A·01How much does it cost?+
Rankwise has three set rates: Starter at $450 per month, Foundation at $750, and Growth at $1,250, month-to-month, no long contracts, no negotiation. Starter gets your Google Business Profile fully optimized, plus a review system and a rank snapshot. Foundation is the complete Maps engine for one city. Growth adds analytics, content, and room to expand across 2 to 3 cities. For scale: if better visibility brings you one extra customer a month who is worth more to you than the fee, it covers itself. Book the free rank check and we will show you the opportunity in your specific market and give you the exact break-even for your average ticket on the call.
A·02Am I locked into a contract?+
No long-term contracts. It is month to month: cancel any time, with no notice period, and service runs to the end of the month you have paid for. If you want to stop, just tell us and that is it. We do not believe in trapping people.
A·03What if it does not work?+
On Foundation and Growth, before month one begins, we document your current Map Pack position for 3 to 5 agreed search terms in your area and set a 90-day target position in writing. We track it weekly using the same method we set up on day one. If we miss the agreed milestone, billing pauses until we hit it. No arguing about whether it counts: the starting position and the target are both documented before we take your first payment. Starter carries a narrower written guarantee: your profile optimization is done within 30 days.
A·04How much of my time does this take?+
About 30 minutes upfront for a quick onboarding call where we get access to your Google listing and learn about your business. After that, we just need you to send us photos of recent work or your space. A quick phone photo works fine, and for patient or client areas, only send what you have consent to share. That is it. We handle everything else. You will get a monthly report and a check-in call, but the day-to-day work is all on us.
A·05How fast will I see results?+
The profile work itself is done in the first 30 days. Ranking changes usually take longer to show than profile changes, which is why the written target on Foundation and Growth is set at day 90. How fast your position moves depends on your market, and we report the numbers either way.
A·06Do you work with competitors in my city?+
No. I take one business per city, per service category. That is a hard rule. For fields with specialties, that means your competitive category (personal-injury law, or orthodontics), not the broad label, so it shields you from real competitors and not from businesses you never compete with. If your city is open when you book the audit, your local competitors in the same category cannot hire Rankwise while you are a client. It also means every strategy I build is built for your market, not split across businesses competing for the same customers.
A·07What is local SEO?+
Local SEO is the work that gets your business shown in Google's local results: the Map Pack of three businesses and the map that sit above the website links when someone searches for a service near them. It covers your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your citations across directories, and a page for each area you serve. Rankwise runs all of it month to month, tracked against a ranking target we put in writing.
A·08How do I rank higher on Google Maps?+
Google ranks the local Map Pack on three things: relevance (your profile's categories and services), proximity (where the searcher is), and prominence (reviews, profile activity, citations, and how complete your listing is). Proximity you can't change; the rest is winnable. A complete profile, a steady flow of genuine reviews, weekly posts, and clean citations move you up. That's the work Rankwise manages, tracked weekly against a written 90-day target on Foundation and Growth plans.
A·09How do I get more Google reviews?+
The reliable way is a simple post-visit flow: ask every customer right after the job, with the same neutral request and a direct link to your Google review page. Rankwise sets that up and keeps it running using Google's own tools (never incentivized or fake reviews) and following your industry's advertising rules. Review count and recency are among the strongest Map Pack signals, so a steady pace beats a one-time push.
A·10What does a local marketing agency do?+
A local marketing agency helps a business get found by nearby customers who are searching right now. Rankwise focuses on one part of that: local search, your Google Business Profile, reviews, and city pages that decide who shows up in the Map Pack. That is our core. If you also want Google or Meta ads, we can run them alongside it or work with your current setup; we don't build websites or manage social. The goal is the local-search visibility that turns "near me" searches into calls, month to month, with pay tied to a written ranking target.
A·11What if my business has bad reviews?+
A few bad reviews are normal, and they do not sink a listing on their own. Here is how Rankwise approaches it. Reply to each one calmly and professionally, stick to the facts, and offer to sort it out directly, because future customers read your reply as closely as the review. Keep asking every customer for a review at a steady pace, with the same neutral request whether you think they were happy or not, so one bad week is not most of what people see. If a review breaks Google's rules (spam, someone who was never a customer, a conflict of interest), we flag it through Google's own process; Google makes that call, so we never promise a removal. We never buy reviews, post fake ones, or ask only the customers we expect to be happy, because all of that breaks Google's policies and can put your listing at risk. For regulated professions, review work also follows your regulator's advertising rules.