Local SEO

Google Business Profile (GBP) Optimization

Google Business Profile is the most important factor for local pack rankings.

Required fields

| Field | Best Practice | |-------|--------------| | Business name | Exact legal name (no keyword stuffing) | | Primary category | Most specific category that fits | | Address | Exact match to website and all citations | | Phone | Local number (not toll-free) with area code | | Website URL | Link to location-specific landing page | | Hours | Accurate, including holiday hours |

Optimization fields

| Field | Best Practice | |-------|--------------| | Secondary categories | Add all relevant categories (up to 9 additional) | | Business description | 750 chars max; include primary services and location keywords naturally | | Services/Products | List all services with descriptions | | Attributes | Complete all relevant attributes (wheelchair accessible, Wi-Fi, etc.) | | Photos | Minimum 10 quality photos (exterior, interior, team, products/services) | | Logo | Square logo, clear at small sizes | | Cover photo | Represents the business, 1080x608px |

GBP Posts

Post weekly at minimum (shows Google the profile is active)
Types: Updates, Offers, Events
Include a CTA button (Learn More, Book, Call)
Add a photo to every post
Keep text under 300 words (first 100 words visible without clicking)

Q&A Section

Seed with your own frequently asked questions
Answer all questions promptly (within 24 hours)
Include relevant keywords naturally in answers

NAP Consistency

NAP = Name, Address, Phone number. Must be identical everywhere.

Why it matters

Google cross-references your business information across the web. Inconsistencies reduce trust and hurt local rankings.

Common inconsistencies

| Problem | Example | |---------|---------| | Name variations | "Bob's Pizza" vs "Bob's Pizza Inc." vs "Bobs Pizza" | | Address format | "123 Main St" vs "123 Main Street" vs "123 Main St, Suite 200" | | Phone format | "(512) 555-0123" vs "512-555-0123" vs "5125550123" | | Old address | Previous location still listed on old citations | | Old phone | Changed number but old one still appears |

Fix workflow

Choose ONE canonical format for Name, Address, and Phone
Update Google Business Profile first
Update your website (header, footer, contact page)
Update top citation sources (Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing Places)
Use a citation audit service or manually check top 50 sources
Set up monitoring for new inconsistencies

Local Citation Building

Citations are online mentions of your NAP — even without a link.

Tier 1: Must-Have Citations (Do first)

| Source | Authority | Notes | |--------|-----------|-------| | Google Business Profile | Critical | Primary listing | | Apple Maps / Apple Business Connect | High | iOS Maps + Siri | | Bing Places | High | Microsoft ecosystem | | Facebook Business Page | High | Social + local search | | Yelp | High | Major review platform | | Yellow Pages / YP.com | Medium | Still used by Google | | Better Business Bureau | Medium | Trust signal | | Foursquare | Medium | Powers many apps |

Tier 2: Data Aggregators

Submit to these to propagate to hundreds of smaller directories:

Data Axle (formerly Infogroup)
Neustar Localeze
Factual (Foursquare)

Tier 3: Industry-Specific Directories

| Industry | Top Citations | |----------|-------------| | Healthcare | Healthgrades, Zocdoc, Vitals, WebMD | | Legal | Avvo, FindLaw, Justia, Martindale-Hubbell | | Restaurants | TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Zomato, DoorDash | | Home Services | Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Houzz | | Automotive | Cars.com, AutoTrader, CarGurus, DealerRater | | Real Estate | Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Trulia | | Hotels | Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Expedia |

See CITATION_SOURCES.md for the complete list of 50+ sources.

Local Keyword Research

Keyword patterns for local SEO

| Pattern | Example | |---------|---------| | [service] + [city] | "plumber austin" | | [service] + near me | "plumber near me" | | [service] + [neighborhood] | "plumber south austin" | | best + [service] + [city] | "best plumber in austin" | | [service] + [city] + [qualifier] | "emergency plumber austin tx" | | [service] + reviews | "plumber reviews austin" | | [service] + cost/price + [city] | "plumber cost austin" |

Local keyword research process

List all services offered
List all service areas (city, neighborhoods, suburbs, zip codes)
Create combinations: service + location
Add modifiers: best, cheap, emergency, 24/7, near me, reviews
Mine Google autocomplete for local variations
Check "People Also Ask" for local question keywords
Analyze competitor keywords with research_keywords (if API available)

MCP Tool: Use research_keywords with location parameter for local search volume data.

Local Landing Pages

For businesses serving multiple areas, create dedicated landing pages per location/service area.

Structure for location pages

/locations/                      (Store locator / all locations)
/locations/austin-tx/            (City landing page)
/locations/austin-tx/south-austin/ (Neighborhood page, if sufficient demand)

Required elements per location page

H1: [Service] in [Location] (e.g., "Emergency Plumber in Austin, TX")
Unique content: 500-1,000 words specific to that location
NAP: Full name, address, phone for that location
Embedded Google Map: Centered on the business location
LocalBusiness schema: JSON-LD with location-specific data
Customer reviews/testimonials: From customers in that area
Service area description: Neighborhoods, landmarks served
Photos: Location-specific images (storefront, team, local landmarks)
CTA: Location-specific call-to-action ("Call our Austin office")

Avoid

Duplicate content across location pages (each must be unique)
Doorway pages (thin content with only city name swapped)
Creating pages for areas you don't actually serve
Keyword-stuffing the city/neighborhood name

Review Management

Reviews are a top-3 local ranking factor.

Review generation strategy

Ask happy customers for reviews at the right moment (after service completion)
Make it easy: provide a direct link to your Google review form
Train staff to ask in person
Send follow-up emails/texts with review link (1-3 days after service)
Never incentivize reviews (violates Google guidelines)
Never buy fake reviews (Google can detect and penalize)

Review response templates

Positive review response:

Thank you for the kind words, [Name]! We're glad we could help with [specific service].
We appreciate you choosing [Business Name] and look forward to serving you again.

Negative review response:

[Name], thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience with
[specific issue]. We take this seriously and would like to make it right. Please contact
us at [phone/email] so we can address this directly.

Review signals that impact rankings

| Factor | Impact | |--------|--------| | Overall star rating | High — 4.0+ preferred | | Review count | High — more reviews = stronger signal | | Review velocity | Medium — steady stream better than bursts | | Review recency | Medium — recent reviews weighted more | | Review diversity | Medium — reviews from different platforms | | Owner response rate | Medium — respond to all reviews | | Keywords in reviews | Low-Medium — organic mentions of services help |

Local Pack Ranking Factors

The local pack (3-pack) shows for local intent queries. Key ranking factors:

Top factors (in approximate order of importance)

Google Business Profile signals — primary category, completeness, keywords in description
Proximity — distance from searcher to business location
Review signals — rating, count, velocity, keywords
On-page signals — NAP on website, local keywords, location pages
Citation signals — NAP consistency, citation volume, quality
Link signals — local links, domain authority, link diversity
Behavioral signals — click-through rate, mobile clicks-to-call, driving directions requests
Personalization — user's search history and location

What you can control

GBP optimization (fields, categories, posts, photos)
Review generation and response
NAP consistency across citations
Local landing page quality
Local link building
Website technical health

Multi-Location SEO

Architecture for multi-location businesses

example.com/                            (Homepage)
example.com/locations/                  (Store locator with map)
example.com/locations/austin-tx/        (Location page)
example.com/locations/dallas-tx/        (Location page)
example.com/locations/houston-tx/       (Location page)

Key rules

Separate GBP profile for each physical location
Unique landing page per location with unique content
Location-specific LocalBusiness schema on each page
Unique phone number per location (helps with tracking and citations)
Consistent NAP per location across all citations
Avoid cannibalization between location pages (different target keywords)

Related Skills

seo-on-page-optimization — on-page elements for location pages
seo-schema-structured-data — LocalBusiness schema markup
seo-content-strategy — local content planning

Key MCP Tools for Local SEO

| Tool | Use For | |------|---------| | analyze_page | Audit location landing pages | | extract_schema | Validate LocalBusiness schema | | generate_schema | Generate LocalBusiness JSON-LD | | research_keywords | Local keyword research with location targeting |

See GBP_OPTIMIZATION_CHECKLIST.md for field-by-field GBP guide. See LOCAL_SCHEMA_TEMPLATES.md for LocalBusiness schema templates. See CITATION_SOURCES.md for the complete citation source list.