# Five things that get a small business found in local search https://smartwebutah.com/5-essential-local-seo-strategies-for-small-business-owners/ Your Google Business Profile, reviews, local pages, local links and a phone-friendly site: what to do on each so nearby customers find you first. December 20, 2023 · Seth Shoultes Somewhere near you, right now, someone is typing “garage door repair near me” or “best coffee in St. George” into their phone. Google shows them a map with three businesses on it and a handful of links underneath. Most of them will call one of those first few. Local SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of making sure your business is one of them. It is not a trick, and it is not a one-time job. It comes down to five things, done well and kept up. ## 1\. Fill in your Google Business Profile, and keep it fresh Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Google Maps. Google used to call it Google My Business, so you will still see that name around. If you do only one thing on this list, do this. - **Claim and verify it.** If you have never done this, someone else may have created a listing for you, with wrong details. - **Fill in everything.** Business name, address, phone number, website, hours, and the services you offer. Pick the category that fits you most closely and add any attributes that apply. - **Write a plain description.** Say what you do and where, in the words a customer would use. - **Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere.** People in the trade call this NAP (name, address, phone). Your profile, your website and every directory listing should match exactly. Mismatches confuse Google and customers alike. - **Add photos and short videos often.** Your shop, your team at work, finished jobs. A listing with fresh pictures looks open for business. - **Post updates.** The profile lets you post offers, events and news. Regular posts show you are active. - **Check the numbers.** Google shows you how people found your listing and what they did next: called, asked for directions, visited your site. Use that to see what is working. ## 2\. Ask for reviews, and answer every one Reviews do two jobs. Google weighs how many reviews you have and how good they are when it decides who appears on that map, and a customer reading them decides whether to trust you. **Getting more reviews:** - Ask. Most happy customers are glad to leave one, but few think to do it unprompted. - Ask soon, while the good experience is fresh: at the end of the job, or in a follow-up email that day. - Make it easy. Send a direct link to your review page. **Answering them:** - Reply to the good and the bad. It shows you are listening. - Write a real reply, not a template. Use the person’s name and respond to what they said. - When a review is negative, stay calm and professional, offer to put it right, and take the details offline. A fair reply to a bad review often reassures the next reader more than a page of five stars. - Treat criticism as free advice. If three people mention the same problem, fix it. With permission, share your best reviews on your website and social media too. ## 3\. Make your website say where you are Google needs to see that your website is about your town, not just your trade. - **Use the words your customers use.** Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush or Moz show what people search for. Put those words, including your town or region, into your page titles, headings and text where they read naturally. Do not stuff the town name into every sentence; it reads badly and does not help. - **One page per area, if you serve several.** A business serving St. George, Hurricane and Cedar City can give each town its own page with its own details. Each page needs real, different content, not the same text with the town name swapped. - **Show you belong here.** If you have one location, make your About page about your place in the community: local staff, local events you support, how long you have been here. - **Write about local things.** Blog posts on local events, news or problems specific to your area (summer heat, say, if you fix air conditioners in Southern Utah) show you are part of the community. - **Add structured data.** This is a small piece of hidden code, called schema markup, that tells search engines your address, phone number and hours in a form they read without guessing. Your web person can add it in an afternoon. ## 4\. Earn links from other local websites When another local website links to yours, Google takes it as a sign you are a real part of the community. Those links come mostly from things you would do anyway: - **Get listed** in local directories, your chamber of commerce and trade associations, as well as Yelp and the big directories. Keep your name, address and phone identical in every one. - **Partner with other businesses.** A joint promotion with a business that does not compete with you (a garage door company and a home builder, say) often leads to each linking to the other. - **Sponsor or join local events and charities.** Event pages and local news coverage often link to sponsors. - **Write for others.** Offer a useful guest post to a local blog or news site. - **Tell the local paper** when something newsworthy happens: a new location, an anniversary, a community project. - **Join in online.** Local Facebook groups and forums are worth your time if you answer questions and help, not just advertise. ## 5\. Make sure your site works on a phone Most local searches happen on a phone, often by someone who needs help today. If your site is slow or fiddly on a small screen, they go back and call the next business on the list. - **It should fit any screen** without pinching or zooming. - **It should load fast.** Compress images and keep the page lean. My post on [site speed](https://smartwebutah.com/wordpress-site-speed-seo-the-technical-optimization-masterclass/) goes into how, and [Core Web Vitals](https://smartwebutah.com/what-are-core-web-vitals/) explains the scores Google uses. - **Your phone number should be one tap away** at the top of every page. - **Menus and forms should be simple,** with big buttons and as few fields as you can manage. - **Skip the pop-ups.** They are annoying on a desktop and maddening on a phone. - **Test it yourself,** on your own phone and a friend’s. Google’s free [PageSpeed Insights](https://pagespeed.web.dev/) checks speed and phone-friendliness for you. ## Keep an eye on it Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console (both free) to see how people find your site and which searches bring them. Check your Business Profile numbers too. Every few months, look at what is working and do more of it. ## What you get Do these five things and keep them up, and when your neighbors search for what you sell, you are one of the names they see first, with good reviews and a site that makes it easy to call you. Local search rewards the businesses that show up for their community, online and off. If you would like help with any of this, I am Seth Shoultes at Smart Website Solutions. Call 801-688-8590 or email [seth@smartwebutah.com](mailto:seth@smartwebutah.com). ## Want help with this? Call or email and I'll tell you whether you need it. [Talk to Seth](https://smartwebutah.com/contact/) Or read [how I help people get found](https://smartwebutah.com/website-promotion-seo/).