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The method

The Core 30.

A page architecture that mirrors your Google Business Profile, end to end. We named it the Core 30 because most businesses land at exactly that — thirty pages, one per structural element of their profile. The number isn't magic. The alignment is.

  1. 01Why alignment beats tricks
  2. 02The three layers
  3. 03The Core 30 grid
  4. 04The signals we trigger
  5. 05How we write each page
  6. 06Structured data, done properly
  7. 07What handover looks like
  8. 08Where the method doesn't apply

01 · Why

Alignment beats tricks. Always.

Here's what Google actually does when it ranks local businesses. It has two things: a Google Business Profile (claimed by the business, verified by Google, structured data) and a website (claimed by the business, structured or unstructured). Its job is to figure out if these two things represent the same entity, and if so, how authoritative that entity is for the thing being searched.

Most local SEO treats these as separate ranking systems. They aren't. They're the same ranking system, with two inputs. When the inputs agree, Google trusts the business. When they disagree — or when the website just doesn't answer the questions the GBP raises — Google falls back to proximity and reviews to break the tie.

That's why you get outranked by a business that's worse-reviewed, further away, and half your size. Your site doesn't confirm what your GBP claims.

The Core 30 fixes this. Not with tricks. Just with structure.

02 · Three layers

Every local business has three layers.

Open any claimed Google Business Profile. You'll find a set of data arranged in a predictable way. There's a primary category. There are secondary categories. There's a list of specific services within those categories. That's the structure. Three layers, each feeding into the one above it.

Your website should mirror that exactly. One page for the primary category — the homepage. One page for each secondary category. One page for each service. Every page links up to the one above it, so the hierarchy on the site looks the same as the hierarchy in the GBP.

When a business has eight secondary categories and twenty-two distinct services, you end up at thirty pages. Four secondary and ten services, you're at fifteen. Twelve and twenty, you're at thirty-three. The number varies. The structure doesn't.

03 · Visualised

The Core 30 grid.

Every page on the site is one of three types. The homepage. A category page. Or a service page. The site looks like this:

Homepage in orange. Categories in salmon. Services in grey. Every page links up to the one above.

No "About Us" sections masquerading as ranking pages. No "Our Services" catch-all. No thin content, no filler, no duplicate material. Every page has one job, targets one intent, and links to exactly the other pages it should link to.

04 · Signals

What this triggers in Google's ranking system.

Four things change when the site mirrors the GBP:

  1. Entity confirmation. Google sees matching content at matching URLs for every GBP claim. The business is confirmed as authoritative for those services at that location.
  2. Topical relevance. Each service page has its own on-page SEO targeting the service's primary query intent. Previously your entire site was ranking for "plumber Edinburgh". Now you have twelve pages ranking for twelve distinct plumbing queries.
  3. Internal authority distribution. Category pages act as topic hubs. They consolidate authority from the service pages below, then pass authority back up to the homepage, then back down to categories. PageRank flows properly.
  4. Semantic clarity. Google's language models can now read the site and understand exactly what you do, for whom, and where. Ambiguity drops to zero.

These four shifts, in combination, are what moves Map Pack rankings. Not metadata tricks. Not link juice. Structural clarity.

05 · Writing

How we write each page.

Every page gets written by a real person, for a real intent, with enough depth to earn its place in search. Not ChatGPT stubs. Not 150-word keyword-stuffed blurbs.

The structure we use for a service page:

  • An honest headline. What the service is, who it's for, in eight words or fewer.
  • Proof of capability in the first paragraph. The searcher wants to know you actually do this, not aspire to do it.
  • The specifics. Process, timelines, pricing logic, what's included, what's not.
  • The adjacent context. Why this service matters, what it pairs with, what it replaces.
  • Local signals. Area served, specific neighbourhoods or postcodes, travel terms.
  • FAQ of the four questions every buyer genuinely has.
  • Clear next step. One CTA, aligned to buying intent.

That structure, applied to every service page on the site, is what makes the content work. We write it ourselves so every page actually makes sense.

06 · Schema

Structured data, done properly.

Every page gets hand-rolled JSON-LD schema. LocalBusiness on the homepage. Service schema on each service page. FAQPage schema where there are FAQs. BreadcrumbList throughout.

We don't use plugins. Schema plugins add generic templates that miss the specifics Google actually uses. We write the JSON by hand, per page, aligned to exactly what the page says and what the GBP claims. Validated against Google's rich results test before deployment.

Proper schema is the line in the sand between a local SEO site and a generic small-business website. Very few consultants get this right. We do.

07 · Handover

What you own after day 30.

Everything. We build on Astro — a modern static site generator. The source code lives in a GitHub repo you own. You can host it anywhere for a few pounds a month: Coolify, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages.

You get:

  • The GitHub repo, transferred to your account
  • Full CMS-free markdown content, editable by you or anyone you hire
  • A 30-page handover doc explaining every decision made
  • An SEO maintenance checklist — monthly, quarterly, annual
  • Our ongoing email support for 60 days post-launch, free

No lock-in. No subscription. No "premium tier" that hides your data. You paid once. You own it forever.

08 · Where it stops

The method has limits. Here they are.

The Core 30 moves Map Pack rankings for local businesses whose websites are the bottleneck. That's most local businesses. But not all.

Where it won't help:

  • If your GBP is penalised or suspended. No website fix repairs a listing Google has demoted. GBP issues are for GBP specialists.
  • If your reviews are catastrophically bad. A rebuild can't outrank a 2.1-star profile with 400 reviews.
  • If you're in a saturated urban market with national competitors. "Divorce lawyer London" — you need a wider strategy than one rebuild.
  • If your business is new. Google weights listing age and review count. Six months of signals matters. We can still help, but the rebuild is one part of a longer play.

If any of these apply and we take on your project anyway, we'd be selling you a rebuild that wouldn't deliver. We'd rather tell you honestly up front.

Sound like the right approach for your business?

Request a free written audit. We'll tell you exactly what the Core 30 rebuild would look like for your specific business, and honestly whether it's worth doing.

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