> Guides for businesses that win customers nearby: the Google Business Profile, how Maps results are decided, and earning and keeping the reviews behind both.

- Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/local-search/

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# Local search, Maps and reviews

For businesses that win customers nearby: the Business Profile, the map results, and the reviews that carry both.

## Where to begin

Local customers find a business on three surfaces: the Business Profile, the map results and the reviews beneath both. Google states what decides local results, and it states its rules for reviews, so very little here is guesswork.

Begin with the checklist, which shows where a business stands on every surface at once. The other guides take one surface each, and the two on reviews cover what owners ask most: where a review went, and how to earn more of them within Google's rules.

## The guides

### [A local SEO checklist for UK businesses](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/local-seo-checklist-uk/)

Profile, details, pages, reviews and links: the checks for a business that wins customers nearby.

### [How to optimise a Google Business Profile](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-business-profile-optimisation/)

Category, details, services, photos, reviews and updates: what to fill in and what to avoid.

### [How to rank higher on Google Maps](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-rank-higher-on-google-maps/)

The three factors Google names, and what a business can change about each.

### [Why your Google reviews are not showing up](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-reviews-not-showing-up/)

Why reviews are delayed or removed, what Google says about each case, and what an owner can and cannot do.

### [How to get more Google reviews for your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-get-more-google-reviews/)

The review link and QR code, when and how to ask, replying, and what Google prohibits.

## What these guides do not do

Distance from the searcher is one of the things Google weighs, and no guide can move a business. Everything else on these pages is within an owner's reach.

- [On-site SEO: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/seo/)
- [How the guides are written](https://hadalmedusa.com/laws/)

## Free competitor gap report

Local results are a contest between a handful of businesses. Name up to three of them and we measure your site against theirs, then send you where each one is ahead in your area.

1. Speed and technical health, side by side
2. On-page SEO and site structure
3. The content they are found for and you are not
4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market
5. A prioritised list of what to fix first

[Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Topic%3A%20Local%20search%2C%20Maps%20and%20reviews&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A)
- **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com

- **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete

## Other topics

- [AI search and answer engines](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/ai-search/)
- [Website platforms: fixing one, or leaving it](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/website-builders/)
- [When a website is not doing its job](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/site-problems/)
- [When Google Ads is not working](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/google-ads/)
- [When a site is not showing on Google](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/not-on-google/)
- [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/)