How to Rank on Google in Letchworth Without Paying for Ads

Right, let's talk about ranking without spending money on ads

I had someone ask me this last week. Local builder, does extensions and loft conversions around Letchworth and Hitchin. Been running Google Ads for three years, spending about £600 a month, and it suddenly hit him that the second he stops paying, he disappears.

Which is exactly how Google Ads works. But still, the realisation properly winds people up.

So he asked me: how do I show up on Google without paying for it?

And look, I've been doing this for 15 years now. Run Hert Bots out of Letchworth. The last three years have been basically all AI search and what we call AEO, but before that it was straight SEO. Still is, really, just evolved a bit. And the answer to "how do I rank without ads" hasn't changed as much as you'd think.

It's just that most people do it backwards.

What actually makes Google show your business

Google's job is to show people the thing they're looking for. Not the business that paid the most. Not the website with the fanciest design. The thing that answers the question.

When someone in Letchworth searches "kitchen fitter near me" or "solicitor Baldock" or whatever, Google's looking at hundreds of signals to work out which businesses to show. Some of those signals are on your website. Some are scattered around the internet. Some are about what other people say about you.

The big ones:

• Your Google Business Profile. This is the box that shows up on the right when people search your business name, or in the map results when they search for your service + location.
• Your actual website and whether it answers what people are searching for
• What other websites say about you (links, basically)
• Reviews and how many you've got
• How people behave when they land on your site (do they immediately leave, or do they stick around)
• How close you are to the person searching (for local stuff)

And then there's this whole other layer now with AI search. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overview thing. They pull from the same places but they weight things differently. We've been tracking this stuff since 2023 and honestly it's changed how we do everything.

But let's start with the basics because if you're not doing these, nothing else matters.

Your Google Business Profile is probably half-arsed

I can tell you right now, without looking, that 70% of local businesses in Letchworth have a Google Business Profile that's basically just their name, address, and phone number. Maybe a photo from 2019 that's blurry.

And then they wonder why they don't rank.

Your GBP is free. Completely free. And for local searches, it's the single biggest factor in whether you show up or not. I've seen businesses rank above competitors with better websites just because their GBP was properly sorted.

Here's what "properly sorted" means:

• Every section filled out. Description, services, attributes, hours (including special hours for bank holidays), the lot.
• Photos added regularly. Not just of your shopfront. Show your work, your team, your process. We're talking every couple of weeks.
• Posts. Yeah, the little updates section that no one uses. Use it. Put offers in there, new services, projects you've finished. Google sees that as fresh activity.
• Reviews. And I don't just mean getting them (though yes, get them). I mean responding to every single one. Even the good ones. Especially the bad ones.
• Categories. Pick the main one carefully, then add every secondary category that fits. Don't just put "Builder" if you also do plastering and carpentry.

I worked with a café in Hitchin last year. They weren't ranking for "café near me" even though they're right in the bloody town centre. Turned out their primary category was "Coffee shop" when it should've been "Café". Changed it, added some posts, got them asking for reviews properly. Three weeks later they were in the map pack.

That's not some magic trick. That's just doing the basics properly.

Your website needs to actually answer questions

Most business websites are about the business. "We've been established since 1987." "We pride ourselves on quality." "Our team is experienced and professional."

Cool. But what does someone searching for your service actually want to know?

They want to know if you do the specific thing they need. If you cover their area. How much it costs (rough ballpark is fine). What the process looks like. How long it takes. Whether you're any good at it.

Your website should answer those questions before they have to ask.

Let's say you're a plumber in Letchworth. Someone searches "emergency plumber Letchworth". They land on your site. What do they need to see?

• That you do emergency callouts (obviously)
• That you cover Letchworth specifically
• Your phone number massive and clickable
• Rough idea of callout charges
• How fast you can get there
• Some evidence you're not going to flood their house worse than it already is

Most plumber websites I see have none of that above the fold. It's all "Welcome to Smith Plumbing, established 1995, we pride ourselves on..."

And people leave. Bounce rate goes up. Google sees that and goes "hmm, people don't seem to like this site for that search" and you drop.

The websites that rank aren't necessarily the prettiest. They're the ones that give people what they came for fast.

The thing about links that no one explains properly

You need other websites to link to yours. Everyone knows this bit. But most people think it means buying links or doing some weird reciprocal link exchange thing.

That's not it.

Google wants to see that other legitimate websites mention you because you're worth mentioning. Like citations in a research paper. The more credible websites that reference you, the more credible you look.

For local businesses, this is actually easier than it sounds:

• Local news sites. If you've done something newsworthy (charity work, hired apprentices, opened a new location), send it to the Comet or whatever local news site covers your area. They'll often write it up. That's a link.
• Business directories that actually matter. Not the spammy ones. Yell, Thomson Local, Yelp if you're in hospitality, trade-specific directories.
• Suppliers and partners. If you work with other businesses, can they list you as a partner or case study?
• Local organisations. Chamber of commerce, BID if Letchworth has one (it does), industry bodies.

I'm not talking about hundreds of links. I'm talking about 10 or 20 proper ones from websites that Google already trusts. That'll do more than 100 from random blog comment sections.

Content that actually helps people find you

This is where it gets interesting. And where AI search has changed things a bit.

Used to be you'd write blog posts to rank for search terms. "How to choose a solicitor" or "Kitchen renovation costs" or whatever. Still works. But now you've also got AI tools pulling from those same sources to answer questions.

Someone asks ChatGPT "how much does a loft conversion cost in Letchworth" and if you've got a decent page about that on your site, there's a chance it pulls from you. Cites you. Sends people your way.

We call this AEO. Answer Engine Optimisation. It's about making your content easy for AI to understand and reference.

Practically speaking, that means:

• Answer questions directly. Don't bury the answer six paragraphs in.
• Use clear structure. Headings, lists, definitions.
• Be specific about location. Don't just say "in this area". Say Letchworth, Hitchin, Baldock, wherever you actually work.
• Update it. AI tools prefer recent information.

But honestly, even if you ignore all the AI stuff, writing useful content still works for regular Google search. I've got a client who's an accountant in Stevenage. He wrote a simple guide about IR35 for contractors. Nothing fancy. Just explained it clearly. That page has brought him more clients than anything else he's done. Because people search for it, land on his page, read it, and go "this guy knows what he's talking about, I'll call him."

That's how it's supposed to work.

The bit everyone skips: actually checking what's working

Most businesses set up their website, maybe do a bit of SEO stuff, and then never look at it again until they're annoyed they're not ranking.

You need to actually track what's happening. Google Search Console is free. Google Analytics is free. They tell you what people are searching for to find you, which pages they land on, how long they stay.

I look at this stuff every week for our clients. Not because I'm obsessive (well, maybe a bit), but because it tells you what's working and what isn't.

Had a client who was getting loads of traffic for "garden maintenance Royston" but barely any calls. Looked at the page. It was all about lawn care. People searching that term wanted hedge trimming and general tidying, not just lawns. We tweaked the page, added the other services properly. Calls went up.

You can't fix what you don't measure.

How long this actually takes

Right, the annoying bit. This isn't fast.

Google Ads are instant. You turn them on, you show up. You turn them off, you disappear. SEO is the opposite. It's slow to start, then it compounds.

Realistically, if you're starting from scratch, you're looking at three to six months before you see proper movement. Longer if you're in a competitive area for a competitive search term. But once you're ranking, you tend to stay there if you keep doing the basics.

I've got clients who've been ranking for their main terms for years now. They still do a bit of maintenance, add content occasionally, keep their GBP fresh. But they're not constantly fighting to stay visible like they would be with ads.

It's front-loaded effort for long-term results. Which is the opposite of how most people want to do business, but it's how this works.

So what do you actually do first

If I'm talking to a business in Letchworth who wants to rank without paying for ads, here's what I tell them to start with:

Sort your Google Business Profile properly. Every section. Good photos. Start asking customers for reviews.

Make sure your website clearly says what you do, where you do it, and how to contact you. Above the fold. No fluff.

Write one really good page about your main service in your main area. Not 200 words. Proper depth. Answer every question someone might have.

Get listed on the local directories that matter. Clean up any wrong information while you're at it.

Then start tracking what happens in Search Console.

That's the foundation. Everything else builds on that. AI search, fancy content strategies, link building, all of it works better when the basics are solid.

And if that sounds like a lot, well. Yeah. It is a bit. Which is why most businesses either don't do it properly, or they get someone like us to do it for them.

We're based in Letchworth, we work with businesses around North Herts. We do this stuff all day. If you want to book a call and talk through what makes sense for your business specifically, sound. If not, take what's in this post and run with it.

Either way, stop paying Google Ads money if it's not working. There's a better way.