If you run a local business — whether you’re a plumber in Worthing, a solicitor in Crawley, or a restaurant in Hove — local SEO is the single most important thing you can do for your online presence. It’s what determines whether you appear when someone nearby searches for what you offer.
I’m Spencer Thomas, a freelance web designer and SEO specialist based in Brighton. I’ve helped dozens of businesses across Sussex and Surrey improve their local search rankings. This checklist is what I work through with every new client.
You don’t need to be technical to follow this. Work through each item in order — earlier items tend to have a bigger impact and lay the foundation for later ones.
What Is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of optimising your online presence to appear in geographically-relevant searches. When someone types “accountant in Brighton” or “best pizza near me” into Google, the results they see are shaped by local SEO signals. There are three main places you can appear:
- Google local pack — the map with three business listings that appears near the top of local search results
- Google Maps — the standalone map results when someone searches directly in Maps
- Organic results — the regular blue link results below the local pack
The local pack and Maps results are controlled primarily by your Google Business Profile. The organic results are controlled by your website. This checklist covers both.
The Local SEO Checklist
1. Claim and Fully Optimise Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the most powerful tool in local SEO. It’s the listing that appears in Google Maps and in the local pack — and for many local searches, it generates more enquiries than your website does.
If you haven’t claimed your listing yet, go to business.google.com, search for your business name, and claim or create it. You’ll need to verify ownership, usually via a postcard sent to your business address.
Once claimed, complete every single field:
- Business name (exactly as it appears in the real world — no keyword stuffing)
- Primary and secondary categories (choose the most specific primary category that describes what you do)
- Address and/or service area
- Phone number
- Website URL (make sure it matches your site exactly — www vs non-www matters)
- Opening hours (including special hours for bank holidays)
- Business description (use your primary keywords naturally, describe what you do and where, 750 characters max)
- Services and products (use the dedicated Services section to list what you offer with keyword-rich names and descriptions)
- Photos (see item 5 below)
2. Make Your NAP Consistent Across the Web
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. Google uses your NAP to cross-reference information about your business across hundreds of websites. If your business name is “Smith Plumbing Ltd” on your website but “Smith Plumbing” on Yell and “J Smith Plumbing” on Checkatrade, Google sees inconsistency and trusts all sources less.
Audit every directory listing you have. Make sure your business name, address format, and phone number are identical everywhere. This includes the format of your address — if your Google listing says “123 High Street” don’t use “123 High St” on other sites.
3. Get Listed on Key UK Directories
Citations — mentions of your business name, address, and phone number on other websites — are a significant local SEO signal. Start with these UK directories if you’re not already on them:
- Yell.com — free listing available, high domain authority
- Thomson Local — well-established UK directory
- Bing Places for Business — directly affects Bing Maps and can feed Apple Maps
- Apple Maps — set up via Apple Maps Connect — increasingly important as iPhone usage grows
- Facebook Business Page — include your address and website URL
- LinkedIn Company Page — especially important for B2B businesses
- FreeIndex
- Checkatrade / TrustATrader (trades businesses)
- Bark.com
- HotFrog
Industry-specific directories are also worth pursuing — for example, Law Society for solicitors, RIBA for architects, Rated People for tradespeople. A link from a relevant, high-authority site in your industry is worth more than ten generic directory listings.
4. Optimise Your Website’s Title Tags With Location Keywords
Your website needs to explicitly tell Google where you operate and what you do. The most important place to do this is in your page title tags — the text that appears in blue in Google search results and in your browser tab.
For your homepage, include your primary service and primary location. For service pages, include the service and relevant locations. Examples:
- Homepage: “Electrician in Brighton | Emergency Call-Outs | Jones Electrical”
- Services page: “Boiler Repair Brighton & Hove | 24hr Emergency Plumber | Smith Plumbing”
- Contact page: “Contact Us | Based in Brighton, Serving Sussex | Smith Plumbing”
In WordPress, use Yoast SEO or Rank Math to edit title tags without touching any code.
5. Create Dedicated Location Pages on Your Website
If you serve customers in multiple towns or cities, create a dedicated page for each location. Don’t just have one generic “we serve the South East” paragraph on your about page — Google can’t rank a vague paragraph for “web designer in Haywards Heath.
Each location page should:
- Target a specific keyword (e.g., “web designer in Worthing“, “plumber in Crawley”)
- Have a unique URL (e.g.,
/areas-we-serve/worthing) - Contain unique, relevant content — not just the same text with the town name swapped
- Reference local landmarks, neighbourhoods, or community details that show genuine local relevance
- Include your phone number and a contact form
- Link to your main service pages
I’ve built out location pages for my own site covering Brighton, Worthing, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Crawley, Hastings, Surrey, and many more — because that’s the level of granularity that actually generates local enquiries.
6. Add LocalBusiness Schema Markup to Your Website
Schema markup is code you add to your website that tells Google (in a structured, machine-readable format) exactly what your business is: its name, address, phone number, opening hours, geographic service area, reviews, and more. Google uses this to populate knowledge panels, rich snippets, and local pack results.
For WordPress sites, plugins like Yoast SEO (premium), Rank Math, or Schema Pro can add LocalBusiness schema without any coding. Make sure the address and contact details in your schema exactly match your Google Business Profile.
7. Get More Google Reviews (And Respond to Them)
Google reviews are one of the top three local pack ranking factors (alongside relevance and distance). More reviews, more recent reviews, and higher star ratings all directly improve your local pack visibility.
The most effective way to get reviews is simply to ask — send a follow-up message to satisfied customers with a direct link to your Google review form. You can find or create this link in your Google Business Profile dashboard. A straightforward message like “I’m glad the project went well — if you have a moment, a Google review would be hugely helpful” works.
Set a target. Competitors appearing in the local three-pack in most UK towns tend to have 30-100+ reviews. If you’re at 10, aim for 30. If you’re at 30, aim for 60. Reviews compound — each new one makes the next easier to get because your profile looks more established.
Always respond to reviews — both positive and negative. Google sees engagement with your profile as a positive signal, and potential customers read your responses.
8. Build Local Citations Systematically
Beyond the major directories in point 3, look for citation opportunities specific to your location and industry. Local citations can come from:
- Your local council’s business directory (many councils run one — search “[your town] business directory council”)
- Local Chamber of Commerce website
- Local networking groups (BNI, FSB, etc.)
- Local community websites and forums
- Local newspaper websites (even a mention in an article counts)
- Sponsoring a local event, school, or sports team (they usually link to sponsors)
9. Optimise for “Near Me” Searches
“Web designer near me”, “plumber near me”, “accountant near me” — these searches are growing year on year. Google shows local results for these queries based primarily on the searcher’s location and your Google Business Profile proximity. You can’t directly optimise for “near me” — it’s not a keyword you’d put in your content — but you can optimise for it indirectly by:
- Having a fully optimised, verified Google Business Profile
- Having accurate location information on your website
- Using location-specific keywords on your pages (so Google understands your geographic relevance)
- Getting more reviews (high-review profiles show for near-me searches)
10. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
More than 60% of local searches happen on mobile. If your website is difficult to use on a phone — tiny text, horizontal scrolling, buttons that are hard to tap — you’ll lose the majority of visitors who found you before they even get to contact you.
Check your site’s mobile experience at Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. If it fails, your website needs rebuilding. All websites I build are fully responsive, designed mobile-first to work perfectly on every device.
11. Improve Your Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Page speed is a direct Google ranking factor. A slow website also dramatically increases bounce rates — visitors leave before the page loads. Google measures page speed through Core Web Vitals: LCP (how long the biggest content element takes to appear), CLS (whether content jumps around as it loads), and INP (how quickly the page responds to interaction).
Check your scores at PageSpeed Insights. Common improvements: compress and convert images to WebP format, enable browser caching, use a CDN, reduce unnecessary plugins on WordPress, choose a fast hosting provider. A score of 80+ on mobile is a reasonable starting target.
12. Create Locally-Relevant Blog Content
Blog content that specifically targets local topics builds your relevance signal for local searches over time. Ideas:
- “The best restaurants in [your town]” — if you’re a web designer, this builds local signal and gets shared locally
- “How to [your service] in [your area]” — “How to find a good plumber in Brighton”
- Case studies featuring local clients (with their permission)
- Commentary on local business news, events, or changes in your industry
- Guides specific to your area — “Planning permission in East Sussex: what small businesses need to know
This type of content earns local links naturally and signals to Google that you’re genuinely embedded in your local area — not just a national site that happens to mention a few town names.
13. Get Listed in Local Press and Community Sites
A link from your local newspaper’s website — even from a small story — is worth considerably more for local SEO than most directory links. Local newspaper sites tend to have strong domain authority and are exactly the type of hyperlocal signal Google values.
Consider writing a press release about a business milestone, a local charity partnership, or a client win that involves a recognisable local organisation. You can also simply reach out to local bloggers or community website editors and ask if they’d include you in a local business roundup or directory page.
14. Set Up and Monitor Google Search Console
We touched on this in the getting your website on Google guide, but it deserves its place on this checklist too. Google Search Console shows you:
- Which keywords your website is appearing for (and where)
- Which pages are getting the most impressions and clicks
- Any technical crawl errors or indexing issues
- Mobile usability problems
- Core Web Vitals scores
Check it at least monthly. Look for keywords where you’re getting impressions but few clicks (positions 5-15) — these are “quick win” pages that a bit of on-page work could push into the top 3. Also look for any pages Google has flagged as having issues.
15. Track Your Local Keyword Rankings
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Set up rank tracking for your most important local keywords — the specific phrases that would bring you real enquiries if you ranked well for them. Check them monthly.
For each keyword you care about, note your current position and track it over time. Improvements from position 15 to position 8 might not feel exciting, but they often represent a significant increase in clicks. Moving from position 4 to position 1 can triple your traffic for that keyword.
Free tools like Google Search Console give you average position data. Paid tools like DataForSEO, Semrush, or Ahrefs give you more granular, date-specific tracking. I use DataForSEO for all my client rank tracking.
Quick Wins vs Long-Term Plays
Not all of these items take the same amount of time or deliver results at the same speed. Here’s a rough prioritisation:
Do these first (impact within days/weeks):
- Claim and fully fill out your Google Business Profile
- Fix any “Discourage search engines” settings in WordPress
- Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console
- Request indexing for key pages
- Add your business to the top 5-10 directories
- Fix NAP inconsistencies
Do these within the first month (impact within 1-3 months):
- Rewrite title tags with location keywords
- Add LocalBusiness schema
- Start collecting Google reviews
- Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
- Check and improve page speed
Ongoing activities (impact builds over 3-12 months):
- Build location pages for all areas you serve
- Publish locally-relevant blog content regularly
- Pursue local press and community links
- Keep building reviews steadily
- Post weekly on your Google Business Profile
- Monitor and respond to all reviews
Need Help With Your Local SEO?
This checklist covers everything you need to know to do local SEO yourself. If you work through these 15 items consistently, you will see results. It just takes time — and there’s a lot of competing to-do items when you’re running a business.
If you’d rather hand this off to someone who does it every day, I offer local SEO services for businesses across Sussex, Surrey, and the UK. I also build the type of location-targeted websites that are the foundation of strong local rankings — if your current site isn’t giving you the results you need, get a free mockup and let’s talk.
More useful guides:
