5 Things Your Small Business Website Needs if you Want to Get Found Locally
- Rhiannon
- Jun 4
- 8 min read
Many small businesses want to get found by local customers or clients. You may have a bricks and mortar business that serves a specific town or county, or perhaps you want to expand your service-based business into a new area.
If you want to get found online by clients or customers in a specific location, then local SEO is an effective way to achieve this. Local SEO (search engine optimisation) tells search engines that your website is relevant to people looking for products and services in a specific area. In my experience, local SEO is one of the easiest forms of SEO to master, and it can start driving organic visibility and website traffic relatively quickly.
This guide walks you through five things your website needs if you want your small business to get found by local customers or clients.
TL; DR: In a hurry? Here’s a quick summary
If you want your small business to get found by clients or customers in your local area, then your website needs local SEO. Local SEO helps your website rank in search engine results when people search for nearby products or services. Here are 5 website essentials for boosting your visibility in your local area:
Why is Local SEO Important for Small Businesses?
SEO is important for small businesses as it helps them to get found online by local clients and customers. Local SEO is also relatively straightforward and quick to work compared to other forms of SEO, meaning it is accessible, affordable, and offers a good ROI (return on investment). For more information on the importance of local SEO to small businesses, check out my 5 reasons why local SEO should be your top priority as a small business owner.
5 Local SEO Essentials Your Website Needs to get your Small Business Found Locally
Local SEO is key to getting your small business found locally, and it’s very achievable with a few tweaks to your website. I’ve outlined five things your website needs if you want your small business to get found locally. If you want the support of a local business marketing consultant, take a look at my marketing consultancy packages for small businesses and book a complimentary discovery call for a no-obligation chat.
An Optimised Google Business Profile
Google uses its business profiles to understand and list local businesses in local searches. If you Google a service and include a location in your search, you will often see the Google “Map Pack” in the results. This lists local businesses that match your search, with links to their websites and a map showing their locations. So, if you want to get found locally, then having an optimised Google Business Profile is essential.
Your Google Business Profile should include the following:
Accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) information - Ensure your business name, address (if applicable), and phone number (if applicable) are accurate and consistent across your Google Business Profile, website, and social media. Remember to add additional contact information, such as an email address, if applicable.
Reviews - Getting positive Google reviews from genuine customers or clients is one of the top things you can do to improve your local search visibility.
Product / service details - Provide detailed information about your main products or services, so that people seeking something specific will know what you can offer.
Areas served - Whether you serve one local town, or several counties, list them all in the “Areas Served” section. This tells Google that your website is relevant to people within all of those locations, as well as your primary business location.
There is lots more information you can include in your Google Business Profile, including photos, updates (a bit like social media posts), links to your social profiles, and Q&As. Explore your Google Business Profile, and fill in as many of the relevant sections as you can.
Tip: Google will sometimes delete reviews that it deems to breach its guidelines. Unfortunately, this means that genuine reviews can get removed, and you won’t be able to recover them. Always copy and paste any Google reviews into your Notes app, so they are saved in another safe location. Then, if Google removes them, you can still use them on your website and social media.
Local Landing Pages
Local landing pages are pages on your website aimed at a specific location. Creating landing pages for each location you want to target can strengthen your local SEO, and help you connect with and convert more local customers.
Depending on how many locations you want to target, and how granular you want your targeting to be, you could create several landing pages for different service/location combinations. Examples of local landing pages for a florist could include the following:
“Florist in Newbury”
“Wedding flowers near Reading”
“Funeral flowers in Berkshire”
“Hand tied bouquets in Newbury”
“Professional Florist near Basingstoke”
The list could go on!
Consider the main products / service you offer, where you’re based, which locations you cover, and where your customers might enquire or travel from to buy from your business.
To give your local landing pages the best chance of ranking and converting, here are some tips:
Carry out on-page optimisation - Ensure your target keyword (i.e. “[service] in/near [location]”) is present in the h1 heading, h2 and h3 subheadings, SEO title, SEO description, image alt text and main body text.
Make the page unique, and demonstrate a genuine connection between your business and the location - You can do this by adding photos of the area (make sure you have the rights to these images), and talking about your business’s presence in the area. For example, you might have a local branch / shop / office. Events businesses, such as florists or wedding planners, might frequently service other local businesses, such as popular hotels or venues. This is another way to tie your business to your target location.
Include a clear CTA (call-to-action) on your local landing pages, so your website visitors know how to buy, book, or enquire
Include links from your local landing pages to your main service pages. Here, you can go into more detail about the services you offer.
For an example of a local landing page, check out my Newbury Marketing page. For a step-by-step guide to local SEO, including how to build and optimise local landing pages, check out my step-by-step guide to local SEO.
Display Clear NAP Information on Your Website
NAP stands for name, address, phone number. These details are trust signals, which indicate that your business is legitimate and reputable, and they show your website visitors how to contact you. Ideally, you should include this information on every page (in the header or footer).
If your business doesn’t have an address (or you work from home and don’t want to give your home address out), then that’s fine. Try to include a consistent email address across your website, Google Business Profile, and social media. At the very minimum, you should ensure that the contact information on your website matches that on your Google Business Profile.
If you are using local landing pages and you have local branches, offices, shops or venues, then include specific contact information for those branches on the relevant local landing pages.
Get Reviews, Testimonials, and Case Studies from Local Customers
As well as Google Reviews, it’s worth building up a portfolio of testimonials and case studies from local customers, which you can display on your local landing pages. This will help your local landing pages demonstrate a genuine connection with the respective location. Furthermore, testimonials and case studies will help you connect with and convert website visitors into clients or customers.
Get into a routine of asking happy customers and clients to leave you a review, and ask your best customers if you could build a case study. Depending on the product or service you offer, your case studies could include results and / or photos alongside comments from your customer.
Remember to include a location in the review or case study to indicate the connection with your target location.
Publish Location-Optimised Blog Posts
Depending on the nature of your business, there may be an opportunity for you to write location-optimised blog posts. Topics could include the following:
News about your business in specific locations (e.g. a new branch opening, refurbishment of a shop or cafe, having a stand at a local show or event)
Volunteering or community projects carried out by your business in the local area (e.g. your business offers free services or products to a local charity)
Sponsorships or PR activity relevant to your local area (e.g. your business sponsors a local agricultural show)
Link these blog posts to your location landing pages to boost the relevance of your content and help improve the rankings for your local landing pages.
Get Your Small Business Found Locally With Local SEO
Local SEO is an effective way to get your small business found in your local town, city, county, or region. By optimising your Google Business Profile, building optimised local landing pages, displaying clear, accurate contact information, gathering positive reviews from local customers and publishing location-specific blog posts, you can start driving organic visibility, traffic and conversions in your target locations.
I specialise in helping small, independent, and local businesses get found in search engines, so they can maximise their websites as revenue-generating assets. My clients include local service providers, equine businesses, and bricks-and-mortar businesses who want to grow online organically, consistently and sustainably. With a range of small business marketing consultancy services and small business marketing coaching packages, I have something that can help your independent brand or small business thrive.
Subscribe to my newsletter to stay in touch and be the first to know about my availability, consultancy services and coaching programmes. Or, for a friendly informal chat with a small business marketing consultant, book your complimentary discovery call today.
About the Author: Rhiannon Harradine ACIM
Rhiannon is an independent marketing consultant and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM), who has been supporting small businesses with their marketing since 2020. She helps small business owners and introverted entrepreneurs liberate themselves from marketing burnout, and use SEO, blogging, and email marketing to grow their businesses authentically — without exhausting launches, constant social media posting, or feeling like they have to be someone they’re not.
Local SEO FAQs
What makes a website good for local SEO?
Having an optimised, up-to-date Google Business Profile, optimised local landing pages, reviews from local customers, accurate contact information and location-specific blog content can all contribute to good local SEO. By integrating these five things into your website, you can improve your local SEO.
How can small businesses show up on Google Maps?
The best way to ensure your small business shows up on Google Maps is to have an optimised Google Business Profile that includes your business location. To have your business show up on the actual map, you will need to provide an exact location for your business. This works best for bricks-and-mortar businesses, such as shops and cafes.
What are local landing pages and do I need them?
Local landing pages are pages on your website that target a specific geographical location. Local landing pages can strengthen your website’s local SEO, and help you get found by customers looking for products or services in that area. Local landing pages can also help you connect with and convert local customers, because they help demonstrate a genuine connection between your business and the local area.
