Local SEO: how to show up in Google in your city

What local SEO actually is

When someone searches "plumber near me" or "bakery in Austin", Google shows two kinds of results: the map pack (the map with three businesses under it) and the regular list of websites below. Local SEO is everything you do so your business appears in both.

Google says local ranking depends mainly on three factors: relevance (does your business match the search), distance (how close you are to the person searching) and prominence (how well known and trusted you are online). You cannot change distance. Everything in this guide works on the other two.

Step 1: claim and complete your Google Business Profile

This is the single most important step, and it is free. Go to Google Business Profile, search for your business, claim it or create it, and complete verification.

Then fill in everything, not just the basics:

• Primary category: be specific. "Hair salon" beats "Beauty". Add secondary categories for what else you do.
• Hours: including holidays. Wrong hours lead to bad reviews fast.
• Service area: if you go to customers, list the towns or ZIP codes you cover and hide the street address if you work from home.
• Services and products: with short descriptions in the words your customers use.
• Photos: real photos of the place, the team and the work. Add new ones regularly.
• Website link: pointing to your own domain, not a social media page.

Step 2: use the same name, address and phone everywhere

Search engines cross-check your business across the web. If your profile says "Smith Plumbing LLC, 12 Oak St" and a directory says "Smith Plumbers, 12 Oak Street Suite B" with an old phone number, that inconsistency weakens trust.

Pick one exact format for your name, address and phone (people call this NAP) and use it on:

• Your website footer and contact page
• Google Business Profile
• Apple Business Connect and Bing Places
• Yelp and the directories that matter in your industry
• Facebook, Instagram and any other profile

When you move or change your number, update all of them in the same week.

Step 3: give each service its own page

A single home page that lists ten services in one paragraph does not rank for any of them. Google needs a page it can match to the search.

A good structure for a local business:

• Home: what you do, where, and how to contact you, in the first lines.
• One page per main service: what it includes, who it is for, the area you serve, common questions, and a clear way to book or call.
• Contact page: full address, map, hours and phone, matching your profile exactly.
• Area pages (optional): only if you truly serve those places and have something specific to say about each one.

Write titles the way people search: "Emergency plumbing in Round Rock, TX" is clearer to both Google and humans than "Our Services".

Step 4: reviews, and replying to them

Reviews feed prominence, and they are what people read before calling. A simple routine works better than a campaign:

1. After each job, send the direct review link from your profile by text or email.
2. Ask every customer the same way. Do not pick only the happy ones, and do not offer anything in exchange.
3. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. A calm reply to a negative review often reassures future customers more than five stars.

Step 5: the technical basics on your site

You do not need to be technical, but your site has to get these right:

• Fast on a phone. Most local searches happen on mobile, often on the move.
• HTTPS with a valid certificate. Browsers warn visitors on sites without it.
• Click-to-call phone number and an easy contact form.
• LocalBusiness structured data: a small block of code that tells Google your name, address, hours and category in a format it reads directly.
• A sitemap submitted in Google Search Console, so new pages get found.

Mistakes that cost local rankings

• Stuffing the city name into the business name on the profile. It breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
• Creating dozens of near-identical city pages with only the town name changed.
• Using a virtual office or PO box as the business address.
• Letting the website go months without a single change while competitors keep adding content.

How to do it on Basely

Basely does not manage your Google Business Profile. That one is yours to create and verify, and it should stay in your name. What we cover is the website side, which is where most small businesses fall short.

With the AI Builder, you describe your business, your services and the area you serve, and the agent writes the site, including a page per service, a contact page with your name, address and phone in one consistent format, and the LocalBusiness structured data. It checks the result in a real browser before publishing. You adjust by chatting or clicking on the page, so adding a new service page later is a short conversation, not a project.

Under Websites, the site runs with SSL, on your own domain, and contact form responses land in the panel instead of getting lost in an inbox. If you register the domain with us, DNS and SSL are connected to the site automatically.

And if you take bookings, a booking page on your own site (with your hours, team and services) gives Google one more reason to send people to your domain instead of a third-party page.

Set up your profile today, then build the site that backs it up.