Local SEO is the practice of ranking for location-based queries. "Plumber near me." "Best pizza in Chicago." "Dentist 75201." It's a distinct ranking algorithm, with different signals than national SEO. For any business with a physical location or service area, local SEO is the difference between being found by a customer 3 blocks away or invisible to them. This page walks through what makes local SEO unique, the 7 signals that move rankings, who needs local SEO, and the core workflow every local business should run.
Regular SEO ranks pages in the blue-link organic results. Local SEO focuses on three distinct places on the results page:
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 the same tactics.
If you don't have a claimed and verified Google Business Profile, that's the first task. Everything else in local SEO layers on top of that foundation. The rest of this section covers each layer in detail.
Next: Google Business Profile optimization, the single highest-ROI task in local SEO.
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.