Getting found · 15 October 2026 · 8 min read

How a UK local business gets found on Google: the unglamorous checklist

Key takeaways

Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity. You control relevance completely and popularity partly.
Get your Google Business Profile exactly right. Service-area businesses get one profile with a service area, not a fake address in every town.
A page per service beats a page per town. Near-identical town pages are what Google calls doorway abuse.
Ask for reviews; never buy or write them. The CMA’s fake reviews guidance sets out what UK law prohibits.
Search Console is free and tells you what people searched before they found you. Most small businesses never look.

Short answer: make your Google Business Profile accurate, give each service you offer its own clear page, collect genuine reviews, and use Search Console to see what is working. None of it is clever. That is rather the point: Google publishes most of what it wants, and most local businesses simply haven’t done it.

How Google decides

Google’s own help pages say local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and describe prominence as how well known a business is. Distance you can’t change. Relevance is entirely about how clearly you describe what you do. Popularity and prominence come from reviews, mentions and links, which you influence by doing good work and asking people to say so.

1. Google Business Profile, exactly right

This is the single most important thing for anyone serving a local area. Google’s guidelines for representing your business are short and worth reading in full. The parts people get wrong:

Address and service area. Use a precise, accurate address and/or service area. If you go to customers rather than them coming to you, you are what Google calls a service-area business: one profile for your central location, with the area you cover set as a service area.
No “virtual” offices. Google says service-area businesses can’t list a virtual office unless it is staffed during business hours. A mailbox in the next town over is not a branch.
Categories and hours. Choose the category that describes what you are, not every category you could argue for, and keep your hours current, especially over bank holidays.

2. A plain, clear website

Google’s SEO Starter Guide is the best free document on the subject, and it is mostly common sense written down. For a local business that means:

One page per service you offer, saying what it is, who it is for, the area you cover and how to get in touch.
Page titles that describe the page (“Boiler servicing in Ipswich | Your Business”), not “Home”.
Text, not text inside images. Search engines read words.
Your name, address (if you have premises customers visit) and phone number on every page, the same as on your Business Profile.

3. Location pages, honestly

The tempting shortcut is a page for every town within twenty miles, each one the same text with the name swapped. Google’s spam policies call this doorway abuse: pages created to rank for specific, similar searches. It is one of the few things that can actively hurt you.

A location page earns its place when it says something specific to that place: the jobs you have actually done there, local regulations, travel times. If you can’t think of anything, you don’t need the page; your service area on Business Profile covers it. Our own “where we work” pages are built on published business statistics for each region and say plainly that we are based in Suffolk, because pretending otherwise would be both dishonest and against the rules.

4. Reviews: ask, reply, never fake

Ask every happy customer, at the moment they are happy, with a direct link. Reply to every review, including the bad ones, briefly and without arguing. And never buy, swap or write reviews: the Competition and Markets Authority’s fake reviews guidance sets out what UK law now prohibits, and it applies to small businesses as much as to big ones.

5. Structured data, if it applies

Structured data is a block of code that tells search engines the facts on a page in a form they can read reliably. Google documents a LocalBusiness type for businesses with premises. Use it for the address customers actually visit. Don’t invent premises to qualify.

6. Search Console, monthly

Google Search Console is free. Verify your site, submit your sitemap, then once a month look at the searches people used before they clicked through to you. It is the closest thing you will get to Google telling you what it thinks your site is about, and it is regularly surprising.

What to ignore

Anyone guaranteeing first place. Packages of hundreds of directory listings. Monthly “SEO” retainers that can’t tell you what they changed. And, for a local business, anything that starts with keyword density. Do the six things above properly and you will be ahead of most of the businesses competing with you.

Next: the same question for AI assistants, in getting found in AI answers.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a business address to appear in local results?

No. Google lets businesses that serve customers at the customer’s location set up one Business Profile for their central location with a service area. What you can’t do is list a virtual office that isn’t staffed during business hours.

Should I make a page for every town I cover?

Only if you have something genuinely specific to say about each one. Near-identical pages with the town name swapped are what Google’s spam policies call doorway abuse.

Can I pay for reviews or offer a discount for five stars?

No. Buying, swapping or writing fake reviews is prohibited, and the CMA’s fake reviews guidance (CMA208) explains what UK law requires. Asking genuine customers for honest reviews is fine.

How long does local SEO take?

There’s no fixed answer, and anyone giving you a guaranteed timescale is guessing. Fixing your Business Profile is the quickest win; the website work compounds over months.

Sources

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