Local SEO

What Local SEO Covers

Google ranks local results on three factors: proximity, relevance and prominence. Proximity you cannot change. Relevance comes largely from your Google Business Profile and site content. Prominence comes from reviews, citations and general web authority.

These guides work through each in turn, plus the two harder cases — businesses with many locations, and businesses that travel to the customer rather than trading from an address.

The Map Pack and Organic Results

A local search returns two result sets ranked by different rules. The map pack is driven by your business profile and proximity. The organic results below it are driven by your website in the normal way.

Both are worth pursuing and they need different work, which is why profile optimisation and location-page content both appear in this section.

All 7 guides in this section

• Google Business Profile Optimisation
  Categories, attributes, photos, posts and Q&A — how to set up and maintain the single most important asset in local search.
• Local Citations and NAP Consistency
  What citations are, why name-address-phone consistency matters, how to audit existing listings, and how to fix conflicting data across the web.
• Local Keyword Research
  Finding the search terms local customers actually use — service plus location patterns, near-me queries, and how local intent differs from general search.
• Local SEO Fundamentals
  How local search ranking works — proximity, relevance and prominence, the map pack, and what actually moves a local business up the results.
• Multi-Location SEO
  Managing SEO across many locations — location page architecture, profile management at scale, avoiding thin duplication and internal cannibalisation.
• Online Reviews and Reputation Management
  How reviews affect local ranking, how to generate them without breaking platform rules, and how to respond to negative reviews constructively.
• Local SEO for Service Area Businesses
  Local SEO without a storefront — service area configuration, hiding your address, and ranking across an area you travel to rather than trade from.