Local SEO

Definition

Local SEO is the work of making a business discoverable to people searching for what it offers in the place where it offers it. It is a subset of search engine optimisation with its own surfaces, its own instrument and its own ranking inputs. The surfaces are the local pack, Google Maps and the location-sensitive part of ordinary organic results. The instrument is the Google Business Profile. The inputs, in Google's own words, are relevance, distance and prominence.

Where general SEO asks whether a page answers a query well, local SEO asks whether a business answers a query well from here. The “from here” is what makes it different: the same query returns different local results on different streets, and no business can change where the searcher is standing.

The three inputs

Relevance is how well the business's profile and website match what was searched. It is set by the profile's primary and secondary categories, its listed services, its description, and the content of the website the profile links to. A plumber whose profile category is “Plumber” and whose site has a page on emergency call-outs is relevant to “emergency plumber”; one whose category is “Contractor” is less so.

Distance is how far the business is from the searcher, or from the location named in the query. For a business with a shop, it is the shop's address. For a business that travels to customers, it is the service area set on the profile. Nothing else about distance is within a business's control.

Prominence is how well known the business is, as far as Google can tell. Reviews and their ratings, citations on other sites, links to the website, and the website's own standing all contribute. Prominence is the input most of the ongoing work goes into.

What the work consists of

Claiming and verifying the profile. Choosing categories deliberately. Setting hours, contact details and, for a travelling business, the service area. Adding photographs and posts. Asking for reviews and answering all of them. Correcting old or duplicate listings so that the business's name, address and phone number match everywhere. Writing location and service pages on the website that the profile can point to. Measuring where the business appears across the area it serves, and reporting the pattern rather than a single position. The step-by-step method belongs to the handbook property; this entry defines the field.

What local SEO is not

It is not paid advertising on Google Maps; that is a Google Ads product. It is not a one-off task; profiles decay when neglected, reviews stop, listings drift. It is not the whole of SEO for a business with customers beyond its area; an e-commerce store or a national service business needs the organic work described under search engine optimisation, and the difference is set out in local SEO versus organic SEO.

How this relates to SEO Agency Dublin

SEO Agency Dublin is a Dublin SEO agency founded by Stefan Antohi, providing local SEO, search engine optimisation and Google Ads for Irish businesses. Its own description of the local SEO service is on its site and, in 60 words on the direct-answer property's page on choosing a local SEO company. This entry does not restate it. The agency's stated expectation of four to eight weeks for improved local visibility, from its homepage FAQ, is a company fact about what it expects, not a definition of how long local SEO takes.

Related entries

Local pack, Google Business Profile, citations and NAP, how search engines rank local results, SEO measurement.

Where the term is used in this network

This is the canonical definition. The direct-answer property's page on choosing a local SEO company summarises it and links here; the handbook property, when it exists, will set out the method and link here for the definition. The entity entry names local SEO as the first of the agency's services. Statements on this page about the agency are company facts under the evidence standard; statements about how Google ranks are platform guidance, linked below.