What is local SEO?
Local SEO is search optimization for a place. Where general SEO aims to rank a page for a query from anyone, anywhere, local SEO aims to rank a business for queries from people in its area: in the local pack, on Google Maps and in the organic results for location-specific terms. It is built on different raw material. The ranking entity is often a Google Business Profile rather than a web page, and the signals include proximity, reviews, citations and the consistency of the business's name, address and phone number across the web.
It covers two kinds of query: explicit ones that name a place ("photographer in Hoboken") and implicit ones where Google infers local intent from the words ("emergency plumber").
Why it matters
Why local SEO matters
Because for a large share of businesses, local search is where customers come from. People searching with local intent are close to a decision, and Google has rebuilt its results page to serve them with the map pack, business panels and direction buttons that sit above everything else. A business that ranks well locally captures that intent; one that does not hands it to whoever is in the three-pack.
It also matters because it is winnable. A national brand's domain authority counts for little when the searcher is three blocks from a competitor with better reviews. Local SEO is one of the few places where a small business can beat a large one on a level field.
In practice
How local SEO works in practice
- 01
Claim and complete the Google Business Profile: correct primary and secondary categories, hours, services, a description written for people and a steady stream of photos and posts. Make the name, address and phone number identical on the website, the profile and every directory that lists you. Build a location page for each office with that NAP, an embedded map, local content and structured data marking it up as a business.
- 02
Then build prominence. Earn reviews continuously and answer them. Get listed in the directories that matter in your field and your city. Earn links from local organizations, partners, press and events. Track pack and map rankings across a grid of locations rather than from one point, since results change with the searcher's position. Revisit the whole setup every few months.
At RIOT
Local SEO at RIOT
We are a two-location business ourselves, with a studio in Hudson Yards in Manhattan and one in Clifton, New Jersey, so the discipline applies to us. Two addresses means two profiles, two location pages and twice the chances for a detail to drift, which is exactly the kind of inconsistency local SEO exists to prevent.
Watch out
What people get wrong about local SEO
Assuming a good website is enough. Local rankings run largely on the profile and the wider web, and a beautiful site with an unclaimed listing goes nowhere. The other mistake is keyword-stuffing the business name on the profile, which violates Google's guidelines and gets listings suspended. Finally, people ignore the grid: a business that ranks first from its own front door and nowhere else is not ranking.
