Local SEO is the practice of ranking for location-based queries. "[service] near me," "best [service] in [city]," "[business name]" branded searches. Separate ranking algorithm. Different signals. Critical for any business with physical location or service area.
Regular SEO ranks pages in the blue-link organic results. Local SEO focuses on three distinct places:
The single most important lever. A complete, optimized, verified GBP is mandatory.
Name, Address, Phone. Must match exactly across every web mention, your site, Yelp, Facebook, directories. Inconsistencies hurt trust.
Number, recency, average rating, responses. Review signals are ~15% of local ranking weight.
Mentions of your NAP on third-party sites (Yelp, Yellowpages, BBB, industry directories). More citations + consistent NAP = trust.
City/service mentions in title, H1, content. Location-specific landing pages.
Links from local sources, chamber of commerce, local news, community organizations, carry extra weight for local rankings.
How close your business is to the searcher. You can't control this, but it affects who sees you.
You can rank nationally for a generic query ("best insurance CRM") while also ranking locally for location-specific ones ("insurance broker Chicago"). The strategies overlap but aren't identical, local demands more attention to GBP, reviews, and citations.
Multi-location businesses need one GBP per location, one location-specific page per location, and care to avoid duplicate content. Single-location is simpler but benefits from all the same tactics.