Local SEO Case Study: Fixing a Google Business Profile That Pointed to the Wrong Country

The situation

The client sells payment services to UAE businesses from an office in Dubai Silicon Oasis. Its marketing site had been built for a US audience. Its Google Business Profile still showed a Michigan location.

What the audit found

• The audit graded a US homepage, not UAE demand. It did not cover Arabic, local payment rails or whether a Dubai buyer could find the company.
• The business ranked first for its own brand name but not for anything a Dubai buyer would type.
• Keywords in positions 2 to 10: none. The company was visible for its own name and little else.
• The Google Business Profile needed a Dubai address and service area.

What we set up

1. Access first. A seven-item list: Search Console, Analytics, Google Ads, Business Profile, Cloudflare, the code repository and DNS. The site runs on Next.js, so SEO fixes go into the code, not a WordPress admin.
2. Profile correction: a Dubai address, UAE service area, correct categories and consistent name, address and phone details.
3. Local schema and hreflang so the right pages serve the UAE.
4. Citation plan: a tracked list of UAE directories and business profiles, each marked "unverified" until a person opens the sign-up page.

Results so far

There are no outcome figures yet. The work was at the plan stage when this page was written. We will publish map-pack visibility, profile views, calls and direction requests once the profile is corrected and has a few weeks of data.

What we will measure

Lessons

• A US-style audit can grade a site well and still miss the market.
• Fix the Business Profile location before building anything else.
• Be clear about what is verified. A citation list is a plan until accounts exist.