Last Updated on July 28, 2026
Local SEO is the work of being found by customers in your area. When someone searches “plumber near me” or “accountant in Leeds”, Google shows a map with three businesses before any normal results. Local SEO is largely the contest for those three spots, and for the local results AI tools now draw on too.
It runs on different fuel from normal SEO. The big three factors are relevance (does your listing say clearly what you do), distance (are you near the searcher) and prominence (reviews, mentions and listings that prove you are established). Your website matters, but your Google Business Profile usually matters more.
The basics are unglamorous and mostly free. A complete, claimed Google Business Profile with the right categories. The same name, address and phone number everywhere online. Steady reviews, replied to. Listings on the directories that matter, kept alive. Pages on your site that name the areas you serve.
One warning: local SEO is where small businesses get sold the most snake oil. Monthly fees for “citation building” you could do once yourself, or ranking promises nobody can honestly make. The fundamentals above are checkable and you can do most of them in a weekend.
Whito’s view (UK)
Local visibility is also what AI engines lean on for local recommendations. Businesses present in Google’s local pack get recommended by AI tools far more often, and businesses with dozens of recent reviews dominate the ones without. The map pack was the prize in 2020. Now it feeds the answer engines too.
