Local SEO is the work that gets a business shown when somebody nearby searches for what it does. I do it for businesses across the Borders, from Kelso and Galashiels to Berwick-upon-Tweed, at a fixed price of £245 and with no monthly contract.
Last updated 14 October 2026
Nobody looking for a joiner types “joiner Scottish Borders”. They type “joiner Hawick”, “joiner near me” or just “joiner” with their phone’s location switched on. The Borders is not one search market. It is a dozen small ones, each a town and the villages around it.
That changes what the work is. A business in Kelso that also serves Jedburgh, Coldstream and Duns has to be clear about each of those places, on its website and on its Google Business Profile, or Google only ever shows it to people standing in Kelso.
It also means the competition is small. In most Borders towns a handful of businesses compete for each search, and several of them have never claimed their Google profile. Doing the basics properly is often enough to be seen.
What Google says it weighs
Google describes three things behind local results: relevance (does the business match the search), distance (how near it is) and prominence (how well known it is, including its reviews). Local SEO is the practical work on the first and the third. Nobody can change the second.
Four things do most of the work for a small local business. None of them is a secret, and none needs a monthly retainer.
A complete Google Business Profile
The profile is what appears in the map results and on the right of the page. The correct category, the services you offer, the areas you cover, real opening hours and recent photos matter more here than anything on the website.
Genuine reviews, asked for properly
Reviews are part of prominence, and they are what a customer reads before calling. Your Google profile has a short link you can send every customer after a job, and asking politely is the whole method. I never write, buy or trade reviews, and nobody should offer to.
A page for each service and place
A single “Services” page listing everything gives Google nothing to match. A page that says plainly what one service is, who it is for and which towns you cover gives it something to show.
The fourth is being mentioned somewhere other than your own website: the local directories that matter, a supplier or trade body that lists you, a link from a neighbouring business. This is slow, unglamorous work, and it is the part most often skipped.
This is for a business that is keeping its current website but is hard to find. It applies the same foundations that go into every new Cheviot site to the site you already have. The regular price is £275; £245 is the Founding Client Rate.
Building a new site instead?
Local SEO is already part of the job. Launch includes on-page SEO, a sitemap and Google Business Profile setup. Grow adds the full local SEO foundation: keywords, schema and sitemap. You do not buy it twice.
Not sure what is wrong?
The Website Health Check is free for any business with an existing site. I look at how it appears in search and tell you what I would fix first, whether or not you hire me to fix it.
A guaranteed first place. Nobody controls Google’s results, and anyone who guarantees a position is either guessing or planning to break the rules on your behalf.
A monthly “AI optimisation” package. Google’s own guidance on its AI search features says: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” What gets a business into an AI answer is the same thing that gets it into ordinary results: being indexed, being clear about what it does, and being mentioned and reviewed elsewhere.
A twelve-month contract. The foundations are a one-off job. After that, the things that keep working are yours to do: answer reviews, keep the hours right, add a photo now and then.
How long it takes
Changes to a Google Business Profile can show within days. Movement in the ordinary results usually takes between two and six months, and depends on how many reviews and mentions the business gathers in that time. I will tell you what is realistic for your town and trade before you pay anything.
Cheviot Web Studio is based in Kelso and works with businesses throughout the Scottish Borders and Berwickshire, and across the border in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Each town page explains what local customers there tend to search for: Galashiels, Hawick, Melrose, Jedburgh, Peebles, Selkirk, Duns, Coldstream, Eyemouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
If the site itself is the problem, a rebuild may be the cheaper fix. The pricing page lists every package, and this comparison explains when a website builder is enough.
The Local SEO & AI-Visibility Boost is a one-off £245 at the Founding Client Rate (regular price £275) for a business that is keeping its existing website. There is no monthly contract. On a new Cheviot website the local SEO foundations are part of the package price, so they are not charged again.
Changes to a Google Business Profile can show within days. Movement in the ordinary search results usually takes between two and six months, and depends on how many reviews and mentions the business gathers and on how many competitors there are in the town.
No, and nobody honestly can. Google decides its own results. What can be promised is the work: a complete Google Business Profile, pages that say clearly what the business does and where, correct structured data and a list of the directories worth being in.
Nobody can guarantee that either. Google's guidance says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for its AI search features. I check that AI crawlers can reach your website and that your business details are clear and consistent. Beyond that, AI assistants draw on the same signals as ordinary search: reviews and mentions on other websites.
Not necessarily. The Local SEO & AI-Visibility Boost is applied to the website you already have. If that site is slow, hard to use on a phone or impossible to edit, a rebuild may be the cheaper fix. The free Website Health Check tells you which applies.
Cheviot Web Studio is based in Kelso and works across the Scottish Borders, including Galashiels, Hawick, Melrose, Jedburgh, Peebles, Selkirk, Duns, Coldstream and Eyemouth, as well as Berwick-upon-Tweed and north Northumberland. Businesses elsewhere in the UK can be helped remotely.
Send me your website address. I will come back with a free health check and the three things I would fix first.