Local SEO

Local SEO is the practice of making a business with a physical location or service area visible to people searching nearby, in map results, local packs, AI-generated answers and voice assistants. Its main inputs are business listings (above all Google Business Profile), reviews, consistent business data across the web and a website that clearly states what the business offers and where.

Google describes the basis plainly. Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and businesses with complete, accurate and verified profiles are more likely to appear (Google Business Profile Help). Prominence draws on how well known a business is, including its reviews, ratings and how many websites link to it. There is no way to pay for a better organic local ranking.

What changed in 2026 is who reads that data. On March 12, 2026, Google launched Ask Maps, a Gemini-powered conversational mode in Google Maps that answers detailed questions ('a quiet cafe with outlets near the station that's open late') and explains why each place fits, drawing on more than 300 million places and reviews from over 500 million contributors (Google). It started in the US and India. Gemini replaced Google Assistant on Android phones in September 2026, so spoken local requests now go through the same models. ChatGPT shows local results with a map and business cards; Yelp says its reviews and ratings power parts of ChatGPT's local experience, and independent tests in August 2026 found most displayed ratings matched Google's data while a smaller share matched Yelp's. On the Apple side, Apple Business replaced Apple Business Connect on April 14, 2026, and its place cards feed Apple Maps and Siri.

The result is that a business can rank in the local pack and still be left out of an AI answer, or be described with wrong hours or services, because the assistant combined several sources. Local work therefore covers more ground than it used to:

• Keep Google Business Profile complete and current: categories, hours (including holiday hours), services, attributes, photos, booking links and replies to reviews.
• Claim and match listings on Apple Business, Bing Places and Yelp, plus the directories that matter in your industry (local citations).
• Earn a steady flow of genuine reviews that mention specific services, because AI answers often quote review themes when explaining a recommendation.
• Give each location or service area its own page with the address, hours, services, prices where possible and LocalBusiness schema markup.
• Answer the specific questions people ask about your category (parking, accessibility, emergency availability, insurance accepted) in plain text on the site and profile.

Measurement now has two halves. The classic half is Google Business Profile performance (searches, calls, direction requests, bookings) and local pack rankings by location. The AI half is tracking prompts like 'best family dentist in Utrecht' or 'plumber open now in Austin' across ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews, run from the relevant location, and recording whether the business is named and whether its details are right. Because many local answers end without a click, much of the value shows up as calls and visits rather than website sessions (zero-click search). Voice is a large part of local demand, so local SEO and voice search share most of the same groundwork, and both depend on a clear, consistent business entity.