What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the work that gets a business found when people search for something nearby. Searches like “electrician Hull”, “kitchen worktops near me” or “wedding photographer in Lincolnshire” are all local searches, and for a lot of businesses they bring in most of the enquiries.

It works differently from ranking nationally, so it’s worth understanding on its own.

Where local results appear

When Google thinks a search is local, it usually shows a map with three businesses underneath it. This is often called the map pack, and it sits above the normal list of websites. The same businesses also appear in Google Maps.

Being in those three spots matters, because they’re the first thing people see and they come with your reviews, your phone number and directions. Below the map, the normal results still count, and a strong website can rank there as well.

How Google decides who shows up

Google says local rankings come down to three things:

• Relevance. How well your business matches what the person searched for.
• Distance. How close you are to the person searching, or to the place they named.
• Prominence. How well known and well regarded your business is, judged from things like reviews, links and how often you’re mentioned around the web.

You can’t change where your business is, but you have a lot of control over relevance and prominence.

Your Google Business Profile

This is the single most important part of local SEO. It’s the free listing that appears in the map pack and on Google Maps, and it needs to be complete and accurate:

• the right main category, plus any secondary categories that fit
• every service you offer, described in plain language
• correct opening hours, phone number and address or service area
• real photos of your work, your premises and your team
• regular updates and posts, so it’s clearly active

A half-finished profile gives Google less to go on, and gives customers less reason to pick you.

Reviews

Reviews affect both where you rank and whether people choose you. Google pays attention to how many reviews you have, how recent they are and what they say.

The best way to get more is simply to ask. Most happy customers are glad to leave one if you make it easy, for example by sending them the link straight after the job. Replying to every review, good or bad, shows that you’re paying attention.

Your website

Your website backs up your profile. It should say clearly what you do and where you do it, with your address or service area and contact details easy to find.

If you work across several towns, separate pages for each area can help, as long as each one is useful in its own right. Pages that copy the same text and swap the town name don’t help much, and Google is good at spotting them.

Consistent details everywhere

Your business name, address and phone number should match everywhere they appear: your website, your Google profile, directories and social media. Mismatched details make it harder for Google to be confident they all belong to the same business.

Local links and mentions

Being mentioned by other local websites helps your prominence. That might be a local news story, a supplier listing you as a stockist, a trade association or a community event you’ve sponsored. A few relevant local mentions are worth more than lots of links from unrelated sites.

What it looks like in practice

For Rowe Granite, a family-run worktop business with a showroom in Hull, local search was a big part of the work. That meant getting the Google Business Profile right, building pages around the area searches people use and making the most of the reviews that a purchase of that size depends on. A worktop is a considered purchase, so people look carefully before they get in touch, and turning up in their local search is where that starts.

Does your business need it?

If your customers are mostly in one area, or you serve a set of towns, local SEO is likely to be one of the best things you can spend time on. It’s usually quicker to see results locally than nationally, because you’re competing with fewer businesses.

If you’d like to know how your business shows up in local search now, get in touch. If you’re based in Hull or East Yorkshire, have a look at our local SEO in Hull.