Google Business Profile for local businesses
How to set up, verify and manage the Google Business Profile that puts your business on Search and Maps.
Read the guideGuides
Guides to Google, ads and AI for local business owners
These guides explain how Google Business Profile, Google reviews, Google Ads, Local Services Ads and AI search work for a local business, in plain English. Each one answers the questions Lane County owners type into Google, then points to the next step.
About 7 in 10 Lane County employer businesses have fewer than 10 employees (Census County Business Patterns, 2023), and 98% of local small business owners are primarily responsible for their own marketing decisions (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report, 2026).
Google Business Profile and reviews
Guides to Google Business Profile, Google reviews and Google Maps
One Google listing powers both guides below. The first explains the listing, and the second explains the reviews that sit on it.
Google reviews for business
How to get more Google reviews, reply to every one and handle the bad ones.
Read the guideGoogle Ads and Local Services Ads
Guides to Google Ads and Local Services Ads
Google sells two kinds of local ads. Local Services Ads charge per lead, and Google Ads search ads run through an auction where you set a maximum cost per click.
Google Ads for local businesses
How the Google Ads auction works, what drives the cost and how to keep the account in your name.
Read the guideGoogle Local Services Ads
How pay-per-lead ads and the Google Verified badge work, and what changes in 2026.
Read the guideAI search
Guides to AI search and Google AI Mode
AI search means a tool answers your question in a written summary, as Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT do. 45% of consumers use ChatGPT or other generative AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% in 2025 (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 2026). The guide below explains how each tool finds and describes local businesses.
AI search for local businesses
How Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and ChatGPT find and describe local businesses.
Read the guideHiring an agency
When does a local business need an agency instead of a guide?
A local business needs an agency when the owner has no time to keep the listing, the reviews, the ads and the website working together. The guides show how each one works. What does an agency do that a guide cannot? It does the work every month and reports what changed.
What a digital marketing agency does for a local business, and how to choose one
What an agency does, what to ask before you hire one and why you should own your accounts.
Read the guideWhen you would rather hand the work over, see our Digital marketing and AI services for Lane County businesses.
Free consultation
Rather hand it over? Talk to the owners Book a free consultation
Book a free consultation and we send you a free, detailed written proposal before any work starts. The owners answer your calls, so you speak to the people who run the work.