How local rankings are decided
Google describes three factors for local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance is fixed by where the searcher is. Relevance and prominence are what local SEO works on.
- Relevance: does your profile and website clearly say you do this job, in this area?
- Prominence: how well known is the business, based on reviews, links, mentions and directory listings?
- Distance: how far the searcher is from your business or service area, which we measure rather than change
Website signals
The website linked from your profile is one of the strongest supporting signals. We review it for the basics that local rankings depend on, and fix them where we manage the site or brief your web developer where we do not.
- A clear page for each main service, written for customers and matched to how they search
- Business name, address or service area and contact details consistent with your profile
- LocalBusiness structured data so search engines read your details correctly
- Title tags and headings that name the service and area
- Fast, mobile-friendly pages, because most local searches happen on a phone
- 1 to 3
- 4 to 10
- 11 to 20
- Not in top 20
Demonstration data. Your free scan uses your real profile, keyword and area.
Citations and directory listings
Citations are mentions of your business name, address and phone on other sites: Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau and directories for your trade. Consistent citations help search engines trust your details. Conflicting ones, such as an old phone number or a former address, can do the opposite.
We audit your existing listings, fix the ones that are wrong and build the main ones that are missing. It is mostly one-off work, then a periodic check.
AI search and answer engines
Search is no longer only ten blue links and a map. Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT and other assistants now answer local questions directly. They draw on the same sources: your profile, your reviews, your website and the directories that mention you. Clear, consistent information across those sources gives you the best chance of being named.
Measured the same way as everything else
Local SEO work is measured on the same map-ranking grid as your profile work, so you can see whether the changes moved your visibility. Where you also want organic rankings tracked, we add those keywords to the monthly report.