Who local SEO is for
If your customers come from a specific area, local SEO is for you. That covers any shop or venue people visit in person, and service businesses that travel to customers across a defined patch:
- Trades & home services
- Clinics & practices
- Restaurants & hospitality
- Gyms & studios
- Solicitors & accountants
- Estate agents
- Shops & venues
- Mobile & at-home services
It's not the right fit for everyone, and I'll tell you if it isn't. If you sell nationally online with no geographic focus, a broader organic or ecommerce SEO strategy will serve you better, and I offer both.
Signs you're losing local customers to competitors
You're probably leaving money on the table if any of these sound familiar:
- Competitors appear in the map results for your key searches, and you don't.
- Your Google Business Profile is unclaimed, incomplete or hasn't been updated in months.
- Your reviews are outnumbered by every competitor on the first page.
- Searching your service plus your town brings up directories and aggregators instead of your website.
How local SEO helps your business
Nearly half of all Google searches have local intent — and these are the highest-intent searches there are. Around three-quarters of people who search for something nearby visit a business within 24 hours.
When someone searches "plumber near me" or "accountant in Brighton", they're not browsing — they're ready to pick up the phone. The businesses in Google's local 3-pack capture the majority of that attention: research shows they receive over twice the traffic of businesses ranked just below them.
Yet most local businesses are leaving this on the table. A complete, well-optimised Google Business Profile earns dramatically more clicks, calls and direction requests than a neglected one, and with almost all consumers reading reviews before choosing a local business, your review profile is often the deciding factor.
I help local businesses win these searches: optimising your Google Business Profile, building consistent local citations, earning and managing reviews, and creating location-focused content that ranks. Everything measured in the terms that matter — calls, enquiries and customers through the door.
Local SEO Services
How I Get Local Businesses Found
Local SEO isn't one thing — it's your Google Business Profile, your website, your reviews and your local reputation all working together. I cover all four, with a strategy built around how your customers actually search.
Google Business Profile
Your profile is your local shop window — customers are far more likely to trust and visit a business with a complete, active profile. I optimise categories, services, photos, posts and Q&A so yours works as hard as possible.
Reviews & Reputation
Almost every consumer checks reviews before choosing a local business, and Google's AI now summarises them too. I help you build a steady flow of genuine, detailed reviews and respond to them in a way that wins customers.
Citations & Consistency
Inconsistent business details across directories confuse both Google and customers. I audit and clean up your name, address and phone details everywhere they appear, and build citations on the directories that actually matter.
Local Content & Landing Pages
Dedicated, genuinely useful pages for each service and area you cover — the kind that rank in local search and increasingly get recommended by AI tools when people ask for businesses like yours.
Why Work With a Freelance Local SEO Specialist
You don't need a big agency to get Local SEO right — you need someone who knows local search and picks up the phone. Here's the honest difference.
My Local SEO Process
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Local SEO Audit
I start by benchmarking where you are: your map pack and organic rankings for the searches that matter, the health of your Google Business Profile, your review profile versus competitors, citation accuracy across the major directories, and the state of your website's local landing pages. You get a prioritised, plain-English report of what's holding you back and what will move the needle first.
Weeks 1 - 2 -
Strategy and Quick Wins
Most local businesses have fixable problems producing outsized damage: a mis-categorised profile, inconsistent contact details, a missing service page. I fix the quick wins in the first weeks while building the longer-term plan around your commercial goals: which searches to win, which areas to target, and what content and reviews are needed to get there.
First Month -
On-going Optimisation
Local SEO compounds. Month by month I build out location and service pages, grow your reviews, keep your profile active with posts and updates, strengthen local links and citations, and adapt to Google's frequent local algorithm changes. You get a monthly report showing rankings, profile actions (calls, direction requests, website clicks) and enquiries, with a clear summary of what I did and what's next.
On-going
Results from the work, not the pitch
These are real campaigns I led before going freelance. Client names and identifying detail have been removed at their request, but the numbers and the strategy are exactly as they happened.
Recovering visibility for a global streetwear retailer
A well-known fashion retailer was losing organic ground across three markets. I ran the technical audit, found the pagination issue blocking crawlers from deeper product pages, and rebuilt the content and internal linking strategy across 100+ collection pages.
- 36% increase in organic impressions
- 40% lift in non-branded clicks YoY
- 8% growth in organic revenue share
- Diagnosed and fixed a pagination fault blocking crawler access to product pages
- Built a scaled content workflow to write region-specific copy for AU, UK and US collection pages without duplicating content
- Rebuilt site navigation and taxonomy around actual user search behaviour
- Rolled out an internal linking framework to strengthen key category pages
Defending a long-term B2B programme through a Google update, then pushing it to a new high
I took over this account partway through an existing multi-year organic programme. Within the first year, a Google Helpful Content update hit the site hard. I led the recovery, then rebuilt the strategy around AI-era search behaviour, taking the account to its best-ever result by the end of my time on it.
- 2024 Helpful Content update impact absorbed and diagnosed
- 5 pillar strategy built for AI-era search visibility
- New high organic performance reached by the end of the engagement
- Diagnosed the cause of a 2024 Helpful Content update hit and rebuilt the recovery plan
- Designed a five-pillar strategy to keep the account visible as search shifted toward AI-generated answers
- Maintained the account's local footprint and category authority across depot regions while rebuilding
- Took the programme from its Year 4 low point to its strongest year of organic performance by Year 6
Building topical authority without a product catalogue
A national trade supplier had strong brand recognition but no product catalogue to compete on search with bigger retailers. I built collection-level content to establish authority establish authority instead, and overhauled local listings across 60+ locations.
- 185% growth in category keyword visibility
- 144% YoY growth in local store visibility
- 33 content pieces written to build authority
- Wrote 30+ collection-level content pieces to signal trade expertise without individual product pages
- Refined headings, metadata and FAQs across key commercial pages
- Optimised Google Business Profiles across every store location
- Ran a full technical audit and fixed crawlability issues holding pages back
Check out my other SEO services
SEO
Boost your visibility with expert optimisation that gets your business found by the right people.
Technical SEO
Boost your site’s performance with expert technical SEO that makes it easy for search engines to find and index your content.
SEO Consultancy
I’ll work closely with you to develop tailored strategies, identify opportunities, and provide clear, actionable insights—helping you make smarter decisions and get better results online.
One off audits
I’ll analyze your site from top to bottom, identify issues, and provide clear, actionable recommendations—helping you fix problems and maximize your online visibility.
Ecommerce SEO
Boost your online sales with eCommerce SEO that gets your products in front of the right customers.
Local SEO
Attract local customers with local SEO that puts your business on the map .
Local SEO FAQs
How long does local SEO take to show results?
GBP changes can move visibility within a few weeks. Organic local rankings for competitive terms typically take 2–4 months to show meaningful movement.
Do I need a website for local SEO to work?
It helps significantly, but Google Business Profile optimisation alone can improve Map Pack visibility even for businesses with a very basic site.
What if I have multiple locations?
I build a scalable structure — a profile and, where useful, a page per location — rather than trying to rank one page for every area you serve.
Can you guarantee a 3-pack ranking?
No, and nobody honestly can — the Map Pack is competitive and personalised per searcher. What I can guarantee is a properly optimised profile and a clear, prioritised plan for improving your local visibility.