Local SEO is everything that decides whether your business shows up when someone nearby searches for what you do. Google weighs three things for local results: how relevant you are to the search, how close you are to the searcher, and how prominent you are, meaning how well known and well reviewed. You cannot change where your customers are, so in practice local SEO is your Google listing, your reviews and your website working together.
It underpins reason 1 in why your website isn't generating leads: nobody can call a business they cannot find.
The three things Google weighs
- Relevance: does your business match what was searched? Your listing's category and services, and your website's pages, decide this.
- Distance: how far you are from the searcher, or from the town they named. You cannot change this, which is why you will not appear in towns far from your area however good everything else is.
- Prominence: how established and trusted you are. Reviews, links from other local sites, mentions in local news and directories, and a website that is clearly a real business all add to it.
The listing's part
The Google Business Profile does most of the work for map results: the right primary category, a real service area or address, hours, photos and a steady flow of reviews. Google Business Profile for a local business covers each piece.
The website's part
- A page per service, each with a title naming the service and the town.
- Your towns named in plain words on the page.
- The same business name, phone number and address or service area as the listing.
- Business details Google can read, added by whoever builds the site.
- Fast and usable on a phone.
Reviews' part
The number, how recent they are, and how you reply all count. Ask every customer. How to get more Google reviews has the method.
What you can ignore
Pages that repeat a keyword over and over, a page for every town in the county with the name swapped, paid links, and anyone promising you a particular position. None of these help a local business, and some can hurt it.
Check the website's part
The free website audit checks the website half of local SEO: titles, business details, whether Google can read the site, and whether it works on a phone. The listing is yours to check against the site: the same name, phone and hours on both. An electrician, a landscaper or a cleaning company without a storefront relies on these more than most.