A local SEO checklist for UK businesses

The profile is the listing that appears in Google Maps and in the map box on a results page, and it is free. Claim it, verify it, and then complete every part.

• Choose the most specific primary category that fits, and add secondary categories only where they are true.
• List each service by the name customers use for it.
• Keep opening hours right, including bank holidays.
• Add real photos of the premises, the work and the people customers will meet.
• Write the description for a customer, saying what the business does and where.

Google compares the details on the profile with the website and with directories across the web. The business name, address and phone number should match exactly in each place, down to the abbreviation of “Road”. Check the website’s footer and contact page, the main directories, any trade body listing and the social profiles.

A single “Services” page gives Google one page to rank for every search. Separate pages for each service, and for each town or area that is truly served, give it a specific page for each. Every one needs its own content: what the service involves there, examples of work nearby, and how to get in touch. Pages that only swap the town name are thin, and Google treats them that way.

Reviews feed prominence, and customers read them before calling. Ask every customer, make it easy with a direct link, and reply to each review, good or bad. Buying reviews or writing them yourself breaks Google’s rules and UK consumer law.

Mentions on other local websites show that a business is established where it says it is. Ask the organisations already connected to the business: suppliers, trade bodies, the chamber of commerce, clubs or events it sponsors, and local press when there is news worth a story.

Local results move as competitors add reviews and pages. Once a month, search for the main services in a private window from inside the area served, read the profile’s own performance figures, and look in Google Search Console for the searches that include a place name.