When someone searches “electrician Point Cook” or “café near me”, Google shows a map with three businesses, then a list of websites. Local SEO is about earning your place in both.
How Google decides
Google’s local rankings are broadly based on three things:
- Relevance – Does your business match what was searched?
- Distance – How close are you to the searcher, or the location in their search?
- Prominence – How well known and trusted are you, based on reviews, links, mentions and more?
You can’t move your business, but you can strongly influence relevance and prominence.
1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
This is the single most important step. Fill in every field: categories, services, hours, photos, description, service areas and website. More on that in our Google Business Profile checklist.
2. Build pages for your services and areas
Each main service deserves its own page. If you serve distinct areas, location pages can help, as long as they contain genuinely useful local information, not the same text with suburb names swapped.
3. Keep your details consistent
Your business name, address and phone number should match exactly everywhere: website, Google, Facebook, directories and industry listings.
4. Get more reviews (and reply to them)
Ask happy customers for Google reviews and make it easy with a direct link. Reply to every review, good or bad. It shows you care, and others are reading.
5. Earn local mentions
Sponsor local clubs, join business associations, get featured in local media and partner with complementary businesses. Local links and mentions build prominence.
6. Get the technical basics right
A fast, mobile-friendly, secure website with clear headings and contact details on every page.
How long does it take?
Profile improvements can make a difference fairly quickly. Content, reviews and reputation build over months. The businesses that win local search are the ones that keep at it.
CTA: Want to own your local search results? → Get a local SEO audit