Did you know that 46% of all Google searches have a local intent? That means nearly half of the people using Google are looking for a nearby business just like yours. This is where Local SEO comes in. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on a broad, national or global audience, local SEO is all about increasing your visibility to potential customers who are in your local area.

The reality is, if you’re not optimising for local search, you’re effectively invisible to a huge number of people who are ready to buy. Every day, potential customers are searching for businesses like yours, and if you’re not visible, you’re losing money and opportunities to your competitors who are.

This guide will change that. We’ll walk you through a clear, actionable strategy to help you rank higher in local search results, attract more foot traffic, and turn those “near me” searches into paying customers.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimising your online presence to attract more business from local searches. These are the searches that include a location, such as “coffee shop near me” or “plumber in Manchester.” The goal is to get your business to show up prominently in the Local Pack (the map and three businesses at the top of Google’s search results), in Google Maps, and in organic search results for people in your service area. It’s all about building topical authority that signals to Google, “This business is relevant to people in this specific area”.

Why Local SEO is so Important for Local Businesses

While understanding what Local SEO is, the real value lies in the direct, measurable impact it has on your bottom line. Optimising for local search moves your business from being merely discoverable to being the obvious choice for customers nearby.

  • Drives Immediate Action: Local searches have a high intent. Studies show that a significant percentage of people who perform a local search visit a store within 24 hours.
  • Captures Mobile Users: The vast majority of “near me” searches are performed on mobile devices, making local visibility key to connecting with customers with buying intent.
  • Builds Trust and Credibility: Showing up in the local pack and having a Google Business Profile makes your business appear more credible and trustworthy to local customers.

Areas to Focus on to Improve Your Local SEO Rankings

Improving your local SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It involves a mix of on-site and off-site strategies, all designed to build trust and authority with search engines. Here are the key

areas you need to focus on to improve your local search rankings and performance.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

Your Google Business Profile is probably the most important tool for local visibility. It is the public-facing digital storefront for your business that appears in Google Search and Maps, and it’s essential for many other reasons too, including: 

  • The Gateway to the Local Pack: A fully optimised GBP is essential for ranking in the Local Pack (the map and the top three business listings). This is the most important area for local businesses to appear, as it captures the majority of clicks and enquiries from nearby customers. 
  • A Primary Ranking Factor: Google heavily relies on the information in your profile to determine your relevance and ensure you’re in the area of the user, making it an extremely important local SEO ranking factor.
  • Your Digital Storefront: The GBP provides potential customers with all the essential information they need instantly, for example, operating hours, reviews, address, photos, and a link to your website. For many, this profile is their first impression of your business.

How to Create Your Google Business Profile

First, you must claim and verify your profile by filling in some basic information. After it’s verified, you can fill out the more detailed information to build out your profile.

  • Business Name and Category: Choose a business name that is consistent with your real-world branding. Your primary category should be the one that best describes your business.
  • Location or Service Area: If you have a physical shop or office, enter your full address. If you’re a service-area business (like a plumber or a mobile dog groomer), you’ll define the areas you serve instead of a physical location.
  • Contact Information: Include your business’s phone number and website URL so customers can easily get in touch and find more information about you.
  • Add Business Hours: Specify your operating hours, including any special holiday hours. This helps potential customers know exactly when they can visit or contact your business.
  • Write a Business Description: Write a brief description of your business. Use this space to highlight your unique selling points and the services you offer.
  • Upload Photos: Add high-quality photos of your business, including your logo, a cover photo, and pictures of your products, services, and team. This makes your listing more visually appealing and trustworthy.
  • Add Services: List the specific services you provide. This helps your profile appear in searches for those particular services, even if they aren’t in your business’s main category.
  • Enable Messaging: Turn on the messaging feature to allow customers to send you questions directly through your Google Business Profile. This provides an easy way for people to engage with you.

Filling out this information massively improves your chances of being visible with the Google Map Pack and also makes you look like a reputable business which Google and users can trust.

Online Reviews 

Online reviews are a massive factor in both your local ranking and customer trust. A high number of positive reviews can significantly enhance your position in local search results and instil confidence in potential customers to choose you. 

You should actively encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile. You can do this by setting up an email sequence on your website to send a review request after a purchase, or by printing a QR code to make visible in your shop or office, and kindly ask customers to leave a review there.

However, another important factor that many businesses overlook is responding to every review, both positive and negative. A simple “thank you” for a positive review shows you appreciate your customers, while a professional response to a negative one demonstrates that you are committed to resolving issues.

Directory and Local Citation Building

A local citation is any online mention of your business’s Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP). These citations, found on business directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, and industry-specific sites, act as digital references. The more consistent and accurate your citations are across the web, the more credible your business appears to search engines. 

Be meticulous about maintaining your NAP consistency; even a slight difference can confuse search engines and hurt your rankings. If your contact details change, you should update all your citations to reflect your new contact information.

Use Local Business Schema

Schema markup, also known as structured data, is added to a website to help search engines further understand what a webpage is about. When you use Local Business Schema, you are providing them with structured data about a business that has a physical location. You can tell search engines about your business name, address, phone number, and opening hours, all in a format that is easy for them to understand. This is a great way to improve your visibility in the SERPs, as it can help your business show up in the Local Pack and on Google Maps.

Target Local Keywords/Optimise On-Page SEO 

For your website to be found in the SERPs, you have to use keywords that are relevant to your business and your location. For example, if you were a dentist in Manchester, you would want to include keywords such as “emergency dentist services Manchester” or “family dentist near Deansgate”. Once you have a list of keywords, use them in your on-page SEO.

For example, you could include them in the following areas:

  • Title Tags: This is the most important on-page element. Title tags appear at the top of the browser and are the main headline in the SERPs. Placing your local keyword at the beginning of the title tag is really good because search engines (and users) scan from left to right. Keywords placed at the start are given more weight for relevance and are more likely to catch a searcher’s eye, driving a higher click-through rate.
  • Meta Descriptions: While not a direct ranking factor, a well-written meta description boosts your Click-Through Rate (CTR) by acting as sales copy. It does this by:
    • Confirming to the user that your page matches their search intent.
    • Making your listing stand out by allowing Google to bold the matching keywords.
    • Encouraging clicks with a clear Call-to-Action (CTA).
  • Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Include location-specific keywords in your headers. However, you need to make sure you avoid keyword stuffing. Instead of repeating the exact same local keyword everywhere, use variations or related terms to make the text feel natural and flow better for the reader. This is great because it shows topic depth to search engines without looking spammy.

Create Location Landing Pages

If you have a business with multiple locations, you should create a unique landing page for each one. This allows you to specifically target customers in those areas. Each page should be a mini-hub for that specific area, featuring unique content, a Google Map embedded for that location, customer testimonials, and a consistent NAP. This tells Google that your business is relevant to searchers in each of those specific locations.

Mobile First Optimisation

With the majority of local searches happening on smartphones, having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional; it’s essential. Google uses a mobile-first indexing approach, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. Your website must be responsive, fast-loading, and easy to navigate on a small screen. A poor mobile experience will not only drive away customers but will also negatively impact your local search rankings.

Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) is consistent throughout your website and the World Wide Web (WWW)

We highlighted this briefly with Citation Building, but this is so important for a solid local business strategy. For both search engines and potential customers, trust is built on consistency. Your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) must be identical on your website, your Google Business Profile, and all your citation sites. Even a small inconsistency can confuse search engines and make your business look less reliable. Make it a priority to audit all of your online listings and ensure they are perfectly consistent.

How to audit your Citations

We have highlighted the importance of NAP consistency, but how do you actually ensure your information is uniform across the entire web? Auditing your local citations is an extremely important task, yet often overlooked. An inconsistent NAP record confuses search engines, diluting your authority and making you look unreliable. This simple, step-by-step process will guide you in tracking down, verifying, and fixing any errors to guarantee a solid local business strategy.

  1. Create a Master NAP: Establish the one, single, correct version of your business Name, Address, and Phone Number. This should be the version you use everywhere. For example:
  • Name: Candidsky
  • Address: Conavon Court, 12 Blackfriars St, Manchester, Salford M3 5BQ
  • Phone: 0161 956 8963
  1. Create a List of your Current Citations: Start by identifying where your business is already listed. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to discover existing citations. But when using tools, some citations can slip through the cracks. At Candidsky, we take a more old-school approach, using search engines and the SERPs to find outdated citations ourselves. You can do this by entering outdated contact information, such as old phone numbers, to view these.
  1. Check the Top Directories: Focus your initial audit on high-authority directories, as these carry the most weight and are crawled most frequently by search engines. Inconsistent data on these major platforms is the fastest way to lose credibility in your local SEO.

This includes:

  • Google Business Profile
  • Facebook
  • Bing
  • Yelp
  • Apple Maps
  • Industry-specific directories
  1. NAP Consistency: Go through your citation list and check the NAP against your Master NAP details. Look for any discrepancies, no matter how small, such as:
  • Punctuation: Co. vs Company
  • Abbreviations: St. vs Street, etc.
  • Phone Numbers: Missing or outdated numbers
  • Business Name: Extra keywords or an outdated name
  1. Identify and Correct Errors: When you find an inconsistency, access that specific listing and manually update it to match your master NAP. If you can’t edit a listing, contact the directory. In some cases, you may need to submit a deletion request.
  1. Monitor and Maintain: Citation audits aren’t a one-time task. Search engines constantly crawl and update information. Schedule regular audits (e.g. quarterly) to maintain perfect NAP consistency over time.

Conclusion

Local SEO is a fundamental part of your business’s success in today’s digital world. By focusing on the three main pillars we’ve discussed: optimising your Google Business Profile, localising your website, and building off-site authority, you’re not just hoping customers find you; you’re actively guiding them right to your front door.

Need help with your Local SEO Strategy? 

Need help getting your local SEO strategy on track? Is your website more intricate and needs more work to improve visibility? If so, our team of experts is here to help. We can handle the implementation and ensure you’re getting the most out of structured data. 

If you’re ready to boost your website’s visibility, please fill out our contact form, and we’ll help you get a solid local SEO strategy implemented on your website.