A free ranking report for a Newcastle business

Where you rank across the suburbs you care about, what your Google listing is missing, what your website has and has not got a page for, and the same three for the businesses above you.

It is four things, and each one is a comparison rather than a score. A number on its own tells a business nothing without the businesses beating it beside it.

What we look at

• Where you rank, suburb by suburb. A grid across the area you want work from, on the searches that matter, rather than a single flattering position.
• Your Google listing. Categories, service list, photographs, hours and reviews. Field by field against the businesses ranking above you.
• Your website. Which of the things you sell have a page, how fast it loads on a phone, and whether anything on it asks for a call.
• The businesses above you. The same three things, so the gap is a list rather than a feeling.

The listing side of the report is measured against Google's own guidelines for representing your business.

A short document with the grid, the gaps, and the fixes in the order that moves you fastest. Written so it is useful whether we ever speak again or not.

The document is short on purpose. A long report is easy to produce and hard to act on, and the point of this one is that somebody can start on Monday.

What is in it

• The grid. Where you rank across the suburbs, as a picture. This is the part most owners have never seen.
• The gaps. What the businesses above you have that you do not, named specifically.
• The fixes, in order. Starting with the free ones, because the listing and the reviews move first and the price of them is time.
• What we would leave alone. Including anything we think is not worth doing yet.

The list is yours to hand to anybody. Plenty of Newcastle businesses work through it themselves, and some hand it to whoever already does their marketing.

Because we cannot say anything useful about a business without looking, and because the businesses worth working with are the ones who read the list and start on it.

Every marketing conversation starts the same way: somebody describes their business and somebody else describes a package. Neither has looked at anything.

The report replaces that with evidence, which is better for both sides. It takes us a couple of hours, and it means the first conversation is about a specific list rather than about what we generally do.

It also sorts out who we are a good fit for. A business that reads the list and starts on the free half is a business we can help. One that wanted a number quickly is better served somewhere else, and finding that out early suits everybody.

Look at the grid first, then the free fixes, then the gaps against the businesses above you. Start with anything that costs time rather than money.

1. Look at the grid before anything else

It shows where you already hold and where you drop off. The edge of the green is the reachable part and it is where the work should go.

2. Do the free things first

Categories, the service list, photographs, hours, and asking every customer for a review. An afternoon, and it moves the map.

3. Read the gaps against the businesses above you

Specifically. What they have that you do not is usually a short list and it is usually unsurprising once it is written down.

4. Count the pages against what you sell

One page per thing. This is the largest piece of work on most lists and it is the one that pays off longest.

5. Fix what is stopping enquiries

Test your own form from a phone. A broken form makes every other fix on the list worth less.

6. Then decide whether you want help

With a specific list in front of you rather than a proposal. That is the conversation we would rather have.

A couple of days to come back to you. The fixes on it run on their own timelines: the listing moves quickly, pages and reviews are the slow half.

The order it happens in

• You send the business name. That is the whole ask. We find the rest.
• We run the grid and the comparison. A couple of hours of work, and it comes back within a few days.
• You start on the free half. Listing, reviews, hours, photographs. The part that moves first.

The report is a picture of one moment. If you act on it, it is worth running again on the same points later, because two grids months apart is the only honest measure of whether anything worked.

A Newcastle business that shows up for its own name and not much else, or one already paying for marketing and unsure what it is getting. It is less useful for a business with no website yet.

It is worth being straight about who gets something out of this, because a report that tells a business what it already knew is a waste of everybody's time.

Where it helps most

• You rank for your own name and little else. The most common case, and the one with the clearest list at the end.
• You are already paying somebody. And you want an outside opinion on what has been done and what has not.
• You are strong in one suburb only. The grid shows exactly where you fall off, which turns a vague ambition into a target.
• You are about to spend on advertising. Worth knowing what the free half would do first, because it makes the paid half cheaper.

If you do not have a website yet, the report has less to look at. The listing half still applies and it is worth doing on its own.

What we need from you, what happens to your details, who else sees it, and what happens afterwards. Short answers to all four.

These are the questions we get asked before people send their details, so they are answered here rather than on a call.

• What do you need from me? Your business name and the suburbs you want work from. Everything we look at is already public.
• Do you need access to my accounts? For the report, no. Everything in it is visible from the outside.
• What happens to my details? They stay with us and they are used to send you the report.
• What happens afterwards? You get the list. Whether we ever speak again is entirely your call, and the list works either way.

If you would rather just have the conversation, the phone number below reaches us directly.