What is local SEO, in plain English?
Local SEO is the work that helps your business appear when someone nearby searches for what you do. It overlaps with ordinary SEO but has its own rules.
Two results, two systems
There's the map pack — the block of business listings with a map — and the ordinary blue links below it. The map pack is driven largely by your Google Business Profile. The links below are driven by your website.
You want to compete in both, and they need different work.
What matters for the map pack
A complete, accurate Google Business Profile with the right primary category, real photos, correct opening hours, and consistent business details wherever you appear online.
Genuine reviews, collected honestly over time. Never bought, never fabricated.
What matters on your website
Pages that name the service and the area in natural language. A location page is worth building only when you can write something genuinely specific about working there.
Fast loading, clean structure, and internal links that connect services to areas sensibly.
What to avoid
Dozens of near-identical location pages with the town name swapped out. Search engines recognise the pattern, and visitors notice it too.
Keep reading
- What should be on a small business homepage?A practical running order for the one page almost everyone sees first.
- The Google Business Profile checklist for local businessesThe free listing that often out-performs the website itself — and the details most businesses leave half-finished.
- Website speed: why it matters and what actually slows a site downSpeed is a ranking factor and an enquiry factor. The usual culprits are simpler than most people expect.