Local SEO for more customers from your region.

How local SEO works

Local SEO makes sure you appear in searches with a local reference, such as “dentist Hanau”, “kitchen studio near me” or “web design Frankfurt”. For searches like these, Google often shows a map with three businesses first and the regular results below. For the map, Google itself names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence.

Relevance means: does your profile match the search query? You control this through categories, services and description. Distance is something you can hardly influence, as it depends on where the searcher is. Prominence reflects how well known your business is online and offline: reviews, mentions, links and the strength of your website.

Setting up the Google Business Profile properly

The Google Business Profile is the most important single lever for local visibility. We regularly see profiles with the wrong primary category, missing services or photos that have not been updated for years. We review and maintain:

• Primary and additional categories that match your customers’ search queries
• Services with descriptions that complement your website
• Opening hours, phone number and website link with tracking
• Photos of your team, premises and work instead of stock images
• Posts and answers to questions

You will find a step-by-step guide in our article Optimising your Google Business Profile.

Consistent business data

Name, address and phone number must be written the same way everywhere: on the website, in the Google profile and in directories. Specialists call this NAP consistency. Discrepancies creep in quickly: an old registered office in a business directory, a mobile number instead of the landline, “Str.” in one place and “Straße” in another. We align the listings and correct what you can no longer find yourself. The same work also helps with visibility in AI answers, see AI SEO.

Reviews that come about honestly

Reviews influence whether someone clicks on your profile, and they count towards prominence. The most reliable way to more reviews is a fixed routine: after every completed job, a short message with a direct link. We set up this routine with you, write templates for replies and show you how to deal with critical reviews. We refuse bought reviews because they break Google’s guidelines and put the profile at risk.

Location pages without copied text

Location pages help you get found in the regular search results for several places. But they only work with their own content: case studies from the place, directions, contact person, features of the local market. Pages where only the place name has been swapped are treated by Google as thin content. That is why we only create location pages for places where you really work, and build them so they make a difference for visitors.

Local links

Links from your region show Google that your business is rooted locally. Good sources are partner businesses, clubs you support, local media, chambers and trade associations. How we go about this is explained under link building.

Common mistakes in the Google Business Profile

Most profiles we review give away visibility through a few easily fixed mistakes. The most common: a primary category that is too general, no services listed, photos of the logo only, unanswered reviews and a website link to the homepage instead of the matching location or service page. On top of that come duplicate listings, for example after a move, which confuse Google.

What we measure

With local SEO we measure what ultimately leads to customers. The Google Business Profile provides views, calls, direction requests and clicks to the website. On the website, we count enquiries that came via the profile or local searches using tagged links. We also regularly check your position in the map for the most important search queries, at several points in your city, because the results vary depending on where the searcher is.

Example: MAINe Küche in Hanau

MAINe Küche had a new location in Hanau but no online presence, and that in a competitive market. We built the website with copy, design and ads. The result: a steady flow of enquiries despite strong local competition. Owner Shafiq Khan: “The most impressive thing was how quickly my new site landed among the top Google search results.”

Local SEO for multiple locations

Businesses with several locations need their own Google Business Profile and their own location page for each location. Each page gets the address, opening hours, contact person, directions and, where available, case studies from the area. The profiles link to the matching location page, not to the homepage. This way Google can assign each location correctly, and visitors land directly on the right information.

Who local SEO is worth it for

Local SEO is worth it for everyone whose customers come from a manageable radius: practices, trade businesses, restaurants and hotels, kitchen studios, estate agencies, law firms. We have built websites for these industries, including for dental practices, a hotel, a restaurant, estate agents and a master craftsman’s business.

The free initial analysis shows you where your profile and your website stand in the map today. Book an intro call