Local SEO: The complete guide

Local SEO is how businesses that serve a geographic area get found when people search for what they offer near them. It’s different from national or topic-based SEO: you’re competing for “near me” and city- or region-specific searches, and Google leans heavily on signals like your Google Business profile, reviews, and location-focused content. This guide walks through the pieces that matter most and how to use them together.

Google Business Profile: your local storefront

Your Google Business profile is often the first thing searchers see. It needs to be complete and consistent: accurate name, address, phone, hours, and category. The description should clearly state what you do and who you serve, using the same language your customers use. Photos, services, and attributes (e.g. “Women-owned,” “Online appointments”) all help. So does keeping the profile updated when anything changes. Inconsistent or thin profiles get outranked by competitors who’ve invested in theirs.

Reviews and reputation

Reviews influence both rankings and clicks. Google wants to show businesses that are relevant and trusted. A steady flow of genuine reviews, with thoughtful responses from you, supports both. We don’t recommend buying reviews or gaming the system; we do recommend a simple process that makes it easy for happy customers to leave a review (e.g. a short follow-up email or text with a direct link). How long SEO takes for local can be shorter than for national topics; we cover timelines in how long does SEO take?

On-site content and location pages

Your website should support your local visibility. That means location-specific pages where it makes sense (e.g. “Service + city” or “Areas we serve”) that answer real questions and use the terms people search. It also means consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across the site and in your footer. Schema markup for local business can help Google understand and display your information correctly. The goal is to have your site and your Google profile tell the same story and target the same intents.

How it fits with the rest of your marketing

Local SEO works alongside paid search and other channels. If you’re deciding where to put budget, the tradeoffs are similar to the broader question we tackle in SEO vs paid ads: SEO builds a long-term asset; ads can fill the gap while you build. For local, many businesses use both: ads for immediate visibility in competitive periods, and ongoing local SEO for sustained presence and lower cost per lead over time.

What to do first: a practical order

If you're new to local SEO, start with your Google Business profile. Claim it if you haven't, then fill out every section accurately and add photos and a clear description. Next, gather a few genuine reviews and respond to them. Once that foundation is in place, add or update location-focused content on your site: a dedicated page per service area or a clear "Areas we serve" section that uses the terms people search. Consistency between your profile and your site (NAP, categories, language) matters more than volume. We often see businesses jump to content or backlinks before fixing the basics; the basics move the needle fastest for most local brands.

I'm currently testing location page strategy in public. See the Lab for what actually gets indexed and what ranks (with screenshots and timestamps).