Local LabGuides
Docs · version 1.3.001 · Start here 02 · Fill the directory 03 · Earn 04 · Grow 05 · Go live 06 · Keep it running
Local Lab
Local service directories
Start with: What Local Lab is- What Local Lab isWhat the kit builds and the four ways a Local Lab site takes money, with what visitors, business owners and you each see.
- InstallFrom the downloaded folder to a working directory with your own admin account, in about ten minutes.
- Admin tourWhat is on the Admin Dashboard, what every Quick Actions screen is for and who is allowed to open each one.
- Make it your nicheGive the site its name, trade, headline, logo, colours and categories, then clear out the sample content the setup wizard left.
- The data pipelineThe five steps from an empty directory to a full one, which of them must be run on your own computer and which outside accounts each one needs.
- Google PlacesSearch Google for the businesses in your trade, city by city, and come away with a CSV file ready to import. The key, the cost, the filters and the command-line way.
- Claude clean-upHave Claude rewrite the description and write selling points for every business in a CSV file, before you import it.
- Import a CSVLoad hundreds of listings in one go, with the exact column names the importer reads and what it does with duplicates.
- Cities and map pinsAdd cities and countries, switch a city on or off, give listings a map pin and learn which public pages each city gets.
- Listings and claimsFind, approve, edit, move and delete businesses, add one by hand, moderate reviews and hand a listing to its real owner when they claim it.
- Connect StripeCopy your keys from Stripe, create a price for each thing you sell, add the webhook, make a test payment and check the whole setup with one command.
- Featured listingsThree paid placements, on the home page, in a city and in a category. How to price them, connect them to Stripe, and what you and your buyers see.
- Sell leadsTake quote requests from the public and sell access to them, city by city. What customers, business owners and you each see, and what approving a request sets off.
- AdsEarn from Google AdSense and from one advert you sell yourself, shown on the site and in your emails, with a table of the pages that carry them.
- SEOSet the page titles and descriptions that search engines show, add Google Analytics and learn what the sitemap, robots.txt and structured data do without being asked.
- Email, campaigns and bouncesConnect an email account so the site can send, email every unclaimed business an invitation to claim its listing, and know what the bounce tools do and do not do.
- Cold outreachWhen a quote request is approved in a city where no business subscribes, Local Lab emails up to three listed businesses there. Who is chosen, what they are sent and where you see it.
- Telegram and sign-inThree optional connections. Alerts and approvals on your phone through Telegram, a working Google button on the sign-in page and a robot check on your public forms.
- DeployPut one Local Lab site on a server of your own with the kit's deploy script, from a bare machine to the setup wizard.
- Domains and HTTPSGive a site a real certificate and a domain of its own, run several sites on one server, then change or remove them.
- Backups and PostgreSQLWhat runs on your server every night, where the backups go, how to restore one by hand and how to move a SQLite site to PostgreSQL.