Local SEO decides whether you show up when someone nearby searches for what you do. Most businesses that struggle locally aren't doing anything badly wrong. They've just left a few basics unfinished. Here are the five mistakes we see most often, and how to fix each one.
1. A half-finished Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a local customer sees, sometimes before your website. Many profiles were set up years ago and never touched again: the wrong main category, missing services, old photos, no holiday hours, and a website link pointing to the home page.
How to fix it:
- Pick the primary category that best describes what you actually do. Add secondary categories only where they're true.
- Fill in every relevant section: services, products, description, attributes and opening hours, including holiday hours.
- Add real photos of your premises, team and work, and keep adding them.
- Link to the most relevant page on your site.
- Check the questions and answers section and reply to anything unanswered.
Don't add keywords or town names to your business name unless they're part of your real, registered trading name. It breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
2. Business details that don't match
Your name, address and phone number appear in many places: your website, Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Facebook and a long tail of directories. Over time they drift. A move, a new phone number or a slightly different version of the name leaves conflicting details behind.
Search engines use these details to confirm that you are who and where you say you are. Customers use them to call you or turn up. Conflicting details weaken both.
How to fix it:
- Decide on one exact version of your name, address and phone number.
- Make your website footer and contact page match it.
- Work through the main directories and maps apps, update anything out of date and remove duplicates.
- Keep a list of where you're listed so the next change takes minutes, not days.
3. One page trying to rank everywhere, or many pages saying nothing
There are two versions of this mistake. In the first, a business serves several towns but has one general page, so it rarely shows up for searches in the places it covers. In the second, it builds a page for every town by copying one page and swapping the place name. Those pages add little and rarely perform.
How to fix it:
- Create pages only for the areas you genuinely serve, in order of importance.
- Make each page useful: the services you offer there, local examples of your work, how you reach customers in that area, and answers to local questions.
- Link to these pages from your service pages and navigation so they aren't orphaned.
- Add LocalBusiness structured data with your real business details.
4. Not asking for reviews, or not replying to them
Reviews affect whether you appear in local results and whether people choose you when you do. Many businesses rely on reviews arriving by chance, and leave the ones they get unanswered.
How to fix it:
- Ask every happy customer, at the moment they're happiest. For most businesses that's just after the job is done or the order arrives.
- Make it easy with a direct review link, by text or email, or as a QR code at the counter.
- Reply to every review. Thank people for good ones. For bad ones, respond calmly and specifically, and offer to put things right offline.
- Never buy reviews, write your own or reward people for positive ones. It breaks platform rules and the law on fake reviews.
5. Not measuring what local search brings in
If you can't see what local search delivers, you can't tell what's working or justify the time spent on it. Plenty of businesses check their ranking for one favourite search term and nothing else.
How to fix it:
- Check the performance reports in Google Business Profile regularly: calls, website clicks and direction requests.
- Add tracking tags to your profile's website link so those visits show up separately in Google Analytics.
- Track enquiries from your contact forms and calls, not just visits.
- Watch a small set of searches that real customers would make, checked from your area.
A quick self-check
Spend half an hour on this list:
- Is every section of your Google Business Profile complete and current?
- Do your name, address and phone number match everywhere you're listed?
- Does each area you serve have a useful page, linked from your site?
- Did you get new reviews last month, and has every review had a reply?
- Can you say how many enquiries came from local search last month?
Every "no" is a fix you can start this week. For a fuller plan, read our local SEO masterclass, or our guide to local SEO for multi-location businesses if you have more than one site.
If you'd rather we looked for you, our SEO service covers local search from start to finish, and a free Growth Audit will show you which of these mistakes is costing you most.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for local SEO fixes to work?
It varies. Profile and listing corrections are often picked up within days or weeks. Moving up for competitive searches takes longer and depends on your competitors, your reviews and how much useful content you have.
Should I put keywords in my business name on Google?
No. Use your real trading name. Adding keywords or locations that aren't part of your actual name breaks Google's guidelines and can get your profile suspended.
Do I need a physical shop or office to rank locally?
No. If you go to your customers, set your profile up as a service-area business, hide your address and list the areas you cover.
