How many times have you Googled ‘pizza delivery’, only to find a list of search results detailing pizza restaurants in towns you haven’t even heard of? Let me guess… Never. That’s because even when you search for a term that doesn’t include the words ‘near me’ or the name of your current location, search engines are smart enough to be able to figure out that you’re looking for a local service and provide you with a selection of relevant options.
If you have a physical shop that can be visited, then local SEO is what’s going to help you get found in organic searches by potential local customers.
How Important is Local SEO?
Some of the statistics regarding local online searches are staggering. BrightLocal’s 2026 Consumer Search Behavior study found that 84% of consumers had searched online for a local business within the previous three months. Local decisions also happen quickly: 75% chose a business within 30 minutes, while 73% began their most recent local search on a mobile phone.
This tells us how essential it is to the success of local businesses that they feature in local online search results.
And the best way to achieve this?
Local SEO.
How to Get Found ‘Near Me’?
Search engines use ‘spiders’ to crawl web pages, indexing them in their online catalogue as they go. The spiders move from one page to the next using the links they find on each page.
Google determines local search results primarily through relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance measures how closely a business matches the search, distance considers its proximity to the searcher, and prominence reflects how well-known and trusted the business is. Reviews and links can contribute to prominence.
Research the Keywords Local Customers Use
Local keyword research helps you understand how people search for nearby products or services. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner can uncover related phrases and provide broad estimates of monthly search demand for a selected location.
Search volume should not be the only deciding factor. Focus on keywords that accurately reflect your services and location, then use them naturally across relevant pages, titles and headings.
Create a Google Business Profile
Setting up a Google Business Profile is one of the best ways you can ensure you are featured in relevant local search results, and the best news is that this is easy and free to do.
Head to Google Business Profile to register for an account, and be sure to verify it. You can encourage customers to share your profile, and you can also post information and photos to build authority and help customers find you.
What Makes a Good Google Business Profile?
Creating the profile is only the first step. Choose the most accurate category and keep your contact details, opening hours and website up to date. Add quality photographs, list your main services or products, request genuine customer reviews and publish occasional updates.
A complete, accurate and actively maintained profile makes it easier for potential customers to understand, trust and contact your business.
Accurate Contact Details
This might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s alarming the amount of businesses who have incorrect contact details listed online.
On your business website, ensure the name, address, and phone number of your business are accurate (also known as NAP).
You should also check the contact details on any of your social media profiles because search engines cross-reference these types of details when performing searches, and a discrepancy could cause your business to be left out of local search results.
One of the main things businesses do wrong when it comes to local SEO is displaying their contact details as an image. Contact details presented only within an image may not be reliably understood by search engines and are less accessible to users. Display this information as crawlable HTML text instead.
Be sure to include the contact details of your business on a ‘contact us’ page on your website, and, if possible in the footer of each page on your site. Adding contact details is useful not only for your visitors but also for search engines, as it contributes to the transparency of information.
Build Local Citations That Strengthen Trust
If you have read a few local SEO guides, you may have come away thinking that success depends on listing your business in as many directories as possible. It does not.
A local citation is an online reference to your business, usually including its name, address, telephone number and website. One relevant, complete and actively maintained profile can be more useful than dozens of thin listings created simply to increase the number of citations pointing towards the business.
Start with the highest-quality platforms for your location and industry. Once you claim a profile, complete every useful section: choose the correct category, add your services, opening hours, photographs, website and social profiles, and make sure the core business information agrees with your website and Google Business Profile.
Avoid copying the same generic description into every directory. A local chamber, trade association and review platform each serves a different audience, so tailor the information to the specific platform and explain what is most useful to the people likely to find you there.
Just like a Google Business Profile, directory listings should be maintained. Update them when your opening hours, address, telephone number or services change. Add new photographs where possible and respond to customer feedback. Simply creating a Trustpilot profile and leaving it empty is unlikely to deliver the credibility many businesses expect from it.
Think Beyond General Business Directories
Some of the strongest citations come from genuine real-world relationships.
A listing with your local chamber of commerce, membership of a recognised industry organisation such as NICEIC, or a sponsor profile on your local rugby club’s website can all reinforce the legitimacy of the business.
These references do more than repeat your contact details. They show that the business is connected to its industry and local community. Of course, the membership or sponsorship should be genuine – the citation is valuable because of the real relationship behind it.
Use Review Platforms to Show Real Customer Experiences
Platforms such as Trustpilot and Yelp offer something a traditional directory cannot: insight into the experiences of real customers.
However, the value does not come from claiming the profile alone. It comes from collecting genuine, recent reviews and responding thoughtfully to both positive and negative feedback. An actively maintained review profile gives potential customers more evidence to consider before deciding whether to trust the business.
The goal is not to appear everywhere. Build a smaller collection of relevant, trustworthy and complete profiles, then maintain them as carefully as your own website and Google Business Profile. This creates a more consistent and credible online footprint for customers and search engines alike.
Review Responses
Customers can leave reviews on the business directory, so be sure to follow these up with comments as detailed above.
Responding to reviews demonstrates that you value customer feedback and can help your business stand out.” Google confirms that reviews and ratings can support prominence, but does not state that replies themselves directly raise rankings. Google Business Profile guidance
Active Social Media Profiles
Active social media profiles can strengthen brand awareness, keep business information visible and give local customers more ways to discover and engage with the business.
Encourage followers of your social media profiles to like and share your page, and engage with followers by commenting on posts or responding to queries and reviews.
Expand Your Website
For businesses that have more than one location, be sure to create a new local landing page for each location on your website.
Each location page serves as the landing page for local customers in that area, and each page also serves as an opportunity to be indexed by search engines.
Each location page should contain unique, genuinely useful information about that location. Creating multiple pages with substantially duplicated content is unlikely to help potential customers.
Optimise Title Tag and Meta Description
Title tag and meta description are useful for search engines to determine what your content is about, but they are also used by search engines to show users who you are and what you do. Try to be specific about your business and your location in meta tags to increase your chances of being found in ‘near me’ online searches.
Your title tag is typically used as the clickable title link in search engine results that will direct a user to your website. If you’re focusing on attracting local customers, the title tag ‘Fresh Pizza Delivered in Lincoln’ is going to attract more click-throughs than ‘Most Delicious Pizza from Family Recipe’.
Including details such as price offers and current deals in your meta description tag is another way you can convert browsers into customers and up your local SEO game.
Add LocalBusiness Schema
LocalBusiness schema gives search engines structured information about a physical business, including its name, address, telephone number, opening hours and service area. Use the most specific business type available, such as Electrician, Florist or Restaurant, rather than the general LocalBusiness type where possible.
The simplified example below uses a fictional electrical business:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Electrician",
"name": "Bright Spark Electrical",
"url": "https://www.example.com/",
"telephone": "+44 20 7946 0123",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "10 Example Street",
"addressLocality": "London",
"postalCode": "EC1A 1AA",
"addressCountry": "GB"
},
"areaServed": {
"@type": "City",
"name": "London"
},
"openingHoursSpecification": {
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": [
"Monday",
"Tuesday",
"Wednesday",
"Thursday",
"Friday",
"Saturday"
],
"opens": "08:00",
"closes": "18:00"
}
}
</script>Replace every example value with accurate information from your website. The details included in the markup should also agree with the information visible on the page and in your Google Business Profile.
Once the code has been added, test the page using Google’s Rich Results Test. The example below shows the tool detecting valid Electrician structured data on a live local business website.
A valid result confirms that Google can read the structured data, but it does not guarantee a particular rich result or higher ranking. Recheck the markup whenever important business information changes.
To Sum Things Up
Local SEO is critical to the success of businesses that rely on local customers.
Even having a physical shop front that can attract passing traffic is no longer going to guarantee business in an age where most people turn to the internet for their information. Customers want to be able to get your number or contact details online at the drop of a hat.
They want to browse your menu, view your services, or check out your price list. And, in order to do any of those things, they first need to find you online. Local SEO can make or break a local business, so take care to formulate a tried and tested strategy that works.
If your business is struggling to appear in relevant local searches, our local SEO services can help. We can review your current local visibility, research how customers search for your services, optimise your website and Google Business Profile, strengthen your local citations and identify practical opportunities to help more nearby customers find and contact you.
