The short answer
Local SEO is the work that helps nearby customers find your business when they search for what you do. For a small business it comes down to a complete Google Business Profile, steady honest reviews, a website that names your services and towns, and about an hour a week to keep them current.
What local SEO means
SEO stands for search engine optimization, a long way of saying "make it easy for a search engine to understand you and recommend you". Local SEO is the same idea for searches with a place in them, like "roof repair Tulsa" or "dentist near me".
Those searches work differently from ordinary ones. You're up against the other roofers in your county, rather than every roofing article on the internet. That's good news for a small business. You don't need a big site or a big budget. You need to be clear, accurate and well reviewed in a small area.
Where you can show up
A local search can put you in three places, and each one reads something different.
| Where | What people see | What it draws on |
|---|---|---|
| Map results | Your name, rating, hours, phone and directions | Your Google Business Profile, your reviews and your site |
| Web results | A page of your site, with its title and a snippet | Your website's pages and the links to them |
| AI answers on Google | A summary, sometimes with links to pages | The same pages and profile information |
Google says there's nothing extra to do to appear in its AI features, with no new files or special markup. The same basics apply, including keeping your Business Profile up to date. So you don't need a separate plan for AI search. A true, complete, well-reviewed business is the plan.
How Google decides who to show
Google names three things, and they're worth knowing because they tell you where your hour goes.
Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. You control this. The right category, complete details and real descriptions of your services all help.
Distance is how far you are from the person searching. You don't control this. It's why you can do well in your own neighborhood and fade ten miles out. Don't try to fake it with a mailbox or a virtual office, because Google's guidelines rule them out.
Prominence is how well known you are. Google says this draws on things like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help. You can move this over time, and only over time.
Google also says you can't pay for or request a better local ranking. Ads are a separate product, and they're labeled as ads. So if someone calls promising you first place on Maps, you can hang up.
Your first month, an hour a week
You can lay the groundwork in four sittings. Do them in this order, because each one makes the next one count for more.
Week 1: claim your listing
Find your business on Google Maps and claim it, or add it if it isn't there. Start verification, which can take up to five business days. While you wait, write down your details exactly as you'll use them everywhere: name, phone, address or towns served, and hours.
Week 2: finish your profile
Pick the most specific primary category you can. Add your services with plain descriptions. Write a description of up to 750 characters on what you do and what sets you apart. Add real photos of your work, your team and the outside of your place. Our guide to optimizing your profile goes through it field by field.
Week 3: start asking for reviews
Get your review link, and save a short message on your phone. Send it to everyone you served this week, all of them. Then reply to the reviews you already have, the old complaint included. How to get more Google reviews has the words, and what Google forbids.
Week 4: tidy your website
Put your name and phone on every page. Give your home page a title with your trade and your town. Add a page for your main service if you don't have one. Connect Search Console, which is free and shows you which searches bring people in.
No site yet? Shingle can build one from your Google listing, or see how to build a small business website for every route.
Your regular hour after that
Once the groundwork is in, an hour a week keeps it moving. Here's a rhythm that fits around a working week.
| Time | Job |
|---|---|
| 10 minutes | Reply to new reviews |
| 10 minutes | Check everyone who finished with you this week was asked for a review |
| 10 minutes | Add photos from a recent job, or post an update |
| 30 minutes | This week's bigger job, from the list below |
The bigger jobs rotate through the month:
- First week. Improve one service page. Add a photo, a price range or the answer to a question customers ask on the phone.
- Second week. Check your hours, phone and address everywhere they appear. Set holiday hours ahead of time.
- Third week. Ask for one link, from a supplier, a trade group, a team you sponsor or a business you work with.
- Fourth week. Read your numbers and write them down.
None of it is exciting, and it only counts if you keep it up, so give it a fixed slot in your week.
What to do yourself and what to pay for
Do the profile and the reviews yourself. They take minutes, nobody knows your business better, and the account should be yours anyway. A customer also knows when a reply to their review came from someone who was there.
Paying someone can make sense when:
- You don't have a usable site, and don't want to learn to make one. Our guide to what a small business website costs sets out each route and its range.
- Your photos let you down. One good half-day with a local photographer can serve you for years.
- You have several locations, or a crowded market, and you can see what a new customer is worth.
Be wary of anyone who:
- promises a position on Google, which Google says can't be bought
- wants the profile or the domain in their name
- sells you links or reviews, since Google treats bought links as spam and removes paid reviews
- reports only rankings, and can't tell you about calls
How to tell if it's working
Look at three things once a month.
Your profile. The Performance report shows how many people viewed your profile, called, messaged, asked for directions or clicked through to your site. It also lists the search terms people used to find you. Those terms are a free lesson in how customers describe what you do.
Your site. Search Console's Performance report shows which searches led to your pages, and how often people clicked. If a page shows up a lot and rarely gets a click, its title is the first thing to change.
Your phone. Ask new callers how they found you, and keep a tally on paper. It takes a few seconds, and it tells you more than any report about which work pays.
Give it time. Google says some changes show within hours and others take months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging a change. If your trade is seasonal, compare with the same month last year instead of last month.
Three things you can stop worrying about
Google's starter guide settles a few arguments you may have heard from salespeople.
- The keywords meta tag. Google Search doesn't use it, so nobody needs to fill it in.
- A keyword-rich domain. Keywords in a domain have hardly any effect alone. A name customers can remember and spell serves you better than a long one with your trade and town in it.
- Word counts. Length alone doesn't matter for ranking. A short page that answers the question is enough.
Where to go from here
When you want the full list in order, use the local SEO checklist. Every trade gets found a little differently, and our pages for plumbers, dentists and restaurants show what their customers search for and what earns their trust.
