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How-to guide · 5 steps

How to Do Local SEO (A Practical Guide for Local Businesses)

Local SEO gets your business in front of people searching for what you offer near them — and the competition is often far lower than national or global SEO. A florist competing locally against 10 businesses is very different from competing against 10,000 nationally. Here's the practical playbook.

The parts of local search visibility

Local results for "service near me"

  • Google Business Profile

    • Categories and services
    • Photos and hours

  • Citations

    • Same name, address, phone everywhere

  • Reviews

    • Ask consistently
    • Reply to all

  • Website

    • Location pages
    • Local schema
Local rankings draw on your profile, your consistency across the web, reviews and your own site; this guide covers each branch.

  1. Step 1: Claim and fully optimise your Google Business Profile

    If you haven't claimed your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), do it now — it's the single most important local SEO action. Complete every field: business name, address, phone number, hours, category, description, website, and photos. Incomplete profiles rank lower.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Listing Management tool audits your Google Business Profile and highlights missing fields that affect your local ranking. It also identifies inconsistencies across other directories.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Ubersuggest (price not verified)

  2. Step 2: Build consistent local citations

    Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites — directories like Yelp, Yell, and industry-specific directories. Consistency is critical: if your address is formatted differently across sites, it confuses Google.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Listing Management distributes your NAP data to a network of directories and monitors them for inconsistencies. Moz Local is a comparable option.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Moz Pro (from $99/mo)

  3. Step 3: Generate and respond to Google reviews

    Reviews directly influence your local pack ranking — more recent, higher-rated reviews = better position. Ask every satisfied customer for a review with a direct link to your Google review form. Respond to all reviews, positive and negative.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Listing Management monitors and alerts you to new reviews across platforms so you can respond promptly. Prompt replies also show customers the business is active.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Morningscore (from $69/mo)

  4. Step 4: Optimise on-page local SEO signals

    Your website needs explicit local signals: include your city and service area in title tags, headings, and page content. Add a LocalBusiness schema markup with your full NAP data. Create separate landing pages for each location you serve.

    Tool for this stepRank Math Pro

    from €7.99/mo billed yearly

    Rank Math has a Local SEO module that adds LocalBusiness schema without hand-coding; check which options need its paid version.

    Rank Math Pro plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  5. Step 5: Track local rankings separately from national rankings

    Local rankings vary by searcher location. Set up rank tracking with location targeting to see your actual rankings as they appear to local searchers — not the generic position that national tracking reports.

    Tool for this stepSE Ranking

    from £95/mo

    SE Ranking's local rank tracking lets you set a specific city or postcode as the tracking location — so you see rankings as a local customer would, not the averaged national position.

    SE Ranking plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Morningscore (from $69/mo)