Local SEO is its own discipline. A lot of what works for ranking a national e-commerce site doesn't apply when you're trying to get a plumber, dentist, or restaurant to show up when someone nearby searches for them. Google's local algorithm weighs three things: proximity (how close you are to the searcher), relevance (how well your business matches what they searched), and prominence (how well-known and reviewed your business is). You can't control proximity. But you can absolutely move the needle on relevance and prominence.
Here's the process I walk through with local clients, in order of impact.
Why Local SEO Is Different from Regular SEO
Regular SEO is mostly a content and backlink game. Local SEO has a different set of levers. A business with 200 genuine Google reviews and a fully filled-out Google Business Profile will often outrank a competitor who has better traditional SEO but has ignored the local stack entirely.
The local pack (the map results that appear above organic listings) is a separate ranking system. You can rank in it without ranking in organic results, and vice versa. The local pack gets roughly 44% of clicks on local searches, so if you're not appearing there, you're missing almost half the available traffic.
The signals that move local rankings are: Google Business Profile completeness, review quantity and quality, NAP consistency, local citations, behavioral signals (clicks, calls, direction requests from the profile), and proximity to the searcher.
Google Business Profile: Set It Up Properly
This is the single most important thing you can do for local SEO. A half-finished GBP profile is a significant lost opportunity. Here's what fully optimized looks like:
Business name: Use your real business name. Do not stuff keywords into it. "Smith Plumbing" is fine. "Smith Plumbing | Best Plumber in Austin TX" violates Google's guidelines and can get you suspended. I've seen real suspensions from this. It's not worth it.
Categories: Your primary category is the most important field in your entire GBP profile. Choose it carefully. Google uses it to determine which searches you're eligible for. If you're a Thai restaurant, "Thai restaurant" should be primary. Add secondary categories where relevant ("Asian restaurant," "Delivery restaurant"), but don't pile on irrelevant ones.
Photos: Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks than those without, according to Google's own data. Upload exterior photos (so people can find you), interior photos, product/service photos, and team photos. Aim for at least 20 photos. Update them regularly since Google appears to favor active profiles.
Business description: 750 characters. Use the first two sentences well, because that's what shows before "more" is clicked. Describe what you do, where you serve, and what makes you different. No keyword stuffing. Write it for humans.
Q&A section: Most businesses ignore this. Seed it yourself with the questions customers actually ask you ("Do you offer free estimates?" "Do you accept insurance?"). Answer them. This content appears in search results and in Google's AI answers.
Posts: GBP posts show up in your profile and occasionally in local packs. Post once a week minimum. Announcements, offers, new products, or just useful tips. Each post includes a CTA button. Use them.
Hours: Keep them accurate, including holiday hours. Wrong hours means bad reviews about showing up and finding you closed.
NAP Consistency: What It Is and Why It Matters
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. The core idea: every time your business is mentioned online, the name, address, and phone should match exactly. Not mostly match. Exactly.
If your GBP says "123 Main Street" but your Yelp page says "123 Main St" and your website footer says "123 Main St., Suite 1" — that inconsistency creates confusion for both users and search engines trying to verify your business exists at a specific location.
To audit your NAP consistency: search for your business name in quotes on Google, then check every listing you find. Also run your business through BrightLocal's Citation Tracker or Moz Local to find listings you didn't know existed. The most common sources of inconsistency are old addresses after a move, phone numbers that changed, and slightly different business name variations accumulated over years.
Fixing inconsistencies is tedious work. Prioritize in this order: GBP first, then your website, then major citation sources, then everything else.
Local Citations: The Major Ones You Need
A citation is any online mention of your business name, address, and phone. You don't need to be on 500 directories. You need to be on the important ones, with consistent information.
The core citation set every local business should have:
- Yelp — Still powerful for reviews and citation value, especially in certain industries (restaurants, home services)
- Apple Maps — Claims are free. Do it. A significant portion of local searches come from iPhone users via Maps
- Bing Places for Business — Easy to claim, directly affects Bing local results
- Facebook Business Page — Has citation value and its own discovery channel
- Better Business Bureau — Expensive for paid listings, but a free basic listing is worthwhile
- Industry-specific directories — Houzz for contractors, Healthgrades/Zocdoc for medical, Avvo for legal, TripAdvisor for hospitality
After the core set, build citations in local directories specific to your city or region. A Boston restaurant should be in the Boston Globe's dining section, local chamber of commerce listings, Boston city directories. These hyper-local citations send strong geographic relevance signals.
Reviews: The Most Underworked Local SEO Lever
Review quantity and review velocity (how consistently new reviews come in) are major ranking factors. A business with 15 reviews that got 3 new ones last week will often rank higher than one with 50 reviews where the last one was 8 months ago.
How to ask for reviews without being awkward about it: The best time to ask is right after a successful interaction. Train your team to mention it verbally: "If you're happy with the service, it really helps us if you leave a Google review." Send a follow-up email or text with a direct link to your GBP review form. The direct link matters — removing friction increases completion rate significantly. You can find your GBP review link in your Google Business Profile dashboard under "Get more reviews."
Responding to negative reviews: This is where most businesses get it wrong. Don't be defensive, don't argue facts, don't threaten legal action in your response (even if you're right). A professional response to a negative review is actually a marketing opportunity. It shows prospective customers how you handle problems. Acknowledge the issue, apologize for the experience, offer to make it right offline, and provide a contact method. Keep it short. The goal is not to win the argument with the reviewer. It's to demonstrate your character to the 50 people reading the exchange.
Do not buy reviews, do not ask friends to post fake ones, and do not offer incentives for reviews. Google detects patterns, and the penalties are harsh.
Local Landing Pages for Multi-Location Businesses
If you serve multiple locations, you need a dedicated page for each one. Not copy-pasted pages with the city name swapped out — that's thin content and Google knows it.
Each location page should have: the specific address and phone number for that location, unique content about that location (the team, the local area you serve, specific services available there), embedded Google Map, local schema markup, and ideally a few genuine customer reviews or testimonials from that location.
URL structure: domain.com/locations/city-name works well. Avoid domain.com/cityname-plumber patterns that feel forced.
Local Schema Markup
LocalBusiness schema helps search engines understand and display your business information correctly. At minimum, implement:
- @type: LocalBusiness (or a more specific type like "Plumber," "Restaurant," "MedicalBusiness")
- name, address, telephone, url
- openingHoursSpecification
- geo coordinates
- aggregateRating if you have reviews on your site
Test your schema with Google's Rich Results Test at search.google.com/test/rich-results. Errors in schema don't necessarily hurt you, but they do mean Google might not use the structured data you've provided.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Keyword stuffing in the business name: Already mentioned this, but it's the number one GBP suspension trigger. Don't do it.
Ignoring the Q&A section: Anyone can answer your Q&A questions, including random people who don't know your business. Seed it yourself.
Not responding to reviews: Google has confirmed that responding to reviews is a signal it considers. Even brief responses ("Thanks for the kind words!") contribute.
Listing a virtual office or co-working space address: Google's guidelines require that the address be a real, staffed location where customers can visit during business hours. Virtual offices are against the rules and regularly get suspended.
Letting your profile go stale: Post regularly, add new photos monthly, update holiday hours before they're relevant. Active profiles rank better.
Local SEO rewards consistency over time. The businesses with the strongest local presence didn't get there by some clever trick. They built their profile properly, got reviews steadily over months and years, kept their information consistent, and showed up where their customers look. There's no shortcut to that, but the good news is most of your competitors aren't doing it either.