Tips on increasing presence/ranking of local business on Google organically?

Hey all,

My father runs a local business of pest control, one of which 'Company X' does well and covers a certain area, gets a constant steady influx of customers, thanks to its presence and ranking on Google when searched. However, 'Company Z' has little to no presence and ranks extremely low.

Any quick tips to increase presence and ranking when searched? Configure within google business manager etc? Any advice appreciated, sorry for the brief message/lack of detail.

not really interested in paid marketing or SEO as such, but more organic methods I can do for him

This may be relevant to you - its a guide that was shared recently in an SEO newsletter that I subscribe to. Its basically a check-list for optimizing your GMB listing -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/109bEkXVMC4MOL34_DsTv2afTe1G9O0hNH8o0o_MDwDk/edit#gid=0
Aside from that, I would say that reviews are extremely important. I personally use reviews.co, which is a paid service that will make the process of collecting reviews super easy (And importantly, it makes leaivng the review extremely easy). It will also direct a percentage of reviewers directly to Google to leave their review (If they are logged in to gmail at the time), which is handy.

I would suggest incentivising your customers in every way possible to leave reviews for you as they will really boost your local listing positions.