Local SEO:
A Complete Guide

This profile – previously known as Google My Business – is one of the main pillars of local search engine optimisation. Every business can create a profile – or claim one if someone else set it up – and have it show up on Google for free as a response to local queries, both in the SERP and in Maps. Be sure to optimise it correctly by filling out all the fields, adding photos, and checking that your contact information is always up to date.

To bolster your company’s presence on a local level, you need to select specific keywords to include on your web pages. These should indicate your field of business and the products/services you offer, along with the geographic area it covers. In other words, it’s essential to sprinkle local queries into your content: “house remodeling in Liverpool”, “SEO agency in London”, etc. Be strategic about adding these terms to your pages’ HTML tags.

Local SEO doesn’t end at your Google Business Profile or a few bits of content: Your entire website needs to be optimised. The first reason is that Google draws information from your web pages to reference your profile in the Local Pack as well as it can. Plus, good optimisation also allows you to show up on the organic links at the same time – which the user interprets as a sign of trust.

Google is seeing a dramatic increase in local searches and queries that contain “near me now”, “near me today/tonight”, or “open now” (see here). This proves how crucial it is to make sure your pages are suitable to be viewed on mobile, both for the sake of optimisation and to allow users to access the information they’re looking for effortlessly.

Much like its national counterpart, local SEO relies on external links. Google assesses the popularity of a website based on the number (and quality) of links to its pages. According to Moz, the signals associated with links account for up to 28% of ranking factors on a local scale (source). These backlinks should emanate from locally relevant authority websites.

The overall rating given by Internet users to a company shows up on its Google Business Profile and influences other users’ decisions. According to powerreviews.com , a whopping 98% of UK consumers see reviews as an essential resource when making purchase decisions. These ratings have a massive impact on reputation and play a role in local SEO. Google looks at how often people leave reviews, the feedback itself, and the number of clicks (that good ratings always tend to boost).

Lastly, the more emphasis a company places on its local online presence, the better its overall SEO gets. It shows how important it is to work on your digital presence on multiple levels: customer rating platforms, GPS, social media, etc. As for directories such as the UK Small Business Directory (UK SBD), Yelp UK, Chamber of Commerce, etc., they provide “NAP citations” (i.e. business information such as Name, Address, and Phone Number). These don’t have the same bearings on SEO as they used to, but they remain noteworthy levers in terms of local search engine optimisation.

How are your rankings progressing on a local level? To answer this question, you can track how the positioning of your optimised pages evolved in terms of the local keywords. You could also check where your Business Profile ranks in Google’s Local Pack and Maps by targeting geographic locations that interest you. If you have several outlets, you only need to repeat the process for each one. It will give you a complete overview of your local rankings.

The interface of your Google Business Profile gives you access to several statistics you can use to monitor your local SEO performance. The KPIs it offers cover: How Internet users find you (direct search, discovery, or brand name), the platform where your profile appears (Search or Maps), as well as the actions the users performed (making phone calls, visiting the website, asking for the itinerary, viewing pictures). That’s some genuinely invaluable data!

Google cares about the number of customer reviews, the quality of the ratings that the websites receive, and how frequently they get published. Ratings also tend to improve your reputation and click-through rate. It explains why collecting as many as possible is so important, both on your Google Business Profile and on other platforms dedicated to customer feedback. Be sure to always respond to comments, especially those left by unhappy customers.

Google Analytics allows you to collect heaps of data on how users behave on your website, including traffic volume and origin, pages viewed and from what devices, landing page performance, conversion rate, etc. These indicators are convenient for tracking the users’ journey on your website following a local search and making sure that your SEO strategy is as effective as possible.

With local SEO, it’s worth knowing where your audiences originate. First, from a technical point of view: Are the users getting to your Business Profile or website through Google (Search or Maps), social media, directories, review platforms (or other platforms)? And then, from a geographic perspective: Are you managing to reach targets within your catchment area?

Don’t forget to compare your local SEO performance with your direct competitors who target the same audiences within the same geographic area. What are their local rankings? What Google Business Profiles show up first when a user makes a query related to your activity, products, or services? What keywords do your rivals work into their content? The idea here is to take inspiration from what seems to work best.