Our local SEO services are for small businesses that serve customers in a defined area: plumbers, dentists, lawyers, contractors, cleaners and similar trades. We work on your Google Business Profile, listings, reviews and website pages, with one aim: making it easier for nearby customers to find you, call or book.
We're a new agency and would rather show than tell: read how we work, then try our free website review.
Running several locations under one brand? Our franchise SEO services page explains how local SEO works across many locations.
How Google decides which local businesses to show
Search for “dentist near me” and Google often shows a map with a short list of businesses: the local pack. According to Google Business Profile Help on local ranking, local results are mainly based on three factors:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. Complete, detailed information helps.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching.
- Prominence: how well-known you are, based partly on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.
Google also says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and no one can move your premises closer to every customer. So the work goes into relevance and prominence, the parts you can influence.
What our local SEO services include
Your proposal lists the exact tasks for your business. Depending on your plan, the work can cover these six areas.
1. Where you show up now in Search and Maps
We check how you appear in Search and Maps for your services and towns, and list the phrases customers type, such as “boiler repair Leeds” or “family dentist Calgary”. Deeper site problems belong to our technical SEO work, and bigger keyword projects to keyword research.
2. Your Google Business Profile
If your profile isn't verified yet, we help you through Google's verification; Google says a verified business is more likely to show up in search results. We then help you choose accurate categories, complete your services, hours, service area and description, and add real photos of your work.
Use your real-world business name. Google's Business Profile guidelines don't permit extras such as service keywords or a town that isn't part of your real name, and profiles that add them can be suspended. After setup, the profile needs regular attention: holiday hours, new photos and posts about offers or seasonal work. Your proposal says which of these we handle and which you do.
3. NAP consistency and citations
Your name, address and phone number (NAP) should be identical on your website, your Google profile and every directory where customers find you. An old number on a popular directory can send a ready-to-buy customer nowhere.
We correct wrong listings and help you get listed where it matters in your country and trade: platforms such as Bing Places and Apple Business (for Apple Maps), national directories such as Yell in the UK, and trade sites such as Avvo for US lawyers. Accuracy beats volume.
4. Reviews from real customers
Reviews help customers decide, and Google counts them toward prominence. To get more, ask every customer, with a direct link: by email or text after the job, on your invoice or via a QR code at your desk. Keep it honest:
- Never buy reviews, review your own business, or ask staff or family to post reviews.
- Never offer discounts, gifts or payment for a review.
- Ask all customers, not only happy ones, and don't discourage negative reviews.
- Don't pressure people or tell them what to write.
Reply to reviews too: a calm reply to a complaint shows future customers how you handle problems.
5. Service and location pages
Your website needs a clear page for each main service, covering the areas you serve, how quotes work, photos of real jobs and common questions. Each real branch gets its own page with its own address and details. On WordPress sites, we can add LocalBusiness structured data that matches your profile and make your phone number tap-to-call on mobile.
We avoid near-identical “plumber in [town]” pages that only swap the place name: they give customers nothing new. A separate town page earns its place only when it has something specific to say, such as jobs you've done there, with photos and reviews from customers in that town.
6. Local links and mentions
Links feed into prominence. The ones worth having are earned: from your trade association or chamber of commerce, suppliers and partners, community groups, and local news coverage of something genuinely newsworthy. Your proposal confirms whether link work is included. We never buy links.
Is local SEO right for your business?
Local SEO services make the most sense when people already search for your trade in your area.
A good fit if you
- serve customers in a defined area, at your premises or theirs;
- win work from searches like “dentist near me” or “electrician in [town]”;
- can ask customers for reviews and send us photos and updates;
- have a website you can change (our focus is WordPress).
Probably not the right fit if you
- sell online nationwide with no local area: see our SEO for online stores or general SEO services;
- have no real place you operate from (P.O. boxes and virtual offices aren't eligible for a Business Profile);
- want fake reviews or other shortcuts that break Google's rules.
How pricing works for local SEO services
Our local SEO services are part of every plan. SEO Starter ($395/month) is the plan for small and local businesses: it covers local SEO, an initial audit, website repairs and 5 tracked search phrases. SEO Growth ($795/month) adds keyword mapping and competitor analysis, which helps if you cover several towns or work in a crowded trade, such as law or dentistry in a big city. SEO Authority ($1,495/month) adds backlink and content-gap analysis and a weekly report.
Before anything starts, your proposal spells out the local tasks, the USD price and what we need from you. You can compare all three plans on our SEO packages page.
How long local SEO services take to work
Profile and listing fixes come first. Reviews and links then build up month by month, so expect gradual change rather than a sudden jump. How far your Maps position moves depends on your competitors and how far customers are from you, so it can differ from one street to the next.
Prefer to start on your own? Try our local SEO checklist, our step-by-step local SEO audit or our guide to local SEO citations.
Ask for a free review of your local business website
Weighing up local SEO services? When you fill in the free website review form, add your website and tell us your trade, the towns you serve and the jobs you want more of. We'll email back the main issues we see and what we'd tackle first, with no obligation. You can also contact us with a question.
