Local SEO checklist for a small business

Start with what you can check today

Local search rewards businesses that are easy to verify: the same name, address and phone number everywhere, a site that loads on a phone, and a profile that is complete and current. None of the items below guarantees a position in the results — nobody can promise that — but each one removes a reason for a search engine to doubt you.

Google Business Profile

• Claim and verify the profile for your real address
• Choose the most specific primary category ("Dentist", not "Health")
• Add opening hours, including holidays
• Upload real photos of the premises, the team and the work
• Reply to every review, the critical ones included

Name, address, phone

Write them exactly the same way on your site, your profile and the directories you are listed in. Small differences — "Str." against "Street", an old phone number — add up.

Your pages

• One page per main service, with the city or area in its title
• A clear title of about 30–60 characters and a description of about 70–160
• Exactly one main heading (H1) per page
• A map and directions on the contact page

Structured data

Mark up your business with LocalBusiness schema (or a more specific type such as Dentist or Restaurant): name, address, phone, hours. It helps search engines read the details you already show.

Reviews

Ask every customer — not only the happy ones — at the moment the job is done. Never buy reviews, write them yourself or offer anything in return for a good one: it breaks the platforms' rules and consumer law, and it is easy to spot.

Technical basics

• HTTPS on every page
• A mobile-friendly layout (viewport set, text readable without zooming)
• A robots.txt that does not block your pages, and a sitemap
• No "noindex" left over from development

Check your own site

Our free site check looks at most of the technical items above in under a minute and tells you, in plain language, what to fix.