Show up where neighbors are looking
The map and the results under it for the searches that bring work: your service plus your town, or “near me.”
5.0 on Google from 30 reviews · Since 2012
SEO for Northern Michigan businesses
Up north, a lot of your customers are searching from somewhere else, weeks before they arrive. I help Northern Michigan businesses rank for visitors and locals alike.
- A fixed quote before any work starts
- Month to month, no contract
- You deal with me, not an account manager
5.0 Google, 30 reviews5.0 Clutch, 5 verified reviews
14 yearsBuilding sites since 2012
$200K+Earned on Upwork, 154 jobsWhat you get
What local SEO should do for your business
You’re hiring someone who has done this for other businesses, not read about it. Thirteen SEO contracts on Upwork since 2016, from audits and setups for Eric W. and Nadia C. to ongoing work for Just Digital, Digital Concierge and Kenedy T., plus the local SEO I run for Captain Hook’s in the Florida Keys. The contracts are on my Upwork profile.
See what moved, every month
Rankings, Maps visibility, calls and form leads in one report, next to what I worked on and what is next.
Stop if it stops paying
Month to month, no lock-in. If the work is not paying for itself, you can end it.
Local SEO
From $2,000 per month
The price depends on how many locations and services you have, how much content you need, and how crowded your market is. You get a written, fixed quote after a free consultation. No contract lock-in.
Up north, many of your customers live somewhere else
Northern Michigan runs on two kinds of customers: the people who live there all year, and the people who drive up for a week. Most local SEO advice is written for the first kind. Up north, the second kind can make or break your summer, and an SEO company that treats you like a downstate plumber will miss them.
Traverse City is the clearest example. The 2020 census counted 15,678 people in the city. The National Cherry Festival, held every July since 1925, draws about 500,000 visitors. Hospitality employs roughly 14% of the Grand Traverse workforce. Those visitors don’t search the way locals do. Weeks ahead, from Grand Rapids or Chicago, they type the town name into Google: “Traverse City breakfast,” “Old Mission wineries,” “boat rental Petoskey.” Google can’t rank you by how close they are, because they aren’t close yet. It ranks the businesses whose websites and profiles best match the words.
Once they arrive, everything flips. Now they’re searching “near me” from a hotel room or a beach parking lot, and Google Maps picks the closest strong profiles. You need to win both.
What to settle before you hire an SEO company up north
What does the work cover for a seasonal business?
Town and season pages: pages that name the town, the season and the trip (“fall color tours from Petoskey,” “winter hours”), written so a visitor finds a real answer. Seasonal Google Business Profile work: special hours for holidays and the off season, fresh photos each spring, posts tied to events like the Cherry Festival, and the attributes visitors filter by. Reviews: tourists leave once and rarely come back to review, so I set up a simple way to ask while they’re still in town. Listings visitors use: Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, TripAdvisor where it fits your business, and the local visitor directories, all with matching details. And if you serve residents too, like healthcare, trades or legal, pages for those year-round searches so your winter doesn’t depend on tourists.
When should the work start if my season is summer?
Fixing a site and profile in May is late for a business that does most of its revenue in July. Google needs time to find new pages, and reviews take time to collect. If you’re seasonal, the off season is the time to start, so the pages, hours and reviews are in place when visitors begin planning from downstate. I’ll tell you what’s realistic for your timing before you sign anything, and I won’t promise a date that Google doesn’t let me promise.
What will I see each month?
Rankings for the searches we agreed matter, split into the planning searches that name your town and the “near me” searches from people already here. Maps visibility, calls from the profile and the site, direction requests and form leads, with the previous month beside them. Under that, what I worked on and why, and what’s next. For a seasonal business the comparison that matters is this July against last July, so I show the same month last year too.
What do you need from me?
Manager access to your Google Business Profile. Your real hours by season, including the week you close. Photos of the place, the view, the boats, the food, whatever visitors come for, taken by you rather than pulled from stock. The events and dates that drive your bookings. A few minutes a week in season to ask guests for a review with a link I give you. And answers to a short list of questions when I write a page, because the details a visitor plans around come from you.
Towns, each with its own search market
Tell me what your business does and where, and you get a written, fixed quote. No contract lock-in.
Get my quoteOr call 586-221-0792“Northern Michigan” covers dozens of towns, and Google treats each one as its own market.
- Traverse City. The Grand Traverse County seat, with a four-county metro of 153,448. Munson Healthcare is headquartered here and is the largest employer north of US 10, with more than 5,500 employees. Cherry Capital Airport is the third busiest airport in Michigan, which brings in visitors year round. The Old Mission Peninsula, next to the city, has a wine region with more than 50 wineries in the area.
- Petoskey. The Emmet County seat, with 5,877 people in 2020, on the south shore of Little Traverse Bay. It gives its name to the Petoskey stone, Michigan’s state stone. Harbor Springs sits directly across the bay, so many searches cover both towns.
- The lakeshore. Sleeping Bear Dunes is about 20 miles west-northwest of Traverse City, and businesses near it get searches from people building whole trip plans.
A wine tasting room on Old Mission and a dentist in Petoskey have almost nothing in common in how they should rank. I build the plan around your town and your customer, from Harrison Township, about five hours south of Traverse City and Petoskey by car. Many of the visitors you want start their trip down here, so I know how they plan it.
How it works
What a month of local SEO work looks like
- 01
Audit
Your site, your profile and the businesses above you, written up in the order I will fix things.
- 02
Fix the foundation
Titles, page structure, speed, schema, redirects, duplicate listings and citation errors.
- 03
Build and earn
Service and town pages, articles for what customers search, profile posts, local links and a simple way to ask for reviews.
- 04
Report
Rankings, Maps visibility, calls and leads, plus what I did and why.
Who you'd work with
The web designer and local SEO consultant you'll actually talk to
I'm Ryan York, and WebPossible is a one-person web design and SEO company in Harrison Township, Macomb County. I learned the work as a scuba diver in the Florida Keys, tired of waiting on the person who ran our website, which is why I think about the phone ringing first and the design second. There's no team to hand you off to. The person who answers your first call is the person who designs your website, builds it and checks your rankings.
- 14
- years building sites, since 2012
- 154
- jobs completed on Upwork
- 5.0
- stars on Google from 30 reviews
Reviews
Reviews from SEO and web design clients on Google, Clutch and Upwork
5.0 stars from 30 Google reviews, 5.0 from 5 verified Clutch reviews, and 83 client reviews on Upwork since 2016. 6 of the 13 I quote in full, with the source linked.
Kara D.
I hired Ryan to help improve the SEO of my business website and he has been so easy to work with from the time I submitted my inquiry through the finishing touches. He is extremely responsive, organized in his approach, and thoughtful in his execution. I had many questions that I threw at Ryan, and he was able to answer them all, which made me feel really good about the entire process. Since the initial work started, I have added on more page updates because I am already seeing positive results. I look forward to continuing to work with Ryan and wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to other business owners that I know!
Operations Manager, Friendly Logistics
Communication is key, and that's his strong suit.
Website HQ
Ryan was phenomenal to work with! He asked great questions, understood our project, and delivered without issue and right on schedule. I definitely will re-hire and recommend him.
Arlene S. Pedersen
I have used Ryan for many years and on many client websites, he has always been responsive, efficient and been great to work with. With his expertise, he has been able to facilitate creating websites I am proud of, and I have always been able to count on him. I trust him completely and have recommended him to my past clients for ongoing work.
General Manager, Cash Buyers Macomb
Ryan was a perfect fit. He's my first call if I ever need any help establishing or increasing my online footprint.
NewtonX
Ryan had excellent attention to detail and delivered with quality and speed when necessary.
FAQ
Questions from Northern Michigan business owners
How do I rank for tourists who aren't in town yet?
People planning a trip search with the town name, like "kayak rental Petoskey" or "best breakfast Traverse City." Google can't use their location, so it leans on your website and profile matching those words. Pages and profile details that name the town and the season do most of the work.
My business is seasonal. Should I keep my Google profile active in the off season?
Yes. Set your seasonal hours in the profile so it doesn't show you as open when you're closed, and keep posting through the winter. A profile that goes quiet for six months has to win its ground back every spring.
How much does SEO cost for a Northern Michigan business?
My local SEO starts at $2,000 a month. Some seasonal businesses do the heavy work in winter and spring so they're ready by summer. You get a fixed written quote, and it's month to month.
You're near Detroit. How does that work for a business up north?
By phone, video call and email, the same way I work with every client. I'm about five hours south by car, and nothing in the work needs me on site.
Service area
Working with Northern Michigan businesses from Harrison Township
I'm in Harrison Township, Macomb County, on the Lake St. Clair side of metro Detroit. Most clients are in southeast Michigan, and I work with businesses across the state and beyond by phone, video call and email.
WebPossible41253 Clairpointe
Harrison Township, MI 48045
586-221-0792
info@webpossible.net
See my Google Business Profile
Nearby: Mount Pleasant, Midland, Saginaw, Detroit, or local SEO across Michigan.
SEO pages by area
Northern Michigan. Open in Google Maps
Also
Related services
Tell me what you need. I’ll tell you what it costs.
A free quote, a straight answer, and no sales pitch. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so.