What local SEO actually is
Local SEO is the work of making a business the obvious answer to a place-based question. Google isn't ranking the best plumber. It's ranking the plumber it is most confident can serve this person, in this place, right now.
That confidence comes from proximity, category accuracy, consistency of information, activity and reviews — roughly in that order of stubbornness.
Google Business Profile is the main event
For most local businesses the profile produces more enquiries than the website. It is also the thing most owners set up once and never touch again.
Active profiles behave differently to dormant ones. That observation is why GBPly exists.
Target the searches that ring the phone
- Service plus town, from someone ready to book.
- Urgency and emergency phrasing.
- The specific problem, in the customer's own words.
- Not the biggest industry keyword — it looks good in a report and pays nobody.
Service areas and local landing pages
A business serving thirty towns needs a credible page for each of them — genuinely credible, not thirty copies with the town name swapped. Done properly this is one of the highest-return jobs in local search. Done lazily it's the fastest way to look like spam.
Evidence: what Mike has built in this space
More Leads Local (agency), Mike Martin Business Coaching, GBPly (Google Business Profile software) and 3local. Mike also founded Magic Page Plugin, Lead Simplify and Local Content Engine, but is no longer involved in any of them. The products came out of the agency work, not the other way round.
Books on this
Common questions
- How is local SEO different from normal SEO?
- Local SEO adds place to the ranking question. Proximity, Google Business Profile signals and local relevance often matter more than the classic ranking factors that dominate national search.
- What's the fastest improvement most local businesses can make?
- Use the Google Business Profile properly — correct categories, honest service areas, current information, regular posts and photos, and a steady flow of reviews.