A practical, step-by-step checklist to help your business show up in Google's local results, win more calls, and turn local searchers into paying customers. Work through the six sections below in order — most businesses can complete the essentials in a weekend.
1. Get your NAP consistent everywhere
Your Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) must match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile, social profiles and directory listings. Even small differences confuse search engines.
Pick one canonical version of your business name, address and phone number.
Update your website footer, contact page and schema markup to match.
Audit Google, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook and industry directories.
Fix or remove old listings for previous addresses or numbers.
2. Optimise your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is the single highest-impact local SEO asset. A complete, active profile can outrank websites in the local map pack.
Claim and verify your profile at google.com/business.
Choose the most specific primary category, then add relevant secondary categories.
Write a keyword-rich but natural business description.
Add real photos of your team, premises, work and products — refresh monthly.
Fill in services, products, hours, holiday hours and attributes.
Post updates weekly (offers, news, events) to signal activity.
3. Build a steady flow of reviews
Review quantity, quality and recency are ranking factors in the local pack — and they're the strongest trust signal for customers choosing between you and a competitor.
Ask every happy customer for a Google review the same day.
Send a short SMS or email with a direct review link.
Reply to every review — positive and negative — within 48 hours.
Encourage reviewers to mention the specific service and location.
4. Get listed in local citations
Citations are mentions of your NAP on other websites. High-quality local citations build trust and reinforce your location relevance.
List on the big data aggregators: Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Facebook.
Add your business to trusted local directories (Chamber of Commerce, local council).
Get listed on industry-specific directories relevant to your trade.
Use the exact same NAP format on every listing.
5. Nail on-page local SEO
Your website needs to tell Google exactly where you operate and what you do. Location signals should be woven through the site — not stuffed onto one page.
Include your city or region in the homepage title tag and H1.
Create a dedicated page for each location you serve.
Add LocalBusiness JSON-LD schema with your NAP, hours and geo.
Embed a Google Map on the contact page.
Write genuinely useful content about your area (guides, FAQs, case studies).
6. Fix mobile, speed and Core Web Vitals
Over 60% of local searches happen on mobile. A slow or clunky site loses customers before they ever call.
Test your site with PageSpeed Insights and fix red-flag issues.
Compress images and use modern formats (WebP, AVIF).
Make phone numbers tap-to-call and forms short.
Ensure buttons and text are readable without pinching.
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