gating or selectively requesting reviews only from satisfied customers • Fake locations, virtual-office manipulation, keyword-stuffed business names, or misleading service areas • Mass-produced or duplicated location pages • Automated directory submissions without quality control • Private blog network links, hacked links, comment spam, low-quality link packages, or other manipulative backlink tactics • Guaranteed rankings, guaranteed map positions, or claims of secret access to Google • Unapproved changes that create suspension, ownership, legal, or reputation risks If a candidate recommends citations, content, links, or reputation work, they must explain the quality standard, method, expected purpose, and possible risk. MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING This position requires more than sending screenshots or reporting that rankings “went up.” Reports should clearly communicate, when available: • Work completed during the reporting period • Google Business Profile changes and activity • Search and Maps visibility trends • Calls, website visits, directions, forms, bookings, and other available actions • Organic search impressions, clicks, queries, pages, and click-through rates • Local ranking changes by keyword and geographic area • Citation or business-information corrections • Review volume, rating trends, response activity, and reputation issues • Website and technical SEO improvements • Organic leads and verified business outcomes when reliable tracking is available • Problems, limitations, risks, and opportunities • Recommended priorities for the next reporting period Reports should explain what happened, why it may have happened, what work was performed, and what Apex should recommend next. The specialist must distinguish between visibility, rankings, traffic, platform interactions, leads, customers, and attributable revenue. Correlation must not be presented as proven causation. Local SEO is a long-term process affected by competition, location, website condition, reputation, client participation, and Google’s systems. Candidates must communicate realistic expectations and must not promise specific rankings or immediate results. TOOLS AND TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE Strong experience with the following is preferred: • Google Business Profile • Google Search Console • GA4 • Google Tag Manager • Google Trends and Keyword Planner • Local rank-tracking and grid tools • Citation-management and listing-audit tools • Screaming Frog or comparable website auditing tools • Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, BrightLocal, Whitespark, Local Falcon, or comparable platforms • Looker Studio or similar reporting dashboards • WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or other common website systems • LocalBusiness schema and related structured data • Call, form, booking, and lead-source tracking Candidates do not need to use every tool listed. We care more about the accuracy of the work, the reasoning behind recommendations, and the ability to communicate results clearly. CREATIVE AND CONTENT COLLABORATION Apex may provide photography, video, design, website support, and other creative assets for client profiles and websites. The specialist is not expected to be Apex’s primary photographer, videographer, designer, developer, or long-form copywriter. However, they must be able to recommend: • Which services or locations need stronger pages • Which questions customers are searching for • Which photos, videos, projects, testimonials, or case studies would strengthen local visibility • Which website calls to action or conversion paths need improvement • Which Google Business Profile updates would be useful • Which content Apex should produce next Content recommendations should be based on customer intent and business value—not simply on producing a large number of articles. COMPENSATION The anticipated range for variable-scope work is $15–$40 per hour, depending on experience, speed, technical capability, and assignment requirements. We also welcome fixed wholesale or agency-partner pricing. Every client assignment will be discussed and approved before work begins. When applying, please provide your representative pricing for: 1. One-time local SEO and Google Business Profile audit 2. Initial Google Business Profile setup or comprehensive optimization 3. Google Business Profile monthly maintenance and reporting 4. Local SEO monthly management for one location 5. Strategic local SEO for multiple services or locations 6. Citation audit, cleanup, and development 7. On-page implementation, service pages, location pages, technical repairs, dashboards, or other work outside regular monthly management Please explain exactly what is included and excluded from each representative price, which tools or third-party costs are additional, and approximately how much monthly attention each account receives. WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR The ideal candidate: • Has proven local SEO and Google Business Profile experience for U.S. local or service businesses • Understands storefront, service-area, hybrid, and multi-location business models • Understands Google’s Business Profile policies and the risks of suspensions or misleading information • Can perform useful keyword, competitor, website, citation, and local-ranking analysis • Understands that rankings alone are not the business objective • Can connect visibility and traffic to calls, forms, bookings, and qualified leads when tracking permits • Can prepare polished reports that Apex can confidently present to clients • Communicates clearly in written and spoken English • Is dependable, responsive, organized, honest, and detail-oriented • Can overlap with agreed Central Time working hours when necessary • Is comfortable operating as a behind-the-scenes agency partner • Will communicate limitations, risks, delays, and uncertain attribution honestly • Can manage accounts independently after receiving the approved strategy, business information, access, and scope Certifications are welcomed but not required. Demonstrated judgment, ethical practices, results, reporting quality, communication, and reliability matter more than certificates alone. WHEN APPLYING Please include: • Your location and time zone • Your hourly rate • Your representative wholesale or agency-partner pricing requested above • Your typical turnaround time for an audit and initial optimization • The number of client accounts you can responsibly support • Two relevant local SEO or Google Business Profile case studies, preferably for U.S. local or service businesses • The client’s industry, number of locations, approximate timeframe, starting condition, your exact responsibilities, measurable results, and how those results were verified • A redacted client-facing report or dashboard example, if available • Your experience with Google Business Profile, Search Console, GA4, citations, reviews, local rank tracking, on-page SEO, technical SEO, common website platforms, and reporting • The tools you normally use and whether their costs are included in your pricing • Your availability for Central Time communication • A brief explanation of how you would prioritize the first 60 days for a single-location local service business with an incomplete Google Business Profile and a basic website Please do not provide only broad ranking claims or screenshots without context. We need to understand the business, location, starting condition, timeframe, your exact contribution, how improvement was measured, and whether the results produced meaningful actions or leads. We are looking for a capable long-term specialist who can help Apex Studio Films build a responsible, measurable, and continuously improving local visibility service for its clients.