A Simple Local SEO Guide for Small Businesses

by Lyn Wildwood | Dec 19, 2025 | Local SEO | 0 comments

Local SEO is a special subset of SEO small businesses must include in their marketing strategies if they hope to appear in search results for local keywords.

Strategies include filling out business profiles on directory websites, optimizing Google Business Profile, getting more Google reviews and even optimizing your website.

This local SEO guide will teach you everything you need to know about optimizing your business local searches.

Table of Contents

Local SEO Guide for Small Businesses: An Overview

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your business so that it ranks higher in local results.

Your business can appear in two locations in local search results: the local pack (in the Places section on Google) or localized search results (regular search results that are dependent on your location).

A local SEO strategy involves using the following strategies to increase your rankings in either location:

Claiming and creating business listings
Completing and maintaining a Google Business Profile
Performing local keyword research and using those keywords in key places, including your Google Business Profile description and top-level pages on your website
Developing a review marketing strategy
Optimizing your website for local SEO

Why is Local SEO Important?

As long as consumers use a search engine to find products and services locally, local SEO will always be important.

According to a study conducted by SOCi, businesses that rank in the local pack on Google earn 126% more search traffic and 96% more interactions than businesses who don’t.

Google, particularly the local pack, is one of the most effective ways to get discovered by customers. Local SEO practices increase your odds of appearing in the local pack.

How to Optimize Your Business for Local SEO

Claim your business listings online.
Complete and optimize your Google Business Profile.
Find local keywords to target in your Google Business Profile and on your website.
Work on getting more reviews on Google on a regular basis.
Develop a review marketing strategy that includes responding to reviews.
Enhance your business in every way so customers want to share their experiences.
Optimize your website for local search.

Claim Your Business Listings

When you enter local keywords into Google, you sometimes see listings from Yelp and Tripadvisor. You might even see Facebook from time to time.

This is why it’s important that you claim your business listings on every platform customers might use to locate you.

By adding your NAP (name, address and phone number) to multiple platforms, you demonstrate consistency. This makes your business appear more credible and trustworthy to customers and search engine bots alike.

If you’re wondering why your business might appear in directories you haven’t added it to, sometimes directories import business information from other platforms in an effort to complete their own databases.

When this happens, a listing is created by the platform on behalf of your business, creating an unclaimed listing.

The process for claiming a listing is pretty simple and mostly requires you to enter a code to verify ownership, but this is different from platform to platform.

In any case, claiming your listing will allow you to edit it and keep it up to date.

Complete and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Google is as important to local SEO as water is to plants. In fact, the majority of the local SEO strategies you’ll perform will be done in an effort to improve your rankings in local search results on Google.

Your website can appear in localized search results, but the real value in local SEO comes with showing up in the local pack, which receives the majority of clicks.

This is what Google Business Profile is for.

By creating, completing and optimizing a Google Business Profile, you can keep your business information up to date on Google, collect and respond to Google reviews, and give customers an easy way to discover your business without visiting your website.

Use these strategies to optimize your Google Business Profile:

Verify your Google Business Profile.
Fill in every field in your profile, especially your business categories.
Add a business description to your profile. Be sure to mention your business categories as well as local keywords that are highly relevant to the products and services you offer.
Get more Google reviews. According to statistics, the majority of businesses who appear in the local pack have an average of 240 customer reviews on Google.
Get more reviews on Google on a regular basis. Not only does Google want to see more positive reviews, they want you to receive them on a regular basis rather than all at once or intermittently.
Respond to reviews in a timely manner. This includes positive reviews, not just negative ones.
Add a website to your profile, even if you just link to your Facebook page. The majority of interactions with profiles on Google are made with the Website link, so it’s a good idea to include something in this field.
Add images to your profile. Customers will include them with reviews, but you can also add your own.

These strategies should make up a large portion of your local SEO strategy.

Find Local Keywords to Target

Local keywords are search terms consumers enter into Google to find local businesses who sell products and services they want or need.

Because consumers specifically use these keywords to find local businesses on Google, using them in your Google description and on your website will help you rank for them.

You can discover a lot of these keywords with search suggestions that appear on Google as you type.

It’s best to do it in a browser you don’t use and therefore aren’t logged into Google on. This is because Google personalizes your search results based on searches you’ve made in the past.

Don’t use a VPN, either, as this prevents you from seeing local suggestions for your area.

As an example, go to google.com, and start typing “italian.” You’ll probably see results like “italian restaurants [city name]” as well as “italian restaurants near me” and “italian food near me.”

These are local keywords. Typing “italian restaurants” brings up more results that include city names in the area.

Try using autosuggest with the following types of keywords:

Business type, such as “italian restaurant” or “disc golf shop”
Product, such as “pasta” or “disc golf discs”
Service, such as “italian food catering” or “disc golf courses”

If you get results that include city names or “near me,” you’ve successfully discovered local keywords you can target.

You can find more keywords with local keyword research tools, including:

Get More Google Reviews

Like I said earlier, businesses who appear in one of the top three positions on Google have around 240 reviews on average.

This statistic comes from Localo, who discovered this fact by analyzing over 2 million Google Business Profiles.

They also discovered that businesses who ranked in positions 4 through 10 had around 170 reviews on average while businesses who ranked in positions 11 to 20 had around 150.

This means there’s a direct correlation between your ranking in local search and the number of reviews your business has received on Google.

It also means that one of the most effective things you can do to improve your rankings is to get more reviews on a regular basis.

The most effective way to get more reviews on Google is by asking for them directly. Otherwise, you have to wait for customers to want to leave reviews, which isn’t nearly as effective.

Our plugin, Starfish Reviews, offers the perfect way to ask customers for reviews.

Check out Starfish Reviews.

It lets you set up a page on your website where a customer can answer a simple prompt with two possible answers: thumbs up (to express positive sentiment) or thumbs down (to express negative sentiment).

You can even customize where a customer gets redirected to based on their response. For example, you could send them to Google if they answer positively or a customer service form if they respond negatively.

Disclaimer: You can still display links to review sites for negative responses. This ensures your business is compliant with review gating regulations.

Send review requests through channels your customer has given you access to (email, SMS, etc.), and time them appropriately by waiting at least 24 hours but no more than seven days.

Here are other methods you can use to get more reviews on Google:

Create a Google review link that leads to your profile’s review page
Create a QR code for your Google review link
Include review prompts in key locations, such as:
- Handouts
- Product packaging
- Cards in delivery boxes
- Receipts
As part of your farewell message. Example: “don’t forget to rate us on Google!”
Respond to positive and negative reviews so customers know you take customer sentiment seriously
Offer a unique, unforgettable customer experience that outshines your competition and makes customers want to leave reviews

Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

Most of the suggestions I mentioned are designed to help you optimize your Google Business Profile, which more or less means only optimizing your business for the local pack.

Try these tips to optimize your website for local search so that you appear in localized search results as well:

Add key information pages to your website, such as Services (including an individual page for each service), individual product pages, and an About page
Use a responsive design that’s optimized for mobile
Make sure your website is easy to navigate
Add structured data from schema.org/LocalBusiness
Add your NAP to your footer and About page
Create dedicated landing pages for each area you serve and/or business location you operate
Acquire backlinks from local sources
Create local content