Minneapolis
SEO Company.
We're the Minneapolis SEO company that engineers organic visibility your competitors can't reverse. Local SEO, technical audits, and content strategy that compounds month after month.
Minneapolis Made is a Minneapolis SEO agency with 25+ years of experience serving Twin Cities businesses across Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding metro. From local map pack dominance to competitive organic campaigns, we build search strategies grounded in data, not promises.
Free SEO audit. $85/hr. Billed weekly. No retainers, no packages.
Verified Proof
We tested 21 Minneapolis web design agencies. We ranked #1.
Our site scored 98 on Lighthouse mobile with a 2.2-second LCP, the fastest in the Minneapolis market. See every agency's actual Lighthouse score, including the 16 that failed Core Web Vitals.
See the 2026 Speed Report →
Page one isn't a goal.
It's the starting line.
What is local SEO Minneapolis strategy?
Local SEO Minneapolis strategy focuses on the Google Map Pack and location-based searches across the Twin Cities. We handle Google Business Profile optimization, citation building, review management, and local link acquisition to put your business in the top 3 map results.
What does technical SEO include?
Technical SEO covers site speed, crawlability, structured data, and Core Web Vitals. We fix the foundation (indexing issues, broken links, schema markup, server performance) so everything else works.
How does content strategy improve rankings?
We use keyword research and topic clusters to build content that targets real search intent. Every page is mapped to a specific keyword opportunity, not blog posts for the sake of blog posts.
How do you build backlinks?
We use ethical, sustainable link acquisition methods like digital PR, resource page outreach, and strategic partnerships. No paid links, no PBNs, no shortcuts that put your site at risk.
Why hire a Minneapolis SEO company?
The best Minneapolis SEO companies don't start with a sales pitch. They start with a technical audit. We crawl your site, analyze your competitors, pull keyword data, and review your Google Search Console and Analytics before recommending a single change. You get a clear picture of where you stand and exactly what it will take to move the needle.
From there, we build a 90-day roadmap with specific deliverables and measurable targets. Monthly reporting shows exactly what was done, what changed, and what's next. No vanity metrics, no jargon. Just the numbers that matter to your business: rankings, traffic, leads, and revenue.
We use the same tools (Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, Looker Studio) that the best SEO agencies in the country rely on. The difference is you work directly with the person doing the analysis. When you have a question about your rankings at 9pm on a Tuesday, you text me and get an answer. That's how Minneapolis Made has operated for 25 years, and it's why local SEO clients stay.
SEO company vs consultant vs freelancer:
which one do you actually need?
The labels overlap, but the way each model is staffed, priced, and held accountable is different. Here's what you get from each, plus where Minneapolis Made fits in.
SEO Company
A team of specialists across technical, content, local, and links. Strong on capacity and tooling. Usually priced as a monthly retainer with package tiers.
- +Multiple specialists
- +Process and reporting
- −Account managers, not strategists
- −Junior execution
SEO Consultant
A senior strategist who builds the plan, audits results, and advises on direction. Usually does not execute every line item. Often charges hourly or by project.
- +Senior strategy
- +Direct access
- −You hire executors separately
- −Limited capacity
SEO Freelancer
A single individual handling everything. Usually deep in one or two specialties (content, local, or technical) and lighter in the rest. Best for narrow scope or short engagements.
- +Lowest cost
- +Flexible scope
- −Single point of failure
- −Often missing tools
Senior strategy, studio capacity
Christopher Merry personally runs the audit, keyword research, and on-page work. A small editorial team handles content production, link outreach, and ongoing care. Agency-grade tooling, $85/hr with weekly invoices, no retainers.
- ✓Senior strategist on every hour
- ✓Five-person studio for content + ops
- ✓$85/hr, no retainer lock-in
- ✓Weekly billing, weekly accountability
What makes our Minneapolis SEO agency different?
Most Minneapolis SEO agencies sell retainers staffed by rotating junior strategists. We don't. Month one with us is a hands-on diagnostic run by a senior SEO consultant. We complete a full technical crawl, audit your backlink profile, map your keyword landscape against real Twin Cities competitors, and benchmark your Core Web Vitals. You get a written report with every issue prioritized by revenue impact, not just a list of things that are "wrong."
Months two and three are where the work compounds. On-page optimization rolls out across your highest-opportunity pages. We submit structured data fixes, clean up your internal linking architecture, and start building the content assets that target keywords your competitors haven't earned yet. If you're a local Minneapolis business, we're simultaneously building citations, optimizing your Google Business Profile, and generating reviews.
By month four, you're seeing movement. Not vanity metrics, but actual position changes on keywords that drive phone calls and form submissions. From there, we shift to scaling what's working: expanding content clusters, acquiring backlinks from relevant local and industry sources, and monitoring algorithm updates so nothing catches you off guard. That's the difference between our Minneapolis SEO agency and a generic national shop.
What's in the free Minneapolis
SEO audit?
Before any engagement, we run a no-cost, no-obligation audit on your site. You leave with the same diagnostic our paying clients pay for in month one, plus a written summary of the highest-ROI fixes ranked by revenue impact.
Full technical crawl
Screaming Frog crawl plus log-file review. We surface broken links, duplicate content, redirect chains, indexation gaps, mobile rendering issues, and anything blocking Googlebot from doing its job.
Core Web Vitals baseline
Mobile and desktop CrUX field data plus lab tests for LCP, INP, and CLS. We flag the page templates dragging your performance signals down and quantify the lift each fix would produce.
On-page review
Title tags, meta descriptions, H1 hierarchy, internal linking, and content depth across your priority commercial pages. Gaps where competitors have richer or more relevant copy than you do.
Schema and structured data
Validation in Rich Results Test, missing schema types, and opportunities to win rich snippets and AI citations. We report which schema is firing, which is broken, and which is leaving rankings on the table.
GBP & citations
Google Business Profile completeness, category strategy, NAP consistency across the top citation sources for the Twin Cities, and review velocity benchmarks against your local competitors.
Top-10 keyword opportunities
A ranked list of keywords your business can realistically win in the next 6 months, with monthly volume, keyword difficulty, current rank, and the asset you would need to rank.
You receive a written PDF summary, the raw crawl exports, and a 30-minute walkthrough call. There is no obligation to engage after the audit. New to SEO? Start with our 2026 guide ›
One rate. Weekly invoices.
No retainers.
Minneapolis SEO pricing is usually opaque on purpose. Agencies bundle deliverables into "Starter," "Growth," and "Enterprise" packages so it's hard to tell whether you're getting 10 hours of senior strategy or 40 hours of junior content. We don't do that.
Minneapolis Made bills $85 per hour, invoiced every week against the actual hours worked. You see what was done and what it cost, in tight feedback loops. If a month needs more, you scale up. If a month needs less, you scale down. There is no minimum spend, no annual contract, and no junior hand-off after the sales call.
Most local Minneapolis and St. Paul businesses run between 12 and 25 hours per month. Competitive organic campaigns (legal, medical, multi-location) run 25 to 50 hours per month. We scope every engagement after the free audit, so the hour estimate is anchored in your real competition, not a tier name.
Want a real hour estimate for your site?
Book the free audit. We'll come back with a scoped hour range tied to your actual goals and competition.
Book the Free Audit
Why trust Minneapolis Made
with your SEO?
25+ years of search work for Twin Cities businesses, run by the founder, on the same agency-grade tooling the national shops use. The work is local, the strategy is senior, and the rate is transparent. We also run Minneapolis web design and custom web development as part of the same studio, so rankings, page speed, conversion design, and dev work all live under one roof, not stitched together across three vendors.
- Ahrefs & DataForSEO for keyword volume, SERP analysis, and backlink profiles.
- Screaming Frog for full technical crawls, log-file analysis, and indexation triage.
- Google Search Console & CrUX for first-party query, click, and Core Web Vitals data.
- Looker Studio & GA4 for monthly reporting on rankings, traffic, conversions, and revenue.
- Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest for performance and Core Web Vitals validation.
- The senior strategist's mobile number, not a ticketing system.
- Read access to a shared Looker Studio with rankings, traffic, and conversions.
- Weekly invoices showing actual hours by task, not lump-sum retainer fees.
- A 90-day roadmap with prioritized fixes, mapped to revenue impact.
- Direct line to a Minneapolis-based team, not a national reseller.
Want the long version of how we think about modern search? Read the Minneapolis SEO guide or our 2026 local SEO playbook › Shortlisting agencies? See our methodology-first roundup of Minneapolis advertising agencies.
Local SEO in Minneapolis: how to dominate the map pack.
46% of all Google searches have local intent, according to Google's own data. When someone searches "plumber Minneapolis" or "divorce attorney near me," they're ready to act. The map pack captures the majority of clicks in those searches. If you're not in the top three results, you're functionally invisible. That's why local SEO in Minneapolis is the single highest-ROI channel for most Twin Cities businesses.
Local SEO in Minneapolis is different from organic SEO. It runs on a separate set of ranking signals: your Google Business Profile completeness, review count and velocity, NAP consistency across directories, proximity to the searcher, and local backlinks. A real Minneapolis SEO company optimizes every one of those signals systematically, not as an afterthought bolted onto a generic SEO campaign. If you're still vetting firms, our honest roundup of the best SEO companies in Minneapolis breaks down nine agencies by specialty, pricing model, and ideal client.
The Twin Cities metro has 3.7 million people across Minneapolis, St. Paul, and dozens of suburbs. That density creates both opportunity and competition. A business in Edina competing against firms in downtown Minneapolis needs a different Twin Cities SEO strategy than one in Duluth. We build geo-targeted local SEO Minneapolis campaigns matched to where your actual customers are searching, whether you're ranking for "SEO Minneapolis" or a hyperlocal neighborhood term.
Which Minneapolis industries
benefit most from SEO?
Every business can benefit from organic search, but some Minneapolis industries see outsized returns because their customers are actively searching for what they sell. These are the verticals where we've driven the strongest results.
Law Firms
Personal injury, family law, criminal defense. High CPC markets where organic rankings directly offset ad spend. Local map pack placement is non-negotiable when intake calls are worth $500+.
Home Services
Plumbing, HVAC, roofing, remodeling. High-intent local searches with urgent need. Ranking in the map pack for "emergency plumber Minneapolis" at 9pm is worth more than any ad campaign.
Medical & Dental
Clinics, dental offices, specialists. Patients search by condition and proximity. Strong local SEO with review management turns your Google profile into a patient acquisition engine.
E-Commerce
Product pages, category optimization, technical SEO for large catalogs. We've helped Minneapolis retailers reduce paid ad dependency by 40%+ through organic product visibility.
Real Estate
Agents, brokerages, property managers. Neighborhood-level content strategy and hyperlocal keyword targeting that outranks Zillow and Realtor.com for specific Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Restaurants & Hospitality
Menu optimization, Google Maps prominence, review velocity. A restaurant's GBP profile drives more covers than any food blog feature. We make sure yours is working 24/7.
Twin Cities SEO
across the metro.
We work with businesses in 40+ Twin Cities suburbs across the seven-county metro. Whether you're targeting customers in downtown Minneapolis or a Woodbury cul-de-sac, we build the geo-targeted SEO strategy that ranks where your buyers actually search.
Hennepin · Ramsey · Dakota · Anoka · Washington · Scott · Carver
"Minneapolis Made took us from page four to the number one map pack position in under six months. Our phone hasn't stopped ringing."
Local Service Business: Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis SEO Company
frequently asked questions.
Look for a Minneapolis SEO company that starts with a technical audit instead of a sales pitch, shows you real client results with named metrics, offers direct access to the senior strategist (not an account manager), and commits to monthly reporting with ranking, traffic, and conversion data. Avoid any agency that guarantees #1 rankings, pitches cheap link packages, or can't show you a recent case study for a Twin Cities business.
A Minneapolis SEO company is a team with specialists across technical SEO, content, local SEO, and link building. An SEO consultant is a senior strategist who builds the plan and audits the work but typically does not execute every line item. An SEO freelancer is a single individual handling everything, usually limited to one or two specialties. Minneapolis Made is structured as an agency but priced like a consultant, with the senior strategist personally doing the work that drives rankings.
Minneapolis Made bills $85 per hour, invoiced weekly. There are no retainers, no packages, and no fixed-price bundles. A typical local SEO scope runs 12 to 25 hours per month, and a competitive organic campaign for the Twin Cities runs 25 to 50 hours per month. We scope every engagement after a free technical audit, so the hour estimate matches your actual goals and competition.
The free audit covers a full technical crawl, Core Web Vitals baseline on mobile and desktop, on-page review of your priority commercial pages, schema and structured-data check, Google Business Profile and citation review, top-10 keyword opportunity list with volume and difficulty, and a written summary of the highest-ROI fixes. There is no obligation to engage after the audit.
Most clients of our Minneapolis SEO company see measurable movement within 90 days. Significant results, like first-page rankings and meaningful traffic increases, typically take 4-6 months. SEO compounds over time, so the longer you invest, the harder it is for competitors to catch up.
No ethical SEO professional can guarantee specific rankings. Google's algorithm considers hundreds of factors. What we guarantee is a rigorous, data-driven approach that has consistently produced first-page results for our Minneapolis clients across competitive industries.
Local SEO focuses on the map pack and location-based searches, critical for businesses serving a geographic area. Organic SEO targets the traditional blue-link results below the map. Most Minneapolis businesses need both, and we build strategies that address each.
46% of all Google searches have local intent. For Twin Cities businesses, that means nearly half of your potential customers are searching with geographic modifiers like "near me," "Minneapolis," or "St. Paul." Local SEO puts you in front of those searchers through the map pack, local organic results, and Google Business Profile. Without it, you're invisible to people who are actively ready to buy.
Twin Cities SEO is core to what we do. The 3.7 million people in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro live across Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka, Washington, Scott, and Carver counties, and a meaningful share of high-intent searches happen with city-specific modifiers like "Edina," "Bloomington," "St. Paul," "Eagan," "Plymouth," or "Maple Grove." We build geo-targeted Twin Cities SEO campaigns with neighborhood-level content, suburb landing pages where the search volume justifies it, and a Google Business Profile strategy that ranks in the right map packs whether your customer is searching from downtown Minneapolis or a Woodbury cul-de-sac.
Every month of work includes a technical health check, on-page optimization for priority pages, content creation or updates targeting specific keywords, backlink outreach, Google Business Profile management, and a detailed report showing ranking changes, traffic trends, and conversions. You also get direct access to your SEO strategist for questions and strategy adjustments between reports. All work is billed at $85 per hour against the scope we agreed to.
Book your free Minneapolis
SEO audit.
No obligation, no sales pitch. You leave with a written PDF, the raw crawl exports, and a 30-minute walkthrough of your highest-ROI fixes.
$85/hr afterwards. Billed weekly. No retainers.
Book the Free AuditOr call (612) 868-9079
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Minneapolis Made
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Service Area
SEO and search engine optimization services for businesses across the entire 7-county Twin Cities metro area: Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka, Washington, Scott, and Carver counties.
Where we work in the Twin Cities
Headquartered on downtown Minneapolis in Minneapolis. Dedicated landing pages for the suburbs we work in most often.
Also serving Maple Grove, Wayzata, Minnetonka, Eagan, Burnsville, Woodbury, and the broader Twin Cities metro on a project basis.