Local SEO is everything you do so that somebody searching for a roofer in Ossett finds you rather than a firm forty miles away. It is not a dark art. For a trade it comes down to three things: a properly filled out Google listing, a site that names the places you work, and other websites saying your details consistently.
The three things that do the work
Your Google Business Profile, filled in properly, with real photos and real reviews. That is what feeds the map results, and Google sets out the factors in its own guidance on local ranking.
Your website, with a page for each town you genuinely work in, saying something true about that town rather than the same paragraph with the name swapped.
Your details, written the same way everywhere they appear online. Same business name, same number, same address, on your site, your listing, your trade directories and your social pages.
A worked example
A drainage firm covering five towns had one homepage saying it served the local area. In Search Console it ranked for its own company name and almost nothing else, because there was no page for any of the five towns to rank with.
Five town pages later, each naming the estates and the jobs actually done there, the searches that ring are coming in on the town pages rather than the homepage. The homepage never had to win anything it was not built to win.
What to ignore
Anybody selling guaranteed first place. Anybody selling a thousand backlinks. Anybody who will not tell you what they are actually doing. None of that survives contact with how Google works, and some of it will get you penalised.
Why it matters for your site
Check these on your own site
- Name the towns. A page that says the local area tells Google nothing.
- Write your business name, number and address the same way in every place online.
- Real photos of real jobs in each town do more than any amount of keyword stuffing.
- Reviews with detail in them are local SEO as much as they are sales.
- It is slow. Anything that promises a jump in a fortnight is selling you something else.
Common questions
How long does local SEO take to work?
Months, not weeks. A filled out Google listing can shift things fastest, but town pages and reviews build slowly. Anyone promising a jump in a fortnight is guessing.
Can I do local SEO myself?
Much of it, yes. Claiming and filling out your Google listing, asking for reviews, and keeping your details consistent are all jobs you can do without paying anyone.