What is local SEO, and how is it different?

Local SEO is the work of getting found by customers near you — in Google Maps and the local results in Google Search. Google says it ranks those results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Most of the work happens on your Google Business Profile, not your website.

Sources checked 17 October 2026. Written by Firstcliq, which sells automatic review replies — so every claim about Google links to Google or to the article it comes from.

What SEO is, in Google's words

Google's SEO Starter Guide describes search engine optimisation as helping search engines understand your content, and helping people find your site and decide whether to visit it. It is also frank that there are no secrets that will automatically rank a site first. Local SEO applies the same idea to one question: when someone nearby searches for what you sell, does your business show up, and does it look worth choosing?

Source: Google Search Central — SEO Starter Guide

Google's three local ranking factors

Relevance — how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
Distance — how far each business is from the person searching. If they don't share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location.
Prominence — how well-known a business is, based partly on how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking.

Google adds that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. You can't move closer to every customer, so in practice local SEO is about relevance and prominence.

Source: Google Business Profile Help — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google

How local SEO differs from other kinds of SEO

“SEO” covers several jobs that overlap. The labels below are industry shorthand rather than Google terms, but they help you see which job you're doing:

Technical SEO — making sure search engines can crawl, index and understand your site: robots.txt, site speed, URLs, structured data.
On-page SEO — the content of each page: useful text, clear titles and headings that match what people search for.
Off-page SEO — signals from elsewhere, such as other sites linking to and mentioning you. Google names links as part of local prominence.
Ecommerce SEO — getting products found: sharing product data with Google, structured data, URLs and navigation. Google has a separate best-practice guide for it.
International SEO — serving the right language or country version of a site, for example with hreflang annotations and separate URLs per language.
Local SEO — appearing for nearby searches, mostly through your Business Profile: categories, hours, photos, reviews and accurate details.

The big difference is where the work happens. Most SEO is done on your website. Local SEO is done largely on a listing Google hosts, and the person searching often calls, books or asks for directions without ever visiting your site.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google · Google Search Central — Best practices for ecommerce sites in Google Search · Google Search Central — Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites

And AEO, GEO and AI search?

AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) are names for trying to appear in AI-written answers — Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, or tools like ChatGPT search, which OpenAI says answers with links to web sources and uses third-party search providers as well as content from partners.

What Google itself says about appearing in its AI features:

There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimisations necessary.
You don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup to appear in them.
Optimising for generative AI search is optimising for the search experience, and thus still SEO.
Content people find unique, compelling and useful is what will most likely influence your presence there.
For local businesses, using a Google Business Profile can help your products and services be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results.

So for a local business, AEO and GEO are not a separate project. A complete, accurate profile with plenty of genuine reviews is what feeds the map pack, the local results and Google's AI answers alike. Other AI tools work differently and don't publish ranking rules for local businesses, so we won't guess at them.

Sources: Google Search Central — AI features and your website · Google Search Central — Guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search · OpenAI — Introducing ChatGPT search, 31 October 2024 (updated 2025)

A local SEO checklist

Verify your Business Profile. Google says verification makes you more likely to appear in results.
Use your real-world name. No keywords or taglines — Google says unnecessary information in the name could get the profile suspended.
Choose categories carefully. Google asks for the fewest categories that describe your core business, as specific as possible.
Keep the address or service area precise, and keep phone, website and details current. Google says inaccurate information can stop you showing for relevant nearby searches.
Set regular and special hours, including holiday closures.
Add photos, videos and attributes such as parking or Wi-Fi.
Ask every customer for a review with a link or QR code — Google suggests both — and never offer incentives or ask only happy customers.
Reply to reviews. Google says replies show you value feedback and can help you stand out.
Mention your location on your website. Google's Starter Guide notes title text can include the physical location of the business.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google · Google Business Profile Help — Guidelines for representing your business on Google · Google Business Profile Help — Manage customer reviews · Google Search Central — SEO Starter Guide

See where your profile stands

The free Google profile check reads your public listing — hours, phone, website, photos, rating, review count — and gives a score out of 100 with what to fix first. It is Firstcliq's own score, not Google's; Google does not publish one. To collect more reviews, make a free review QR code page.

Where Firstcliq fits

Firstcliq handles the review side of local SEO: it replies to every Google review in your tone and the reviewer's language, holds 1–2★ reviews for you, and on paid plans tracks where each location ranks on Google Maps for the searches you choose, alongside competitors' ratings and review counts.

How rank tracking works →

Questions

What is local SEO in simple terms?

It is the work of getting a business found by people searching nearby — in Google Maps and the local results in Google Search. Most of it happens on your Google Business Profile, with your website and reviews supporting it.

What are Google's local ranking factors?

Google names three: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the searcher) and prominence (how well-known you are, based partly on links to your business and how many reviews you have).

Is AEO or GEO different from SEO?

Google says no. Its guide to generative AI features on Search says optimising for them is optimising for the search experience, and thus still SEO, and that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

Can I add keywords to my business name on Google?

No. Google's guidelines say your name should reflect your business's real-world name, and that including unnecessary information in it isn't permitted and could result in your Business Profile being suspended.

Can I pay Google to rank higher on Maps?

No. Google states there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Sources

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