Guide
Local SEO for service businesses
How to win the map results and local searches: your business profile, listings, reviews, location pages and the mistakes that keep businesses out of the top spots.
Local SEO is how a business shows up when people search for what it does near them. For service businesses it often decides who gets the call. These are the parts that matter, in the order to tackle them.
1. Your business profile
- Claim and verify the profile for each location
- Choose the right primary category, then only the extra ones that fit
- List every service and describe each one clearly
- Add accurate hours, including holidays
- Add real photos of the premises, team and work
2. Name, address and phone, everywhere
The same business name, address and phone number should appear on your site, your profile and every directory. Differences, such as an old number, make you harder to trust and to find. Fix the big directories first, then the ones that matter in your trade.
3. Reviews
- Ask every happy customer, soon after the job, with a direct link
- Reply to every review, kindly, including the poor ones
- Never buy, trade or write reviews yourself
- Watch for the pace of new reviews as well as the total
4. Pages on your own site
Give each main service its own page, and each location its own page if you have more than one. Write them for real customers: what you do, who it is for, how it works and how to book. Avoid near-identical pages for every town.
5. Local mentions and links
Local press, community groups, suppliers and industry bodies are natural places to be mentioned. These mentions help both local results and general search.
Common mistakes
- Using a keyword-stuffed name for the profile
- Listing an address that is not a real location
- Ignoring reviews
- Letting listings drift out of date
- Treating every town as a separate page of duplicate text
What to measure
Track visibility in the map results for your core searches, the number of calls and direction requests, and review growth. Check them monthly.
Common questions
Do I need a shop front?
Not always. Many service-area businesses qualify for a profile without a public address. The rules differ by search engine, so check the one you use.
How many reviews do I need?
There is no threshold. Aim for a steady stream of recent, genuine reviews that match or beat the businesses you compete with.
Should each town have its own page?
Only where you genuinely serve it and have something specific to say. Near-identical pages for every town do more harm than good.
Ready to be found by Google and named by AI assistants?
Book a 30-minute call. We prepare a free audit of your site first, so you leave with a written read whether or not you hire us.