Local SEO: what it covers and what to fix first
Local SEO is the work of getting a business shown when people near it search for what it sells. It happens in three places: the map listings at the top of a search, the business profile behind each listing, and the pages on the business's own site. People in the US search "local seo" about 8,100 times a month, and "local seo services" about 6,600 times a month.
This page explains the parts, shows what a finished local plan looks like, and says what to fix first. Two guides go deeper: what a local SEO audit reports and how location pages work. If you want the wider picture first, start at the Querytally home page.
What local SEO covers
Local SEO has four parts. Each has its own job and its own owner.
- Business profile. This is your maps listing: name, main category, extra categories, hours, service area, photos, and the list of services. It is what appears on a phone's map. For many service businesses, a large share of calls and direction requests start here.
- Reviews. How many there are, how recent they are, and whether the owner answers. Reviews are what a stranger can read before calling.
- Pages on your site. One page for each service, and, where it is real, one page for each place you serve.
- Listings elsewhere. Directory and map-app entries that repeat your name, address and phone number. They should match your business profile letter for letter.
A fifth item sits on top: a check of all four against the local rivals who win the calls you want. That check is what an audit is.
Local SEO, local search optimization and local search marketing
These three names overlap. Local SEO and local search optimization mean the same thing: earning a place in the unpaid local listings. Local search marketing is the wider label. It covers the unpaid work and paid local ads together.
The two halves share one input: what the people near you actually search for. If you also run paid search, the same list tells you which searches to leave out of your ad account. That is covered in negative keywords for search ads.
The same need, searched two ways
People ask for the same service with and without place words. Here are real counts, US searches a month, for one trade's own marketing searches:
| Search | US searches a month |
|---|---|
| local seo services | 6,600 |
| local seo services near me | 3,600 |
| local seo company | 2,900 |
| local seo companies near me | 1,900 |
Read the second line of each pair as the first line plus a place. The searcher only adds where. A page or a profile that serves the need serves both phrasings, so you do not need a separate page for every "near me" version. The counts do not tell you how many of those searchers live near you, because they are for the whole US. The page on searches for local services explains how to read a national count for a local business.
What local SEO earns
Local SEO earns calls, direction requests and form fills. Put a job value on them before you spend anything. Say a house-cleaning company gets 30 calls a month from its listing and books 1 in 3 of them. That is 10 jobs. At $250 a job, the listing brings about $2,500 a month. Now ask what a fix is worth: if a better main category lifts calls from 30 to 36, that is two more jobs, about $500 a month.
Price the work against the job value, not against the hours it takes. A fix that adds one job a month can pay for itself. A fix that adds none cannot, however tidy it looks.
A finished local plan, as an example
This is what a local plan looks like once it is decided. The business is invented: a roofing company with one shop in a mid-sized city and customers in four nearby towns.
| Part | What is decided | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Main category | Roofing contractor, not "Contractor" | Business profile |
| Extra categories | Two, both jobs the company really does | Business profile |
| Service pages | Repair, replacement, inspection, storm damage, gutters | Own site, one page each |
| Location pages | The shop's city, plus the two towns with a job history | Own site, one page each |
| Other towns | Two towns named on one service area page, with real jobs | Own site |
| Reviews | A request after every finished job; a reply to every review | Business profile |
| Listings | Same name, address and phone on every entry | Directories and map apps |
Notice what is missing: a page for every town within fifty miles. The plan names only places where the company works, and each page has something true to say about that place.
What to fix first
Work in this order, because each item depends on the one before it.
- First, a wrong or vague category. A wrong category can hide a business from searches it could win. Changing it costs nothing.
- Then, missing service pages. If people search for a job and you have no page for it, you cannot be shown for it. The question is which of those pages your local rivals already have. The content gap analysis page shows how those gaps read.
- Then, reviews. Ask every customer, every time.
- Last, listings clean-up. A matching phone number on a directory usually earns less than a missing service page.
Mistakes that waste local SEO effort
- Choosing the profile category for the business you want to be rather than the one you are.
- Treating an audit score as a plan. A score says something is off. It does not say what to build.
- Writing pages about the jobs you like to talk about instead of the jobs people search for.
- Comparing your business with national brands instead of the local competitors who win your calls.
Where search numbers fit
Local SEO decisions are demand decisions. Which service gets its own page, which towns earn a page, which service leads the profile: each one depends on how many people search for the need and on whether the leading competitors already have a page for it.
A Querytally list gives you both: US monthly searches for each need and the competitor pages behind them, checked by a person and delivered within 24 hours. The numbers are US-wide. They size each need; they are not a city's share. Read more about how many people search for each service.
Frequently asked questions
What is local search marketing?
It is the paid and unpaid work of being found by people near you. Local SEO is the unpaid part. The paid part is local ads in a search ads account.
Do I need a storefront for local SEO?
No. A business that travels to customers can still have a business profile with its address hidden and a service area set. It then needs pages that prove it works in each place it names. The guide to location pages covers this case.
Are the search numbers on a Querytally list for my city?
No. They are US monthly searches. The needs repeat from city to city, but the counts do not.
Is a free audit enough?
A free audit can show that something is wrong. It may not say what to build first or what your rivals have that you do not. See what a finished audit shows.
If you sell local SEO to clients, the agency page shows what you receive for each client site.
Checked by a person and delivered within 24 hours, with a link and a search number behind every row.