Search Console and Google Business Profile SEO updates

What was done

• Google Search Console — domain property verification. Verified the baileyengineers.com domain property using the Cloudflare DNS authorization flow. Domain-level verification covers all subdomains and both http/https, so we don’t have to re-verify per-prefix.
• Sitemap submitted. Submitted sitemap-index.xml in Google Search Console. Google reported “Sitemap submitted successfully” and “Sitemap index processed successfully,” which means the index file and the child sitemaps it references are now in Google’s queue for crawl.
• Google Business Profile — basics refreshed. Reviewed and updated profile basics (business name, address, phone, hours, website URL) so they match the canonical NAP used everywhere else on the site and in src/data/site.ts.
• GBP categories tightened. Set the primary category to align with how developers, realtors, and attorneys actually search for Bailey’s work, with civil-engineering-adjacent secondary categories supporting it. Categories are the single biggest GBP ranking lever, so this is intentional.
• GBP services populated. Filled out the Services section to mirror the five-discipline structure on /services/ (entitlement, surveying, civil design, construction administration, materials testing) so the profile signals the same scope as the website.
• GBP service-package products created. Added Services as Products entries describing Bailey’s signature engagements (e.g., subdivision platting, site plan engineering) so the profile surfaces packaged offerings instead of just generic category labels.
• Review post drafted. Drafted a short Google review template for the recent Eagle site-evaluation client to encourage authentic feedback once they’re ready to post.

Why

This work directly supports two streams of the published SEO + AI visibility plan in src/content/seo-plan/items.json:

• Phase 1 — Foundation: GSC verification + sitemap submission close out the last piece of crawl-side infrastructure. Without GSC, we have no signal on indexing coverage, no rich-results validation feedback loop, and no place to land manual-action / security alerts. Submitting the sitemap-index ensures Google sees the full URL inventory, including service-area and Dev.IQ pages that aren’t well-linked from the homepage.
• Phase 5 — Local business presence: Google Business Profile consistency drives “civil engineers near me” results across Google Search and Google Maps for the Treasure Valley. Categories, services, and service-package products are how the profile communicates what Bailey does (vs. just who Bailey is), and those signals also feed the AI overviews that increasingly answer local-intent queries.

The dev-log entry exists so future contributors can see the GSC/GBP changes are intentional and dated, and so the audit trail stays in the codebase rather than buried in a Google account.

Files affected

• Modified: src/content/seo-plan/items.json
  • Bumped lastUpdated to 2026-05-07.
  • gsc-property → done, with completedAt: "2026-05-07" and evidence noting verification + sitemap success.
  • google-business-profile → in_progress, with evidence noting the 2026-05-07 basics/categories/services/products refresh. Status not yet done because postcard verification has not been completed.
• Created: src/content/devlog/2026-05-07-search-console-gbp-seo.md (this entry).

Follow-ups

• Postcard-verify the GBP listing once it arrives (ETA ~5–14 days), then mark google-business-profile done.
• After ~1–2 weeks of GSC crawl data, run /toprank:seo-analysis (toprank-baseline item, target 2026-05-22) for the full-site SEO baseline.
• Import the verified domain into Bing Webmaster Tools (bing-wmt, target 2026-05-15) so Bing/Yahoo/DuckDuckGo/Ecosia get the same sitemap.
• Apple Business Connect + Bing Places are the next two Phase 5 items in flight.