Local SEO, defined
Local SEO is the work that helps your business show up when people nearby search for what you do. For most local searches, that means two places on Google: the Map Pack (the short list of businesses with a map) and the regular results below it.
A service-area business is one that travels to customers instead of having customers come to a storefront. Plumbers, roofers, landscapers, cleaners, mobile mechanics, pest control, many contractors. Lots of these businesses run from a home office or a truck. Local SEO works for them too, with a few differences.
How the Map Pack works
Google decides which businesses to show in the Map Pack based on three broad things:
- Relevance. Does your business match what the person searched for?
- Distance. How close is your business, or your service area, to the searcher?
- Prominence. How well known and trusted is your business, based on things like reviews, links and mentions across the web?
You can’t change where a searcher is standing, but you can work on relevance and prominence.
What’s different without a storefront
Your Google Business Profile hides your address. You set your business up as a service-area business and list the cities or areas you serve. Your home address stays private. See Google Business Profile without showing your address.
Your website carries more weight. Without a storefront for Google to point to, your site needs clear service pages and pages for the cities you serve, with real local detail.
Consistency matters a lot. Your business name, phone number and service area should match everywhere: your profile, your website and directories.
The building blocks
| Building block | What it does for a service-area business |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Your listing in Maps, with service areas instead of an address |
| Service pages | Tell Google and customers exactly what you do |
| City pages | Show which cities you serve, with real local detail |
| Citations | Consistent listings on directories build trust |
| Reviews | Help customers choose and support prominence |
| Backlinks | Links from real local sources show you’re established |
| LocalBusiness schema | Helps search engines read your key details |
City pages done right
City pages help when each one says something true and useful about that city: the neighborhoods you work in, the roads you drive, the kinds of homes you see there. Pages that copy the same text and only swap the city name don’t help, and they can hurt. That’s why our own Local SEO city pages for places like Draper and Sandy each focus on what’s different about local search there.
Reviews matter for every local business
Real reviews from real customers help people choose you. Ask every customer, and reply to reviews, good and bad.
How long it takes
Local SEO builds over time. How long depends on your trade, your area and your competition. Anyone who promises a ranking by a certain date is guessing.
How we help
Our Growth plan (from $449 per month) includes local SEO: citations, local content, backlinks, Google Business Profile posting and a monthly report, plus the Spotlight System and Local Services Ads management. Google Business Profile setup on its own is $199 one time.
Common mistakes service-area businesses make
- Using a home address that shows publicly when they meant to hide it.
- Listing every city in the state as a service area, instead of the places they really serve.
- Creating copy-and-paste city pages that only change the city name.
- Inconsistent phone numbers across their website, profile and directories.
- Never asking for reviews, or asking only happy customers, which goes against Google’s policies.
- A website that’s slow or hard to use on a phone, when most local searches happen on phones.
Each of these is fixable, and fixing them is a big part of what local SEO work involves.
What to do first
If you’re starting from scratch, here’s a sensible order:
- Set up or clean up your Google Business Profile as a service-area business, with the right categories, services, photos and hours.
- Make your website clear and fast, with a page for each main service.
- Make your details consistent everywhere your business is listed.
- Start asking every customer for a review.
- Add city pages for the places you serve, with real local detail.
- Keep going. Regular profile posts, new content and local links build over time.
Local SEO in the Salt Lake Valley
Many Salt Lake Valley cities sit close together, so map results often cross city lines. A search in Murray may show businesses from Salt Lake City, and a search in Herriman may show Riverton and South Jordan businesses. That makes clear city signals especially important here. Our city pages for places like West Jordan, South Jordan and Taylorsville each cover what’s different about search in that city.
Where to start
Request a free Google Visibility Report. It shows how your business appears on Google today. Contact us or call (385) 360-1966.
