Local SEO, explained for busy owners

What local SEO is

SEO stands for search engine optimisation: making it easier for search engines to understand and trust your business. Local SEO is the part that matters when someone is looking for a business near them, like “florist in Islington”, “emergency plumber” or “brunch near me”.

It isn’t about tricking Google. It’s about making sure everything Google (and now AI assistants) can find about you is complete, accurate and convincing. Most of it is work you do once and then keep tidy.

Where local results appear

When someone searches for something nearby, they usually see three kinds of result:

• The map box (often called the “local pack”): a small map and three businesses, near the top of Google Search.
• Google Maps itself, where people scroll a longer list and tap through to photos, reviews and directions.
• Ordinary search results below the map, which are mostly websites and directories.

Increasingly there’s a fourth: an AI summary at the top of Google, or a separate assistant like ChatGPT that simply names a few businesses. More on that below.

How Google picks who to show

Google says its local results are based on three things:

Google is also clear that you can’t pay for a better local ranking. That’s good news: a small business that looks after the basics can beat a bigger one that doesn’t. The five areas below are where that happens.

1. Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears on Maps and in the map box. It’s free, and it’s the single most important thing in local SEO. If you haven’t claimed yours, start there.

The primary category

Your primary category tells Google what you are. “Nail salon” and “Beauty salon” show up for different searches. Pick the one that matches what most customers search for, then add a few secondary categories for the other things you do.

Everything else Google asks for

• Opening hours, including bank holidays. Wrong hours lose customers and trust.
• Services or menu, with prices. These help you appear for more specific searches.
• A description that says what you do and where, in plain words.
• Photos: the outside (so people recognise it), the inside, your work, your team. Real and recent beats polished and old.
• Attributes such as wheelchair access, appointments or outdoor seating.
• A booking or ordering link, if you take bookings online.

Keep it active

Profiles that are looked after tend to do better. Post an update, an offer or a photo regularly, answer questions people ask on your profile, and reply to reviews.

2. Reviews

Reviews are the clearest signal of prominence. Google looks at how many you have, how recent they are, your rating and whether you reply. They matter to AI assistants too: one 2026 study of 10,000 local businesses found the ones AI recommended averaged 133 Google reviews, against 11 for the ones it ignored.

How to get more, the right way

• Ask every customer, not only the happy ones. A card on the counter with a QR code works well.
• Send your direct review link in booking confirmations or receipts.
• Reply to every review, including the bad ones. Be brief, polite and specific.
• Never offer discounts or gifts for reviews, and never write or buy them.

3. The same details everywhere

Your business is listed in more places than you think: Google, Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Yelp, Yell, booking apps and old directories. Marketers call these listings “citations”. When your name, address and phone number differ between them, Google and AI become less sure which details are right.

• Claim your listings on Apple Business Connect and Bing Places (Bing can import from Google).
• Search for your business name and old phone numbers to find stray listings, then correct or remove them.
• Use exactly the same name everywhere. That’s your real name, with no extra keywords.
• Add the sites that matter for your trade, such as Treatwell or Fresha for salons, Checkatrade for trades, or Tripadvisor for restaurants.

4. Your website

You don’t need a big website. You need a clear one.

• A page for each main service, with a title that says what and where, like “Gel nails in Clapham”.
• Your address, phone number and opening hours on every page, matching your Google profile.
• Fast on a phone. Most local searches happen on one.
• Structured data: a small piece of hidden code that tells search engines your business type, address and hours in a format they read directly.
• Verify it in Google Search Console (free) so you can see whether Google has found it.

5. Local mentions and links

When local news sites, “best of” lists, suppliers, business associations or event pages mention you, Google and AI treat it as a sign you’re a real, known business. You can’t buy these (and shouldn’t try), but you can earn them: sponsor a local team, join your high street association, tell your local paper about something genuinely new.

Local SEO and AI assistants

AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini now answer questions like “where’s a good dentist near me?” directly. They don’t have a secret list. They search the web and read the same places Google does: business listings, review sites and local articles.

That means the work above helps with AI too. But AI tends to be more selective. It usually names three to five businesses, not twenty, and it favours the ones described most clearly and consistently. Read our guide to how AI picks local businesses.

A checklist for this week

If you only have an hour or two, do these in order:

• Claim or log in to your Google Business Profile
• Check your primary category matches what customers search for
• Fill in hours (including holidays), services and prices
• Add 10 recent photos, including the outside of your business
• Write a short description that says what you do and where
• Reply to your last 10 reviews
• Print a review card for your counter with your direct review link
• Claim Apple Business Connect and Bing Places
• Google your business name and fix any listing with old details

Mistakes that get profiles suspended

Google enforces its rules, and a suspended profile disappears from Maps entirely. Avoid these:

• Adding keywords to your business name, like “Glow Nails Best Gel Nails Clapham”.
• Fake or virtual-office addresses. If you visit customers instead, hide your address and set a service area.
• More than one profile for the same location.
• Fake, paid or filtered reviews, including asking only happy customers.
• Buying links or paying for “guaranteed rankings”.

How long it takes

Profile fixes can make a difference within days or weeks, because Google re-reads profiles often. Reviews and mentions build up over months. Distance never changes, so expect to rank better close to your business than across town.

Be wary of anyone who guarantees a position. Nobody controls Google’s results. What you can control is doing the work consistently and measuring whether it’s helping.

Sources

• Google: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
• Insites: What it takes to rank in AI (April 2026)
• Google: Guidelines for representing your business on Google