Local SEO: a guide to getting a business found in its city, without paying for ads

“Dentist near me”, “plumber Rabat”, “leather bags shop Fès”: when a search contains a place, or Google guesses it needs one, it shows a map and three businesses before anything else. Local SEO is the work that gets you into those three, then into the results just below.

The good news: it is the most accessible kind of SEO for a small business. You are not competing with the whole world, only with the businesses in your area.

How Google decides

Google says it ranks local results on three criteria: relevance (does your business match the search?), distance (are you close to the person searching?) and prominence (reviews, links, articles about you). Distance can’t be worked on. The other two can: they are the seven pieces of work below.

1. A complete Google Business Profile

This is the foundation. Claim the listing, pick the most precise primary category, fill in opening hours (holidays included), real photos, and the link to the right page of your site. I detailed the nine settings in the article on a practice’s Google listing; they apply to every trade.

2. The same name, address and phone everywhere

Google cross-checks what it reads on your site, your listing, directories and social accounts. An old number or an address written two ways blurs the signal. List every place your business appears and make them match.

3. One page per service, and per city when it’s true

A home page that says everything answers nothing precisely. Create a page per important service and, if you really work in several cities, a page per city with its own content: address, access, what differs there. Copying the same page and changing the city name doesn’t work.

4. Reviews, asked for and answered

Reviews weigh on prominence and on the customer’s decision. Ask at the right moment (after a job well done), with a direct link, and answer every one, bad ones included, calmly and without disclosing private information. Never buy reviews: Google forbids it and it shows eventually.

5. Structured data

Add LocalBusiness markup to your site (or the most precise type: medical practice, restaurant, store) with name, address, phone, hours and service area. It won’t lift you on its own, but it helps Google, and assistants like ChatGPT, understand who you are without mistakes.

6. Local mentions

An article in a city outlet, your trade’s directory, a partner who mentions you: prominence signals your competitors don’t have. Aim for quality and proximity, not quantity.

7. Measure, then fix

Connect Google Search Console to your site and check, each month, the searches that show you and the ones that get clicks. The listing’s insights show calls and direction requests. That is where you see which page to write next.

Remember: nobody can promise first place, and real local SEO is judged over weeks and months. Be wary of anyone who guarantees a position.

Source: Google, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google” (Google Business Profile Help); Google’s review policies.

Hamza BenjaabaI design and build websites that bring in clients, and the local SEO that brings them visitors, in Morocco, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada.