Local SEO – how to get found in search in your city

Local SEO is the optimisation that helps customers in your city find you when they search for a service “near me” or with a place name. It rests on a verified, complete Google Business Profile, listings on Bing and Apple Maps, identical contact details everywhere, a steady flow of reviews and a website with location-specific content.

The process in brief:

1. 1Create and verify your Google Business Profile and fill in the category, hours and photos.
2. 2Claim your listings on Bing Places and Apple Business so you also appear on Bing and Apple Maps.
3. 3Keep your name, address and phone number (NAP) identical on your website, profiles and directories.
4. 4Ask for reviews systematically and reply to them.
5. 5Create a city page only where you have a branch or genuinely operate, and give it unique content.

What local SEO is and who it is for

Local SEO targets searches with local intent, such as “plumber Manchester” or “coffee near me”. Google often answers them with a map block of several businesses above the regular results.

It pays off for any business serving customers in a specific place: shops, restaurants, clinics and salons with premises, as well as businesses that travel to customers, such as tradespeople, cleaners or repair services. For a purely online business with no link to a location, it matters less.

According to Google, three factors decide local rankings:

• Relevance: how well a profile matches the search.
• Distance: how far the business is from the searcher or the location in the query.
• Prominence: how well known the business is; Google considers, among other things, links to the website and the number and rating of reviews.

You cannot change distance, but you can work on relevance and prominence.

Google Business Profile: the foundation of local SEO

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free business listing shown in Google Search and Google Maps. A business qualifies if customers visit its premises or if it travels to customers. Google says verified profiles are more likely to show up in search results, and that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking.

Setup and categories

• Name: use exactly the name on your storefront and website. Google’s guidelines do not allow taglines or service descriptions in the name.
• Categories: choose what your business is, not everything it offers. Google recommends using as few categories as possible.
• Address: if you travel to customers and don’t serve them at your address, set a service area and hide the address.
• Hours, phone, website and attributes (parking, accessibility) should be complete and current, including holidays.

Photos and posts

Photos of your premises, team and finished work help customers decide. Google still supports posts (updates, offers, events). It does not state a direct ranking effect, but current content shows the business is active.

Reviews and replies

Reviews affect both prominence and customer decisions. Google recommends replying briefly, politely and to the specific feedback. Reply to negative reviews too; a calm answer speaks to future readers.

Do not offer discounts or gifts for reviews. Google explicitly prohibits incentives and treats such reviews as fake and misleading content. Build the request into your process instead: a link in the email after a finished job or a QR code at the counter.

Beyond Google: Bing Places and Apple Business

Google handles most searches, but other maps still bring customers. Bing Places for Business is a free platform for appearing in Bing search and Bing Maps, now available at bing.com/forbusiness, and it can import your details from Google Business Profile. Apple Business, formerly Apple Business Connect, lets you claim your location on Apple Maps and manage your logo, hours and photos.

NAP: the same details everywhere

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Search engines compare business details across your website, profiles and directories (often called citations). When they differ, search engines cannot be sure which are correct, and customers get confused too.

• Show NAP on your website as text, not only in an image.
• Always use the same format of name, address and phone number.
• After a move or a number change, update all profiles at once.
• Add LocalBusiness structured data; see why structured data is essential for your SEO.

Local landing pages: one page per city only with unique content

If you have several branches or genuinely operate in several cities, a separate page for each location makes sense. It must carry genuinely different content: branch address and contact, hours, team, photos, local references, a map and directions.

Dozens of pages that differ only in the city name fall under what Google’s spam policies call doorway abuse: pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. They won’t bring results and can harm the whole site.

In our process, the structure of local pages follows from keyword research: each local query is assigned to one page so pages don’t compete. Where demand for “service + city” is low and you have no branch there, mention the city on the main service page instead.

Local keywords and content

For local SEO, keywords matter as much as profiles. Local keywords combine a service and a place: “dentist Leeds”, “removals London”, “hairdresser Shoreditch”. Use them naturally in the title and heading of the local page, in the text and in your profile description. Mention neighbourhoods, nearby towns and landmarks your customers know. The technical basics still apply: a fast, mobile-friendly site with proper titles and headings; more in on-page vs off-page SEO.

Local links and directories

Links from local and industry websites support prominence: your council or district, regional news, clubs and events you support, nearby partners, associations and chambers of commerce. Directories make sense when people actually use them; mass submissions do not help. Methods are covered in our guide to link building.

Track results in your Google Business Profile performance data (calls, direction requests, website clicks) and in Google Search Console, which shows local queries your site appears for. More options are in our overview of SEO tools.

When to bring in a specialist

You can set up your profiles yourself. A specialist pays off when you have several branches, when your profile is losing visibility or has been suspended, when you need city pages that don’t compete with each other, or when local SEO should work together with your website and ads. As part of our SEO services, we review your profiles, NAP and local pages and set priorities by their impact on enquiries. You can describe your situation via our contact form.