The local SEO checklist for UK small businesses (2026)

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. If you're just starting and want to know what to tackle first, local SEO for small businesses puts the work in order.

Your Google Business Profile

Your profile is the listing that appears in Google Maps and in the map box on normal Google searches. It is often the first thing a customer sees, 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. Once the profile is complete, Google Business Profile posts keep it current for the people reading it.

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" is what people type; "heating solutions" isn't.
• Check what people actually search. Search demand can surprise you, so look up the monthly numbers before you settle on names. Naming your services after what people search is one of the cheapest fixes there is. 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 customers see what you do, and may help Google too.
• Reply to reviews, especially the bad ones, politely and briefly. How to respond to Google reviews has wording to adapt.
• 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 says prominence is partly based on how many websites link to your business, and a site that agrees with your listing gives people something to link to and helps customers trust both. It doesn't need to be fancy. Our guide to Google Maps SEO explains the three factors Google names.

• 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. Nobody sees the schema's pin on the page, so it can be wrong for years.
• Works on a phone. Tap-to-call buttons, readable text, and pages that load without a long wait.

For Wix sites, Michael Andrews’ Wix site speed and Core Web Vitals lesson walks through PageSpeed Insights, image optimisation and third-party script checks.

Citations and directories

A local 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

Without it, you can't tell whether anything you did worked.

• Pick a handful of real searches. Five to ten phrases customers use, such as "plumber" or "gel nails", without the town name. Many people just type "plumber" and let Google use their location.

• 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.

Dashboard · SummaryExample

• 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