This local SEO checklist is for UK small businesses that win customers from people nearby: salons, clinics, trades, cafés, garages, shops. Work through it in order, because the early sections affect everything after them. Most of it is free, and you can finish the first two sections this afternoon.
Each item says what to check and what good looks like. If something is already done, tick it off and move on. Nothing here needs an agency, although an agency can do it for you.
Your Google Business Profile
Your profile is the listing that appears in Google Maps and in the map box on normal Google searches. For most local businesses it brings in more calls than the website does, so start here.
- Claimed and verified. Search your business name in Google Maps. If you see "Own this business?" or "Claim this business", nobody has claimed it yet. Claim it and complete Google's verification.
- Name matches your sign. Use your real trading name. Adding the town or a service ("Smith Plumbing Leeds Boiler Repair") goes against Google's guidelines and can get a listing suspended.
- Address or service area. If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them (a mobile hairdresser, a plumber working from home), hide the address and set the areas you cover.
- A phone number someone answers. A local landline or a mobile both work. Make sure it matches your website.
- Opening hours, including holiday hours. Use "special hours" for bank holidays and Christmas so people don't turn up to a locked door.
- Website link. Point it at the page that best matches what you do, which is often the homepage but not always.
There is a lot more you can fill in, and our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation goes through every section.
Categories and services
Categories tell Google what kind of business you are, and they tend to carry a lot of weight in which searches you appear for.
- Primary category. Choose the one that describes the core of your business, the thing most customers come for. Look at the three businesses that show first on the map for your main service: the category is shown under each name. If they all use one category and you use another, that is worth a closer look.
- Secondary categories. Add the ones that are genuinely true. Don't add categories for services you don't offer.
- Services. List each service with a short description, and a price or "from" price if you can. Use the words customers type. "Boiler repair" beats "heating solutions" every time.
- Check what people actually search. Search demand can surprise you. For a Portsmouth skin clinic we track, "aesthetics clinic" and "skin care clinic" get about 10 searches a month each in the town, while "lip filler" gets about 70. Naming your services after what people search is one of the cheapest wins in local SEO for small business owners. Our guide on choosing searches explains how to pick them.
Reviews
Google says review count and review score factor into local ranking, and customers read them before they call.
- A steady flow. A few reviews every month looks healthier than a burst once a year, and it keeps your newest review recent.
- A direct review link. Send people straight to the review box rather than telling them to "find us on Google".
- Ask for the service by name. A review that says "brilliant boiler service" helps both customers and Google understand what you do.
- Reply to every review, good and bad, politely and briefly.
- Stay inside the rules. No discounts or prizes for reviews, and no asking only the happy customers.
The full method, with a message you can copy, is in how to get more Google reviews.
Your website
Google looks at your website to confirm what your profile says. It doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to agree with your listing.
- One page per main service. A page about "emergency plumbing" with the area you cover named naturally in the text does more than one page listing everything.
- Name, address and phone on every page, usually in the footer, written exactly as they are on Google.
- LocalBusiness structured data. This is code that tells search engines your name, address, phone, hours and map position. Your web designer or a plugin can add it. Check the map position matches your Google pin: the Portsmouth clinic we mentioned had a pin in its website schema 1.1 km away from its Google pin.
- Works on a phone. Tap-to-call buttons, readable text, and pages that load without a long wait.
Citations and directories
A citation is any mention of your name, address and phone number on another site: Yell, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, trade directories and booking platforms.
- Consistency beats quantity. The same name, address and phone everywhere matters more than being on dozens of sites. If you have moved or changed number, hunt down the old details. Our post on NAP consistency shows how.
- The directories for your trade. Trades tend to benefit from Checkatrade and similar sites, salons from Fresha or Treatwell. When Kerbrank asks ChatGPT for local recommendations, the sites it cites are often these trade directories, so a complete profile there can help you in AI answers too.
- No duplicates. Search Google Maps for your phone number and your address. An old listing, or a second listing at the same address, can stop your main one from showing.
Tracking: the last part of the local SEO checklist
This is the part most small businesses skip, and it is why many can't tell whether anything they did worked.
- Pick a handful of real searches. Five to ten phrases customers use, such as "plumber" or "gel nails", without the town name. People on their phones mostly search without it, and Google fills in the location from where they are standing.
- Remember that rank changes with location. Searching from your shop tells you how you rank at your shop. A customer two miles away can see a different top three. A grid tracker such as Kerbrank checks from many points across your area and shows where you are strong and where you disappear. See reading your map for what that looks like.
- Use the free reports. Your Business Profile's Performance section shows calls, direction requests and the searches that found you. Google Search Console does the same for your website.
- Recheck monthly. Go back through this list once a month. Things drift: hours change, someone edits your listing, a competitor opens round the corner.
Common questions
How long does local SEO take to work?
Fixing your profile, categories and duplicates can show results quite quickly. Reviews, citations and website changes build up over months. Google doesn't publish a timeline, so measure before and after each change.
Do I need a website for local SEO?
You can appear on Google Maps without one, but a simple site with a page per service gives Google more to confirm what you do. It also gives customers somewhere to check you out.
Should I put my town in my business name?
Only if it is genuinely part of your registered or trading name. Adding keywords or a location to your name on Google goes against its guidelines and risks a suspension.
How often should I go through this checklist?
Once in full now, then a quick pass every month. Check your hours and details whenever anything changes in the business.