Local SEO for small businesses comes down to three things: relevance (do you match the search query), distance (are you close to the searcher), and prominence (are you established). Distance is not something you can control, so to improve your local SEO performance, you must focus on relevance and prominence in your target market. Small businesses can do this by optimizing Google Business, claiming third-party local listings, establishing an online review process, adding local website signals, and maintaining social media pages.
Start with Your Google Business Profile to Grow Local SEO
The first step towards improving small business local SEO is to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP). Google Business is important for small businesses because it dominates the Google search landscape. And even in this age of AI search, people still use Google more than any other search engine.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Follow these steps to optimize your Google Business Profile:
- Claim and verify your business on business.google.com
- Use your actual business name (do not add city names or keywords)
- Use your official mailing address and phone number (avoid tracking numbers if possible)
- Choose the most specific primary category for your business
- Add relevant secondary categories
- Complete every field in the profile: description, hours, website URL, services, products, etc.
- Upload photos of your business
Publish Google Posts
Once your Google Business Profile is optimized, you need to treat it like your website and consistently publish content. You can do this by publishing Google Posts. There are three types of posts: update, offer, event.
Claim and Update Local Listings with Consistent Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)
While Google Business remains the most important listing for your small business, there are other local listing sites and directories to consider. At the very least, you need to do the following:
- Create a list of the most popular local listings platforms
- Add any industry directories or websites to this list
- One by one, claim and verify each listing
- Use the same name, address, and phone number on each listing
Google and other search engines, as well as AI large language models (LLMs), scan and extract information from these listing sites and directories. Unverified or inconsistent information harms your local SEO presence.
Popular Local Listings Platforms
There are many local listings platforms that impact small business local SEO:
- Google Business
- Apple Maps
- Bing Places
- Yelp
- Better Business Bureau
- Local Chambers of Commerce
- Local Business Associations
Industry Directories
Depending on your small business, there may be specific industry directories and websites that you should prioritize. For example, if you are a general contractor, then you need to list your business on home services websites.
Collect and Respond to Online Customer Reviews for Local SEO Performance
Every small business owner knows that reputation matters more than anything else. In the SEO local SEO context, your business’s reputation comes from online customer reviews. Review count, star rating, recency, and responsiveness all impact local SEO performance. As such, small businesses need a process to consistently collect and respond to customer reviews:
- Ask customers to write a review after completed jobs. Sending a short link by text or email works best.
- Reply to customer reviews, both negative and positive, within a few days. Your responses should include important details (“Glad the water heater install went smoothly” instead of “Glad it worked out”).
- Add review links to your website and social media pages.
- Do not offer discounts or any other incentives to encourage reviews. This violates Google and other review policies.
- Avoid review gating, which means only asking happy customers to write reviews. Responding to negative reviews can actually make your business look good.
Google Business Profile Reviews
Google Business Profile reviews are critical to local SEO performance because they appear directly in Google search results. Google highlights any positive and negative reviews that are recent. Moreover, Google Business reviews are ranking factors for Google organic search. But keep this in mind: Google prioritizes review count, frequency, and responsiveness more than average star rating.
Third-Party Review Platforms
As with local listings, there are review platforms other than Google Business that small businesses cannot forget. Social media platforms like Facebook are relevant, as are review sites like Trustpilot.
Add Local Signals on Website for Local SEO
In addition to Google Business and other third-party sites, small businesses must add local signals to their websites. Local signals are basically anything that references or relates to your business location. These signals improve local SEO performance because they make it clear to Google and LLMs that your business should rank in particular locations. In fact, according to a Whitespark report, on-page signals are the most important ranking factor for local organic and AI search. Here is how you can add local signals to your website:
- Include your name, address, and phone number in your website footer
- Create a contact page with an embedded Google Map (you can get this from your Google Business Profile)
- Add location to your service page meta tags
- If you have multiple locations, create individual location pages
- Add LocalBusiness schema
- Publish local content
To really drive local SEO, be sure to optimize your mobile website. Most local searches occur on smartphones.
Local Blog Content
One of the benefits of having a blog is that you can publish local content. This gives you a relatively easy way to consistently remind search engines, and your target audience, that your small business is a local leader. You can take advantage of local blog posts such as news articles, local guides, seasonal local question-and-answers, local case studies, and community posts.
Consider Social Media Marketing for Local SEO
Social media marketing, when it connects to your website and local listings, can drive local SEO performance. Search engines like Google crawl and index social media pages as they do webpages. As such, local social media content appears in organic search results. Beyond that, LLMs use social media content to synthesize information about your business. All this means that local social media can have a positive impact on local SEO performance.
Follow these social media marketing tips for local SEO:
- Create business pages on popular social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X
- Use consistent name, address, phone number, and website URL
- Post local photos (completed jobs, community events, etc.)
- Collect and respond to reviews
- Encourage user generated content on social media
CORE Search’s SEO Services
CORE Search offers SEO services, including local SEO, for small businesses. We will work with you to identify the most important local SEO optimizations for your listings and website.