What is local SEO, and how does it work?

Local SEO (search engine optimisation) is everything you do to appear on Google when people search for a business like yours in your area. That covers searches such as “hairdresser East Molesey”, “emergency plumber near me” or “Indian restaurant Kingston”. It includes your Google Business Profile, your website, your reviews and how consistently your business details appear across the web.

It matters because local searches often come from people who are ready to buy, book or call today.

For most local searches, Google shows two kinds of result:

• The map pack: a map with a short list of businesses, usually above the normal results. These come from Google Business Profiles.
• The normal (organic) results: websites, directories and articles.

Good local SEO aims for both. Your Google profile gets you into the map. Your website helps you rank in the normal results and strengthens your profile.

Google says local results are based mainly on three things:

• Relevance: how well your business matches the search. Your categories, services and website content all count.
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher, or from the place they mention.
• Prominence: how well known and trusted your business is. Reviews, links to your website and how established you are online all play a part.

You can’t change distance, but you can influence relevance and prominence a lot.

Your profile is the foundation. Make sure it’s:

• Verified, with your correct business name, address or service area, phone and website.
• In the right categories, with the most specific primary category you can choose.
• Complete: services, opening hours, photos and a clear description.
• Active: reply to reviews and post updates now and then.

Our Google Business Profile guide covers this step by step.

Your website tells Google what you do and where. Make sure it has:

• A page for each main service, not one page listing everything.
• Your towns mentioned naturally, for example “serving East Molesey, Hampton and Esher”.
• Your name, address and phone number on every page, exactly matching your Google profile.
• Fast, mobile-friendly pages.
• Useful content that answers customers’ questions: prices, process, FAQs.

If you serve several towns, a genuinely useful page for each main area can help, but only if each page has real local content. Copy-and-paste pages with the town name swapped can do more harm than good. You can see an example on my East Molesey page.

Reviews influence both your ranking and whether people choose you. Aim for a steady flow of genuine, recent reviews, and reply to them. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has practical scripts and tips.

• Listings (citations): list your business on reputable directories, such as Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yell, and trade or industry sites. Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere.
• Local links: links from local organisations, suppliers, clubs, charities or local news help Google see you as part of the community.

Quality beats quantity. A few relevant local links are worth more than many low-quality directories.

It depends on your competition and starting point. Fixing your Google profile can make a difference fairly quickly. Ranking a website for competitive searches usually takes months of steady work, not weeks.

Be wary of anyone promising first place on Google by a certain date. Nobody controls Google’s results.

You can do a lot of local SEO yourself: complete your profile, ask for reviews and keep your details consistent. Where help is useful is technical fixes, building strong service and area pages, and keeping up regular work month after month.

My local SEO service starts with a one-off Google profile set-up from £249, with monthly plans from £299. If your site needs rebuilding first, see website design.

• Google Business Profile verified, complete and in the right categories.
• Opening hours accurate, including holidays.
• At least ten good photos of your work, premises or team.
• A steady flow of new reviews, all replied to.
• Website with a page for each main service.
• Your towns mentioned naturally on your website.
• Name, address and phone identical on your site, profile and directories.
• Listed on Bing Places and Apple Business Connect.
• A few links from local organisations or partners.
• Google Search Console set up, with your sitemap submitted.

Work through it in order. The first items usually make the biggest difference.

• Google Business Profile performance: searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks.
• Search Console: which searches show your website and how often people click.
• Enquiries: ask every new customer how they found you.

Rankings move up and down from day to day and from street to street. Look at trends over months, and at enquiries, rather than checking your position every morning.

• “Keyword-stuffing my business name will help.” Adding towns and services to your Google business name breaks Google’s guidelines and can get your profile suspended.
• “More directories are always better.” A handful of accurate, reputable listings beats hundreds of low-quality ones.
• “I need a page for every town in the country.” Pages with only the town name changed are treated as low quality. Focus on areas you genuinely serve, with real local content.
• “Once it’s done, it’s done.” Rankings shift as competitors improve. Regular reviews, updates and posts keep you visible.
• “Ads improve my rankings.” Paid ads are separate from organic and map rankings.