The Top 11 Local SEO Tips for Small Businesses in 2025If you are a locally focused business, you must tap into the power of local search. Local SEO should be a key tactic in your SEO strategy.
Optimising your website for local search is essential if you're a small business owner looking to attract more local customers. These local SEO tips will help you improve your local search rankings and increase your visibility to potential customers in your area.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is one of the essential components of every business and brand that wants long-term success across search engines.
Local SEO has grown significantly over the last few years, particularly given the rise of mobile phone usage and better connectivity while out and about. Although it has many similarities with organic SEO, it's ultimately very different. Local SEO is focused on providing relevant results to a searcher based on their current location. If I search for "Italian restaurant," Google will provide me with results nearest to me. Local SEO is about getting your business to the top of this list.
Create a Google My Business Listing for Optimal Local SEO
One of the most important steps in improving your local search rankings is to claim and optimise your Google My Business listing. When people search for a business online, they primarily search for one of three things: directions, telephone number, and address. Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool which enables you to put these details as well as add photos, respond to customer reviews, and showcase your products or services, all directly on Google Search and Maps.
When setting up your account, make sure that you associate your listing with the correct category. "Italian restaurant" is a better category than just "restaurant" as it is more specific to what you offer and will match exactly with people looking for Italian restaurants.
Encourage Online Reviews from Satisfied Customers
One of the most effective ways to improve your local search rankings is by encouraging online reviews from satisfied customers. Positive reviews help build trust and credibility for your business and signal to search engines that your business is reputable and relevant to local customers. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. You can include a call-to-action in your email newsletters, website, or even in person at your business location. Make it easy for customers to leave reviews by providing direct links or instructions on how to leave a review. Remember to respond to all positive and negative reviews to show that you value customer feedback and are committed to providing excellent service.
Optimise for Mobile AND Local SEO
Making your website mobile-friendly is essential for good SEO in general. However, it's specifically crucial for local SEO.
People like fast sites. Ensuring your site loads quickly and is easy to use and understand on a mobile device is essential for SEO. If your site takes too long to load or does not work well on mobile, users will bounce away and go elsewhere.
Get on Relevant Review Sites
Online reviews are a significant influence on people's decision-making process. This makes your presence on the major review sites critical. Encourage customers to leave reviews, good or bad, as this is seen as honesty and openness, building trust.
Review sites you should consider being on include:
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- Google+ Local
- TripAdvisor
- Yahoo Local
Target Local Keywords for Local SEO
One of the basics of SEO is keyword targeting. Local SEO is no different. By targeting local keywords, you can reach people looking for your business in the local city or region. Local keywords are self-explanatory, but you should still research the longer-tail local keywords for your business.
For instance, if your business is a plumbing company in Edinburgh, you'll want to compare search volumes for different variations of search terms like "plumber Edinburgh", "plumber Lothian" You may also want to drill down into hyper-local keywords, such as "central heating repair Morningside".
You'll want to ensure that your home page and service pages contain the local keywords you want to rank for in the headings, meta tags, images and body content.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is a specific code you add to your HTML to improve how your page is represented in search results. The code helps Google recognise some aspects of your page and tells them what the content on your page means. Using the data provided in the schema markup, Google can list key information in the search results without users having to click through to your website.
Local Link Building
A strong link profile is key to performing well in search, and entire businesses (some with good link-building practices and some bad) have been built on securing such links.
Local links get people talking about your brand and help raise awareness. There are different ways to get local links. Most towns and cities have local business awards, so look around and get involved. Put your name forward for an award; even if you don't win, you can still get good publicity. Try sponsoring a local event; you can get good publicity for a little outlay. Better yet, try hosting an event.
Bing Places for Business
Remember the other search engine. Bing has its version of GMB, called Bing Places for Business. Make sure your business is listed there, as Bing is the second most popular search engine after Google.
Use Rich Media
These days, people want to see what you are about, photos of your products, 360° photos, virtual tours, etc. Let people know more about your business by including pictures on your GMB page. If you want to stand out and let people peek inside your business, you can add a virtual tour to GMB.
Optimise your URL, Tags & Content
Your URL, title tags, headers, meta descriptions and content should include your city or region and the target keyword of the page they describe. This tells Google what geographical location the page is relevant to and what content is on the page - and helps them index your page accordingly. Refrain from trying to stuff keywords into the pages. Google is wise to do this, and you will be penalised or even delisted for keyword stuffing.
Keep your Details Consistent
Some companies fail to do this. It is important to have your details correct, up to date and consistent across all your channels. If you have a different number on your website than on your GMB page, then this will confuse your customers.
Were these Local SEO tips useful for you? Do you have any more local SEO tips to share? Let us know in the comments below!
