For a plumber, a cleaner, a law firm or a contractor, "local SEO" is really two goals: show up in the map pack (the three-result box with the map), and rank in the normal results for "[service] [area]". The same work drives both.
What actually ranks a local business?
Google weighs three things for local: relevance (does the business match the search), distance (how close to the searcher), and prominence (how established and well-reviewed it is). You cannot change distance. You influence relevance with your website and profile content, and prominence with reviews and genuine mentions. That is where the effort goes.
How much does the Google Business Profile matter?
A lot. For map-pack visibility it is the single biggest factor. Fill in every field, pick the most specific primary category, add real photos (not stock), list your services with descriptions, keep hours accurate, and post updates occasionally. A half-finished profile is the most common reason a real business is invisible on the map.
Do I need a page for every town?
You need a page for each area that actually sends you work or that you want more of, and each one has to say something real: the neighbourhoods covered, local landmarks, jobs done there, area-specific considerations. Thin "we also serve [town]" doorway pages do not rank and can hurt. On projects like Talent Cleaning that meant a handful of county-level pages, not fifty town pages.
What about reviews?
Steady is better than sudden. A consistent trickle of recent Google reviews, ideally mentioning the service and the area, is one of the strongest prominence signals. Build asking for a review into your job-completion process. Respond to all of them, positive and negative.
Does schema help local rankings?
Schema does not directly rank you higher, but LocalBusiness or the specific type (Plumber, Attorney, HVACBusiness), plus consistent name-address-phone in the markup and footer, helps Google understand and trust the entity. It is table stakes on a local business site, not a growth hack.
What is a waste of money?
- Mass citation packages. Hundreds of listings on directories nobody uses. Get the five that matter right instead.
- Bought backlinks. Risky and rarely relevant to local.
- Keyword-stuffed area pages. "Best plumber Springfield cheap plumber Springfield emergency plumber Springfield" reads as spam to Google and to humans.
- Ignoring site speed. A slow local site loses map-pack clicks and normal rankings alike. See what a 90+ score takes.
