Most of what you read about SEO is written for people selling software or running giant online stores. If you're a plumber in Langley or a clinic in Chilliwack, you're playing a different and much simpler game.
Your customers aren't searching the whole internet. They're searching "electrician near me" or "dentist White Rock" and picking from whatever shows up first. Local SEO is just making sure that's you.
Start with Google Business Profile
If I could only fix one thing for a local business, it would be this. Your Google Business Profile is the listing that shows up in the map results and the box on the right side of a search. For most local searches, it matters more than your website does.
- Claim it and verify it, if you haven't already.
- Pick the right main category. This is one of the biggest factors, so be specific.
- Add your real hours, including holiday changes.
- Upload actual photos of your work, your team and your location.
- List your services and describe them in normal language.
Then ask for reviews. Every happy customer is a chance for one. A simple text with a direct link after a finished job works better than any fancy system.
Make sure your name, address and phone match everywhere
Search engines cross check your business details across the internet. If your website says one phone number, Facebook says another and an old directory lists a different address, Google gets less confident about which is right.
Pick one version of your business name, address and phone number. Use it exactly the same way on your site, your Google profile, social media and any directories like Yelp or the Better Business Bureau.
Your website needs to say where you work
This sounds obvious and it's missed constantly. If your site never mentions the cities you serve, Google has to guess.
- Put your main service area in your page title and your main heading.
- List the cities and neighbourhoods you cover somewhere real, in a sentence, not a hidden block of keywords.
- If you serve several areas, a short page for each important one can help, as long as each page has something genuinely useful on it.
One page per service beats one page for everything
If you offer drain cleaning, hot water tanks and bathroom renovations, and they all live on a single "Services" page, you're asking one page to rank for three different searches. Give each main service its own page with its own title, a few honest paragraphs, and a clear way to contact you.
Get the basics right on every page
- Title tag. What shows as the blue link in Google. Include what you do and where, and keep it short enough to read.
- Meta description. The grey text under it. It doesn't directly boost rankings, but a good one gets more people to click.
- One main heading per page. Say plainly what the page is about.
- Image descriptions. Real alt text, written for people using screen readers, which also helps search engines.
Speed and mobile are not optional
Most local searches happen on a phone. If your site is slow or awkward to use on a small screen, people bounce, and Google notices. We wrote more on this in our post about website speed.
What to ignore
Anyone promising you the number one spot in a week is selling you something. Same for cheap packages that offer thousands of backlinks. Local SEO is mostly steady, boring, correct work, repeated over months. The businesses that win are usually the ones that did the basics properly and kept their listings fresh.
How long does it take?
Expect to see movement in a few weeks for quick fixes like a cleaned up Google profile, and a few months for new pages to settle in. It's slower than ads, but it doesn't stop working the moment you stop paying.
Not sure where your site stands? Run it through our free audit. It won't fix everything, but it will show you what's missing so you know what to ask for.