When someone needs what you do nearby, they search, they look at the three businesses in the map results, and they call one of them. Everything below that is a distant second. Local SEO is the work that puts you in those three.
The concentration in local search is brutal and worth being honest about. The three businesses shown in the map pack take the significant majority of the calls. Position four is a long way behind position three, and page two may as well not exist.
That is bad news if you are sitting at position eight, and good news once you understand that what decides it is not mysterious. It is a short list of signals, most of which are entirely within your control, and most businesses only ever get one or two of them right.
Three things, in the order they actually move the needle.
The highest-leverage asset a local business has, and the most commonly neglected. Categories, services, service areas, photos and posts, all kept current rather than set once and forgotten.
A simple system for asking at the right moment, plus a reply to every review. Recency counts as much as the total, so a steady trickle beats a burst two years ago.
Your business details identical everywhere online, and real pages for the services and areas you cover. Not thin suburb clones, which stopped working years ago.
Google weighs a small number of things, and most businesses only ever do one of them.
Most businesses have a complete-ish profile, a handful of old reviews, and a website that never mentions the suburbs they actually service. Fixing the third one is usually what moves the other two.
In our experience retainers in this market commonly run $1,500 to $3,000 a month. Our pricing is competitive because delivery is AI-enabled, and the reason is structural rather than promotional.
| Traditional agency | Dizian | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $1,500 to $3,000 | Competitive, delivery is AI-enabled |
| Who runs it | Account manager, work done by juniors | One experienced expert, AI doing the manual layers |
| Minimum term | Commonly a fixed lock-in | 30 day terms, no lock-in |
| Where the fee goes | Work plus team and office overhead | Work plus tooling, with the difference free for media |
The saving does not vanish. It goes back into your marketing rather than ours, which is what lifts your return.
We are Melbourne based and a good share of our local work sits in the south-east: Dandenong South, Clayton, Moorabbin, Braeside, Keysborough, Mulgrave and Notting Hill. Proximity is a ranking factor you cannot argue with, so we would rather target the areas you can realistically win than sell you a map of the whole city.
If you serve a wider area, we will tell you honestly which suburbs are reachable and which are not.
Published results from named clients, not anonymous claims.
Over 14 years in business and an accredited Google Partner throughout.
Most businesses see early movement in about 8 to 12 weeks. Local SEO often moves faster than national SEO because the competition set is smaller and profile fixes register quickly. Anyone promising the top three inside a month is either targeting phrases nobody searches or ignoring proximity.
Want to know where you currently sit in the map pack? Book a free digital audit at dizian.com.au/contact, or see how affordable SEO in Melbourne is priced and what our full SEO services cover.
Three factors do most of the work. Only two of them are in your control.
How close you are to the searcher, and the one factor you cannot change. It is why realistic suburb targeting beats a map of the whole city.
Complete, current and active. Categories, service areas, photos and posts. The highest-leverage asset a local business owns and the most neglected.
Recency counts as much as the total, and replies count more than most expect. Prospects read the replies as closely as the reviews.
Search Engine Optimisations from local ranking to global markets.
How many Google reviews do I need to rank locally?
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
How much does local SEO cost in Melbourne?
How long does local SEO take to work?
How do I rank in the Google map pack in Melbourne?
Can my business still rank well if Google is showing AI answers?