What is local SEO and how do nearby customers find you?

What is local SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Local SEO is the part that deals with searches that include a place. Someone types "plumber Delft" or "physiotherapist near me". Or just searches for "hairdresser", and Google understands they want someone close by.

For searches like these, Google often shows a map with a few businesses on it. The regular results follow underneath. Local SEO makes sure you show up in both, and in Google Maps too. AI assistants that recommend a business nearby also draw on what can be found about you online.

Local SEO matters to anyone with customers in a particular area. A shop, a practice or a restaurant. But also a heating engineer or a cleaning company that visits customers at home.

How does Google decide the local results?

Google explains it in the help pages for Google Business Profile. Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence (opens in a new tab).

• Relevance. Does your business match what someone is looking for? Google works that out from your profile, your categories and your website.
• Distance. How far are you from the searcher, or from the place in the search? There is little you can do about that.
• Prominence. How well known is your business, online and offline? Reviews, mentions on other sites, links and your position in the regular search results all count.

Google adds that you cannot request or pay for a better local ranking. Ads in Google Maps do exist, but they are separate from your regular place on the map.

Getting your Google Business Profile right

Your Google Business Profile is the heart of local SEO. It is free and you manage it yourself. Here is how to get more out of it.

1. Claim and verify your profile. Without verification there is little you can change.
2. Choose the right primary category. It tells Google what your business is about. Only add extra categories that are genuinely accurate.
3. Use your real business name. No extra keywords or place names. That is in Google's guidelines (opens in a new tab). Extra words in your name can cost you your profile.
4. Fill in everything. Opening hours, including around bank holidays, your services, a short description and a link to the right page on your website.
5. Do you work at customers' premises? Then set a service area. If customers don't come to your address, hide it. Google asks for that too.
6. Add real photos. Of your premises, your team and your work. No stock photos.
7. Keep it up to date. Post an update now and then and check that your details are still correct. Other people can suggest changes too.

Asking for reviews and replying to them

Reviews help in two ways. Google takes them into account, and they persuade people who are choosing between you and a competitor.

• Ask at the right moment. Straight after a job or appointment that went well. A card with a QR code or a short link in your thank-you email makes it easy.
• Ask everyone. Not just the customers you know are happy. Asking only satisfied customers for reviews is against Google's rules.
• Never buy reviews. Fake reviews mislead your customers and break the rules.
• Reply to every review. Say thank you for a good one. Respond calmly and specifically to criticism. Future customers are reading along.

Making your website stronger locally

Your profile links to your website, and Google also looks at your site to judge whether you are relevant. Here is how to make your website stronger locally.

• Mention your town and region where it fits. In your page titles, headings and copy. Not in every sentence, but where it makes sense.
• One page per service. A separate page for each main service gives Google and your visitors a clear answer.
• Location pages only with real content. Do you work in several towns? Only create a page per town if you genuinely have something to say about it. Dozens of near-identical pages with only the place name changed are treated as spam by Google.
• The same details everywhere. Your name, address and phone number appear on your site exactly as in your profile.
• Structured data. LocalBusiness markup tells search engines your address, your opening hours and your service area.
• Fast on a phone. People searching locally are often on the move.

You can see what such a page looks like on our own Dutch page about online marketing in Delft.

Local mentions and links

You also build prominence away from your own site. Look for places in your area where your business could be mentioned.

• A listing with your local business association or shopping centre.
• Sponsoring a sports club or neighbourhood event, with a link on their site.
• An article in the local paper or on a regional news site.
• Partnerships with businesses that work alongside you, such as a builder and a plumber.
• Trade directories and the website of your professional body.

Make sure your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere. An old address on a forgotten site causes confusion, for Google and for customers.

A local marketing agency or do it yourself?

You can do a lot of local SEO yourself. Filling in a profile, asking for reviews and checking your website mostly take time and attention.

A local marketing agency helps when you get stuck on the technical side or when competitors in your area invest heavily. Or when you want your website, your ads and your social media to pull in the same direction. Local online marketing is more than SEO. A Google Ads campaign for your own area, posts for your neighbourhood and a website that turns visitors into enquiries all reinforce each other.

An agency nearby knows the area and can easily drop by. Beyond that, look at what an agency can demonstrably do and how it measures results. See also what a digital marketing agency does.

How we approach it

We start by reviewing your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your website and your competitors in the area. That gives us a short list of what comes first. We get your profile and your pages in order and help you set up a simple way to ask for reviews. Then we measure what counts, such as phone calls, direction requests and enquiries through your site. Fail fast, improve fast. Read more about our SEO service.