Most local businesses in Dhaka are invisible at the exact moment someone is ready to buy. Not because their service is bad, but because when a customer two kilometres away types "best dentist near me", the business does not appear.
This guide is the sequence we run for local clients. It takes about ninety days.
Step 1: Claim and finish your Google Business Profile
Your Business Profile is the single highest-return asset a local business has, and it is free.
- Verify the listing. Unverified profiles do not rank.
- Pick one primary category that matches what you actually sell. Add secondaries after.
- Fill every field: hours, service area, attributes, payment methods.
- Upload at least fifteen real photos. Stock images hurt you.
- Add your services with prices where you can.
A profile at 100% completeness consistently outranks a half-finished one in the same area.
Step 2: Fix your NAP consistency
NAP is Name, Address, Phone. Google cross-checks yours across the web. If your phone number appears three different ways on Facebook, your website and a directory listing, Google trusts you less.
Pick one exact format and use it everywhere, character for character.
Step 3: Build a review engine, not a review campaign
One burst of ten reviews looks manufactured. A steady two or three a week looks like a healthy business.
The system that works:
- Ask in person at the moment of highest satisfaction.
- Send a short link by SMS or WhatsApp within an hour.
- Reply to every review, positive or negative, within a day.
Replying matters more than most owners expect. It signals an active business and gives you a second place to naturally mention your service and area.
Step 4: Build location pages that are actually different
If you serve five areas, five near-identical pages will get you filtered, not ranked. Each page needs something genuinely local: directions, parking, a nearby landmark, a customer story from that area.
Step 5: Measure the right thing
Rankings are a proxy. What matters is calls, direction requests and form fills. Google Business Profile reports all three. Track them monthly, and tie them to actual revenue.
What this looks like after ninety days
For a typical local client we see top-three map pack placement for the main service term, a two to three times increase in direction requests, and a meaningful drop in cost per lead because organic starts carrying the load that ads were paying for.
None of this requires a big budget. It requires doing five unglamorous things properly, in order.
- Local SEO
- Google Business Profile
- Reviews