Quick Answer: Local SEO (search engine optimisation) is everything that helps your business show up when people nearby search for what you do. Google decides mainly on relevance, distance and prominence: how well you match the search, how close you are, and how well known you are. In practice that means a properly set-up Google listing, a steady flow of reviews, and a website that clearly says what you do and where.
SEO sounds technical, and plenty of people selling it are happy for it to stay that way.
The local version isn’t complicated, though. When someone types “hairdresser near me” or “plumber in Burnley”, Google has to choose a handful of businesses to show. Local SEO is making it easy for Google to choose you.
Where do local results actually appear?
There are two places to show up, and they work a bit differently.
- The map results: the listings with a map, your star rating and a call button. These come from your Google Business Profile.
- The ordinary results: the normal list of websites underneath. These come from your website’s pages.
You want to be in both, as they favour different things. Whitespark’s 2026 survey asked 47 local search experts for their opinions, so it isn’t measured ranking data. Their top factors for the map included your main category and how close you are. For ordinary results, they included a dedicated page for each service, content relevant to your area, and the quality of links to your site.
How does Google decide who to show?
Google spells out three things it looks at for local results.
Relevance: do you match what they searched for?
Google needs to understand what you do. If your listing and website clearly say you fit kitchens, you’ve got a chance of appearing for “kitchen fitter”. If they just say “quality home improvements”, you’ve made it harder.
This is the part you’ve got most control over, and it’s why plain, specific words beat clever slogans. Your main category on Google matters here as well.
Distance: how close are you?
Google looks at how far you are from the person searching, or the place they typed. You can’t change this, and it’s why you can be top of the list on your own street and nowhere in the next town.
It’s also why two people can get different results for the same search. So when a salesperson rings to tell you that you’re “not on page one”, ask where they searched from.
I’ve seen this with my own business. When I checked Google Maps for “web designer” on 31 October 2026, Digimill came second searching from Colne and 17th from Nelson, about three miles away. Those are single snapshots of one search, but it shows how quickly distance bites.
Prominence: how well known are you?
This is how much of a reputation you’ve got, both online and in the real world. Google says it’s partly based on the number of websites linking to you and on your reviews and ratings.
It takes the longest to build, because links and reviews build up over time.
What isn’t local SEO?
Some old tricks are still being sold. I wouldn’t pay for any of these:
- Copying town names onto page after page. A page that says the same thing with a different town swapped in doesn’t help anyone. Google warns against mass-producing pages that add nothing for users.
- Stuffing your business name with keywords. It can work for a while, but Google says this could get your profile suspended.
- Paying Google to rank. Google says you can’t pay or ask for a better local ranking. Ads can sit above the results, but they’re separate.
- Anything “guaranteed”. Google’s own advice is that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
- Secret tricks. Google’s guide says there aren’t any that automatically rank you first.
What should a small business actually do?
Here’s the order I’d work in. Most of it costs nothing but time.
1. Sort your Google listing
Claim it, verify it and fill in every section, paying the most attention to your main category. Here’s how to set up a Google Business Profile properly. If you can’t find yourself at all, start with why a business doesn’t show on Google Maps.
2. Get reviews, and keep getting them
Ask every customer. Reviews help your ranking, and they also help persuade the person reading them. In Whitespark’s survey, review signals rose in importance. I’ve written up how to get more Google reviews.
3. Make your website clear
Say what you do and where, in plain language, and give your main services their own space on the site. Google’s starter guide asks for clear, original, up-to-date content, and that’s most of the job. Make sure it appears on Google too.
4. Keep your details the same everywhere
Use the same name, phone number and website on your listing, your site, Facebook and directories like Yell. It’s dull, but it makes it easy to see that all of these are the same business.
5. Earn a few real local links
A link from your local business group, a supplier, a sponsor or a charity you support is worth having. Google’s guide also suggests promoting yourself through community and word of mouth, and those conversations are where a lot of good links come from. Never buy them.
Does local SEO work if I don’t have a shop?
Yes, but it’s harder in towns where you have no address. Whitespark’s experts rate an address in the town being searched as a top factor for the map, so your website has to do more of the work there.
Google has a setup for businesses that go to their customers: you hide your address and list the areas you cover. You’ll usually do best near your base, and you can talk about your wider area on your website with real examples of work there.
How do AI tools like ChatGPT fit in?
They’re worth keeping an eye on, but my view is the job hardly changes: consistent listings, reviews, and a site that says what you do. Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how they choose.
Google’s AI summaries showed on about 30% of UK keyword searches in Ofcom’s 2025 report, covering all kinds of searches, not just local ones.
How long does all this take?
You can fix your listing in an afternoon, though edits can take up to 30 days to be checked. Google says to wait a few weeks before judging a change, and building a reputation takes months. I’ve gone through the details in how long SEO takes.
Want this done for you?
This is the setup Digimill builds for local businesses across Lancashire and Yorkshire: a website that says what you do, your Google listing set up properly, and reviews coming in. You get on with the job.
Tell me about your business and I’ll build you a free preview of what your site could look like, with nothing to pay unless you go ahead.