When someone searches for “dentist near me” or “emergency plumber” plus a town name, Google shows a map with a short list of businesses above the ordinary results. For any business that serves a local area, appearing in that list is often worth more than ranking first beneath it.
Local search works differently from the rest of SEO, and the basics are within reach of any business owner. Here is how it works and where to put your effort.
How Google chooses local results
Google says it weighs three things:
- Relevance. How well your business matches what the person searched for.
- Distance. How far you are from the searcher, or from the place they named.
- Prominence. How well known and well regarded the business is, judged by reviews, mentions and links across the web and by how you rank in ordinary results.
You cannot change where your customers are standing. Everything below is about relevance and prominence, the two you can influence.
1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
Your Business Profile is the listing that appears on Google Maps and in the local results. It is free, and it is the most important single piece of local SEO.
- Claim and verify it so that you, not a stranger or a former employee, control what it says.
- Choose your primary category carefully. It has a large effect on which searches you appear for. Pick the most specific one that fits.
- Keep hours accurate, including holidays. Wrong hours cost you customers and reviews.
- List your services and write a description in plain language.
- Add real photos of your premises, your team and your work.
- If you travel to customers, set a service area instead of showing a street address.
2. Keep your details identical everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should match exactly on your website, your Business Profile, social profiles and every directory that lists you. Old addresses, tracking numbers and name variations make search engines less sure which details are right, and customers less likely to reach you.
Search for your business name and your phone number once or twice a year and correct anything out of date.
3. Ask for reviews, and answer them
Reviews influence both where you appear and whether anyone clicks. The businesses with strong review profiles are usually the ones that simply ask.
- Ask every satisfied customer, soon after the job, and send them a direct link.
- Reply to every review, including the critical ones. A calm, helpful reply to a complaint reassures everyone who reads it later.
- Never pay for reviews, offer rewards for them, or ask only the customers you expect to be positive. All three break Google’s rules and can get reviews removed or a profile suspended.
4. Make your website clearly local
Your site backs up what your profile claims.
- Put your name, address, phone number and hours on a contact page and in the footer.
- Say where you work. If you serve several towns, a page for each can help, but only if each one has something real to say: the work you do there, local examples, specific details. Copies of one page with the town name swapped do not help.
- Add local business structured data so search engines can read your details without guessing.
- Mention the areas you cover naturally in your service pages.
5. Be fast and easy to use on a phone
Most local searches happen on phones, often by people who want to act immediately. If your site is slow or the phone number can’t be tapped, they move on to the next result. Our guide to Core Web Vitals explains how to check your speed.
What if you don’t have a storefront?
Businesses that visit customers, such as trades, cleaners and mobile services, can still have a Business Profile by setting a service area. Businesses that work entirely online with customers anywhere generally aren’t eligible for one, and should put their effort into ordinary SEO instead: useful content, a fast site and a good reputation in their field.
A one-hour local SEO checkup
- Search for your business by name. Is the profile claimed, and is everything on it correct?
- Check that your category, hours and phone number are right.
- Compare the details on your website with those on your profile, character for character.
- Count your reviews from the past three months. If there are none, start asking this week.
- Open your website on your phone. Can you call, get directions or send an enquiry within a few seconds?
These basics do most of the work. If you have covered them and still aren’t appearing where you should, the cause is usually something specific, and an SEO audit will find it.