5 tips to catapult your local SEO ranking

If you run a service-based business with a physical location, ranking well globally means very little. What matters is whether people nearby can find you when they search. Local SEO, the practice of improving your visibility in location-specific search results, is how you make that happen.

Unlike broader SEO work, local SEO is about signalling to search engines exactly where you are and who you serve. These five tips cover the most effective ways to do that.

Get on Google Maps

This is one of the most impactful steps a local business can take, and a surprising number of smaller businesses skip it entirely. When someone searches for a service near them, Google often displays a map with nearby business locations. If you are not on that map, you are invisible to those searches.

Anyone can suggest a business listing on Google Maps, but you want to go further and claim ownership of your listing. Claiming it means you control the details: address, phone number, opening hours, photos. If someone else has already added your business, you can still claim it by verifying your identity with Google. Once you have ownership, keep the listing accurate. An outdated address or wrong phone number will cost you customers before they even reach your website.

Set up and complete your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) lets you provide key details about your business directly in search results. Customers can see your hours, read reviews and get directions without visiting your site at all.

A complete profile works harder for you than a partial one. Fill in your business description, contact details and opening hours. Once you are set up, actively ask satisfied customers to leave reviews. Positive reviews improve your reputation with potential customers and give Google more confidence in your listing, which can push you higher in local results. Respond to reviews too, positive and negative. It signals that you are an active, attentive business.

Use location-based keywords throughout your site

Generic keywords will not help Google connect you with people searching in your area. Adding location to your keywords is what makes the difference.

Take a hairdresser as an example. The keyword “hairdresser” is too broad to be useful on its own. “Hairdresser London” is more targeted. “Hairdresser Hammersmith” is better still, because it matches what someone nearby is likely to type. Using a mix of all three across your pages means you appear in results at every level of specificity, from city-wide searches down to neighbourhood ones. Work these phrases into your page content, titles and meta descriptions naturally, without forcing them into every sentence.

Display contact details as text, not images

Search engines read text. They cannot read information embedded in an image. If your address, phone number or opening hours are displayed as part of a graphic, Google cannot index that information and it will not contribute to your local rankings.

This is a common issue on older sites, particularly those built before responsive design became standard, where designers sometimes used images to control how text appeared. Converting that information to actual HTML text gives Google something to read and index. It also signals that your business is legitimate, with real contact details and verifiable opening hours. The local ranking benefit can be immediate.

Check for and remove duplicate profiles

Multiple listings for the same business on Google Maps or Google Business Profile create confusion for customers and for Google. If you have moved premises and the old address is still listed, Google may send potential customers to the wrong location entirely.

Search for your business name and check what comes up. If you find duplicate listings, remove the ones you do not need. If you have access to the account that created them, you can delete them directly. If not, you can contact Google to have them removed. Keeping a single, accurate, up-to-date profile is far more effective than having several incomplete or conflicting ones.

Local SEO deserves its own focus if your customers are nearby rather than nationwide. The steps above are not complicated, but they do require attention to detail. An accurate Google Maps listing, a complete Business Profile, location-specific keywords, text-based contact details and a clean set of profiles will put you in a much stronger position than most local competitors.

If you are building or rebuilding a site to support your local SEO work, take a look at our website builder and WordPress hosting options. For questions about getting started, get in touch with the team.