Short answer
Local SEO is optimisation for searches with geographic intent — queries naming a city, or carrying implicit "near me" intent. It targets two surfaces: the map results drawn from business profiles, and the organic results, where location-specific landing pages and locally-relevant content compete.
Also called: Local search optimization
The two surfaces have different inputs. Map placement is driven mainly by the business profile — verification, category, service area, reviews and proximity — and cannot be won with website work alone. Organic local results respond to conventional page-level factors applied to genuinely location-specific content.
The common failure is templated location pages: a single page duplicated across twenty cities with the name swapped. These are what scaled-content policies target, and they rarely hold rankings. A location page earns its place by carrying evidence specific to that place — the industries actually there, the corridors and landmarks locals recognise, the constraints that differ from the next town.
Where this comes up in our work
Related terms
Google Business Profile (GBP)
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that determines whether a business appears in Google Maps and the local map results, and what shows in its knowledge panel.
NAP Consistency
NAP consistency means a business publishes exactly the same name, address and phone number everywhere it appears online — its own site, its business profile, directories, and social pages.
Entity SEO
Entity SEO is the practice of making a search engine resolve a business, person or product as one distinct thing rather than a set of unconnected mentions.
AI Overviews
AI Overviews are Google’s generated summaries shown above the traditional results for many queries, assembled from multiple web sources and displayed with links to them.
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