Local SEO checklist: 12 fixes to rank in Google Maps

How to rank in Google Maps: what Google looks at

Google ranks local results on three things: relevance (does your business match the search), distance (how close you are to the searcher) and prominence (how well known and trusted you are online). You cannot move your shop closer, but you can make your business clearly relevant and visibly trusted. Every fix below works on one of those two.

Google Business Profile optimisation

For local searches your Business Profile often matters as much as your website. Treat it like a second home page:

• 1Choose the most specific primary category that fits, then add secondary categories for your other services.
• 2Fill in everything: hours, holiday hours, service areas, services with descriptions, attributes and a clear business description.
• 3Add real photos of your place, team and work, and keep adding them. A profile that looks alive earns more trust from people and from Google.
• 4Post updates, offers and events. It shows the business is active and gives searchers a reason to click.

NAP consistency and local citations

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Google cross-checks them across your website, your profile and directories (called citations). Small differences, such as an old phone number on a directory or Suite 4 written two ways, weaken that trust.

• 5Use exactly the same name, address and phone number on your site, your profile and every listing.
• 6Claim and correct your listings on the main directories and maps apps in your country, and the ones specific to your industry.

Service pages and location pages

One page that lists everything you do cannot rank for everything you do. Google needs a page that clearly answers each search.

• 7Write one page per main service, with what it includes, who it is for, and real photos of the work.
• 8If you serve several towns or neighbourhoods, add area pages with useful local detail, not the same text with the town name swapped.

Google reviews and local SEO

The number, freshness and content of your reviews affect where you appear in the map, and they are what people read before they call.

• 9Ask every happy customer, at the moment they are happiest, with a direct link to your review form.
• 10Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and like a human. It shows future customers how you treat people.

Website speed and LocalBusiness schema

• 11Make the site fast on an ordinary phone. Most local searches happen on mobile, and a slow page loses the visitor before it loses the ranking.
• 12Add LocalBusiness structured data (schema) with your name, address, hours, services and links to your profiles, so search engines read your details without guessing.

How to track local rankings

Local rankings change from street to street, so a single screenshot of page one proves little. Track your positions for the searches that bring buyers, from the areas you serve, every month. Watch calls, direction requests and form enquiries alongside them, because those are the numbers that pay.