Local SEO

For any business serving a geographic area - shops, restaurants, clinics, contractors, law firms - local SEO is its own discipline with its own ranking system. Queries with local intent ("dentist near me", "coffee shop downtown") trigger the map pack: the map plus three business listings that absorbs most clicks before classic organic results begin.

The three local ranking factors#

Google states them explicitly:

Google Business Profile: the core asset#

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing is your map pack presence. Treat it like a second homepage:

• Claim and verify at google.com/business
• Categories: the primary category is the strongest relevance lever - be precise ("Espresso bar" beats "Coffee shop" if accurate); add all legitimate secondary categories
• Complete everything: hours (including holidays), services/menu, attributes, photos (listings with many recent photos measurably outperform)
• Post updates periodically - activity is a freshness signal
• Q&A: seed and answer common questions; anyone can answer them otherwise

NAP consistency and citations#

Citations are mentions of your Name, Address, Phone (NAP) across the web - directories, maps services, industry listings. Engines cross-reference them to verify you're real and located where claimed.

• Keep NAP byte-for-byte consistent everywhere (pick one format for suite numbers, abbreviations, phone formatting)
• Cover the majors: Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp, industry-specific directories
• Fix old addresses after a move - stale citations actively hurt verification

Mirror it on your site with LocalBusiness structured data:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "CafeOrCoffeeShop",
  "name": "Crema District",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "414 Oak Ave",
    "addressLocality": "Portland",
    "addressRegion": "OR",
    "postalCode": "97205"
  },
  "telephone": "+1-503-555-0188",
  "openingHours": "Mo-Su 07:00-18:00",
  "url": "https://cremadistrict.com"
}
</script>

Reviews#

Reviews drive both prominence (count, velocity, rating) and conversion (humans read them):

• Ask consistently - post-purchase email/SMS with a direct review link. Asking is allowed; incentivizing or gating ("only happy customers get the link") is not.
• Respond to everything, especially negatives - professionally and concretely. Responses are public marketing.
• Keywords in review text ("best cold brew downtown") genuinely correlate with relevance - you can't control this, but great specific service produces great specific reviews.

Local content on your site#

The map pack isn't the whole game - localized organic results sit below it:

• One landing page per location (real, distinct content: team, photos, directions, local testimonials - not city-name find-and-replace)
• Service × area pages where demand exists ("water heater repair in Beaverton") - backed by your keyword research, not generated for every suburb on the map
• Local relevance content: neighborhood guides, local event sponsorships, community involvement - which also earn the local links that build prominence

Off-page module complete. Next frontier: AEO - Answer Engine Optimization.