How to dominate local search when AI is changing how people find businesses.
Local search has changed dramatically
Remember when local SEO meant stuffing your city name into everything and building a few directory links? Those days are done.
Google's AI now understands local intent in remarkably sophisticated ways. It knows when someone searching "plumber" needs local results versus when they're researching the profession. It factors in user history, device location, time of day, and dozens of other signals.
For local businesses, this is both opportunity and threat. The opportunity: do it right and you'll crush competitors still playing the old game. The threat: half-hearted local SEO won't cut it anymore.
The Google Business Profile foundation
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is now the centre of your local SEO universe. Get this wrong and nothing else matters.
The basics (that most businesses botch):
Your business name should be exactly what's on your signage and legal documents. No keyword stuffing like "Joe's Plumbing - Best Emergency Plumber London." Google actively penalises this now.
Categories matter enormously. Pick your primary category carefully—it's the main signal for what searches you appear in. Add secondary categories that genuinely apply.
Your description should be useful, not keyword-stuffed. Explain what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different. Write for humans.
The advanced plays:
Products and services: Add detailed listings with descriptions and photos. This increases your profile's real estate and ranking potential.
Q&A: Seed your own questions and answers. This controls the narrative and adds keyword-rich content.
Posts: Weekly posts signal activity. Share updates, offers, events—whatever's relevant.
Photos and videos: Active photo additions correlate with better rankings. Upload consistently, include context in filenames.
Reviews are everything
Let's be direct: in local search, reviews are the competitive moat.
A business with 200 4.5-star reviews will almost always outrank a competitor with 20 reviews, assuming other factors are comparable. That's just how the algorithm works now.
Getting more reviews:
Make asking systematic. After every completed job, every checkout, every service delivery—ask for a review. Make it friction-free with direct links to your review page.
Time it right. Ask when satisfaction is highest, not two weeks later when they've forgotten you.
Make it specific. "Could you mention [specific service] in your review?" helps both conversion rate and SEO (natural keyword mentions in reviews help rankings).
Managing negative reviews:
Respond to every one. Professionally. Without defensiveness. This is partly for SEO but mostly for future customers reading those reviews.
A thoughtful response to a negative review often makes a better impression than the negative review makes a bad one.
Citations: quality over quantity
Local citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web.
What actually matters:
Consistency is critical. Your NAP should be identical everywhere. Not mostly identical. Identical. Different phone formats or slight address variations confuse Google's entity recognition.
The core citations: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, industry-specific directories. Get these perfect before worrying about obscure directories.
Industry directories carry weight. If there's a respected directory in your industry (Tripadvisor for hospitality, Houzz for home services, etc.), your presence there matters.
What doesn't matter:
Mass citation building across hundreds of low-quality directories. This is outdated advice that wastes time and money.
Fiverr gigs promising 500 directory submissions. These are spam that can actively hurt you.
Local content strategy
Generic content won't move the needle for local rankings. You need location-relevant content.
What works:
Service area pages done properly. Not the same content with city names swapped. Genuinely localised content that mentions local landmarks, addresses local needs, and demonstrates local expertise.
Local case studies. "How we helped [Local Business] solve [Problem]" content that names specific local clients (with permission).
Local resource content. Guides to local regulations, local industry news, local events—content that establishes you as embedded in the community.
What doesn't work:
Doorway pages with identical content and different city names. Google explicitly penalises this.
Thin service area pages without genuine local value.
Generic blog content with no local angle.
Technical local SEO
The technical stuff matters, even for local businesses.
Schema markup: - LocalBusiness schema on your homepage - Service schema for each service - Review schema to display stars in search results - OpeningHours schema for business hours
Location pages: If you serve multiple locations, each should have a unique page with unique content, embedded Google Map, and specific NAP details.
Mobile optimisation: Local searchers are predominantly on mobile. Your mobile experience must be flawless.
The competitive analysis approach
Want to know why a competitor outranks you locally? Here's how to find out:
- 1.Compare review counts and ratings
- 2.Analyse their GBP completeness and activity
- 3.Check their citation profile consistency
- 4.Review their local content depth
- 5.Evaluate their backlink profile (especially local links)
The gap between you and the top result is usually obvious once you look systematically.
Measuring local SEO success
Track these metrics monthly:
Primary: - Phone calls from Google (tracked in GBP) - Direction requests - Website clicks from local pack - Form submissions from local visitors
Secondary: - GBP views and actions - Local pack rankings for key terms - Review velocity and rating trends - Local organic traffic
Vanity: - Social followers (unless your business model is social-first) - Total website traffic without location context
The ongoing maintenance routine
Local SEO isn't set-and-forget. Here's the maintenance schedule:
Weekly: - Respond to all reviews - Post GBP update - Check for new Q&A
Monthly: - Request reviews from recent customers - Update photos - Check NAP consistency across core citations - Review local rankings
Quarterly: - Competitive analysis refresh - Content audit and update - Technical SEO check
When local SEO professionals make sense
Some situations genuinely benefit from expert help:
- •Multiple locations with complex hierarchy
- •Competitive markets where small edges matter enormously
- •Previous penalty or ranking loss
- •Resources to execute but no time to strategise
A good local SEO consultant will be transparent about what's working, what isn't, and what's actually possible in your market.
The bottom line
Local search is more competitive than ever, but the winners follow a clear pattern: complete and optimised GBP, consistent citations, active review management, and genuinely localised content.
The businesses that systematically execute these fundamentals win. The ones hoping that a one-time GBP setup will be enough get buried by competitors who take it seriously.
Your local customers are searching. The question is whether they'll find you or your competitor.
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