In short
The seven jobs a local SEO service should do for a small business, what you shouldn't pay for, and how to tell if it's working.
Local SEO for a small business includes seven jobs: setting up your Google Business Profile properly, telling Google exactly where you work, building a page for each service and area, keeping your business details identical across the web, earning reviews, earning links from local and industry websites, and measuring the calls and enquiries it all brings in. If a local SEO service leaves any of those out, you're paying for part of the job.
Here's what each one involves, what not to pay for and how to tell it's working.
Why is local SEO more than just your website?
Because a local search is answered from two places. For a search like "electrician near me" or "accountant in Cardiff", Google shows map listings as well as ordinary website results, and the two come from different sources. The map listing is your Business Profile. The results underneath are your website. Local SEO has to work on both and make them agree.
That's also why quotes for local SEO are hard to compare. One provider means a tidy-up of your profile, another a year of pages, reviews and links. The full list lets you ask what's in and what's out.
What should the Business Profile work cover?
A full set-up, then regular upkeep, not a one-off tidy. The set-up means verifying the profile, picking a main category that matches the jobs you want more of, listing every other service you offer, entering exact opening hours and swapping stock images for photos of your own work and team. The upkeep means updating the profile whenever your services, hours or areas change, adding new photos and replying to reviews.
Ask any provider to show you the profile before and after their work, field by field. If you want the detail of how Google chooses which businesses appear in the map, we've covered it in our guide to getting into the Google map results.
How should your service areas be set up?
It depends on one question: do customers come to you, or do you go to them? A shop, salon or clinic shows its address. A trade or mobile business that visits customers is a service-area business, and Google's Business Profile help on managing service areas, checked in October 2026, is clear: "If you don't serve customers at your business address, remove your address from your Business Profile." Your provider then enters the towns and districts you cover as your service area.
Setting the areas correctly is only the start. Ranking in each of them takes the next two jobs on this list.
Which pages should a local SEO service build?
A page per service you sell and a page per town or district you want jobs from. A single "our services" page can't be the best match for ten different searches.
Each page earns its place with facts a customer can use: what the job involves, the work you've done in that area, how quickly you get there, reviews from customers nearby, and your phone number and a short form at the top. Pages that repeat the same text with a different town name give Google no reason to rank them and give customers no reason to call.
Behind the pages sits the technical work. The site has to load quickly on a phone, every page you want found has to be readable by Google, and structured data should state your business name, services and areas in a form search engines and AI tools can read.
What are citations, and why must your details match?
A citation is any mention of your company's name, address and phone details on another website: directories, trade bodies, your accreditation scheme, social profiles and supplier pages. Agencies call those three details your NAP.
When the details differ, customers ring old numbers and search engines are left with conflicting versions of the same business. A move, a new mobile number or switching between "Ltd" and no "Ltd" is enough to cause it. The work is an audit and a clean-up: find every existing listing, correct the ones that are wrong and add the directories and trade bodies that matter for your trade and your area. Ask for the list of listings checked, so you can see the job was done.
How should a provider handle reviews?
By building a habit with you, never by writing or buying reviews. Google's help page on local ranking, checked in October 2026, counts how many reviews you have towards prominence, which it defines as "how well-known a business is." So reviews are part of the job, and they have to be real.
What the provider should hand you is a routine your team can keep up: a short review link to send once the work is done, a reply to every review, positive or critical, and your strongest reviews placed on the matching service pages of your website.
Where do local links come from?
From real relationships: suppliers who list their trade customers, trade associations you belong to, clubs you sponsor, local press covering your work and partner businesses who recommend you.
We earn links from relevant, trusted websites as part of our SEO work and report them every month. We never buy links, because that puts your rankings at risk.
How do you tell if local SEO is working?
Measure enquiries, not just positions. Your Business Profile's performance report shows calls from the call button, clicks through to your website, direction requests and the search terms that found you. Google's help page on Business Profile performance, checked in October 2026, describes that last metric as "The search terms people used to find your business." If those terms are the services you want, the profile is pulling its weight.
For the website, Google Search Console shows which searches brought your pages up and how many people clicked. Add conversion tracking on your forms and phone number and you can see which pages turn visits into enquiries.
What shouldn't you pay for?
Some things sold as local SEO move none of the seven jobs above. Be wary of paying for:
- a guaranteed top spot in the map, since only Google sets those results
- review packages, bought reviews or bought links
- hundreds of directory submissions nobody checks
- town pages with only the place name changed
- monthly reports that show rankings with no calls, clicks or enquiries alongside them.
What does local SEO from DLR Media include?
All seven jobs, done for you as part of our weekly SEO and GEO work. Our SEO service sets up your profile and service areas, builds a page for each service and town you cover, keeps your listings consistent, puts a plan in place for winning reviews, fixes the technical faults, earns links and reports every month on what moved. GEO runs alongside it, so ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI assistants get the same clear facts about your services and areas.
Our page on local SEO in Cardiff shows how that plan changes for a specific city. There's no separate SEO fee. Our Growth Engine bundles SEO and GEO with Google Ads and Meta Ads management for £1,499 a month + VAT over a 12-month term, with ad spend billed separately, and builds you a custom website worth £4,500 at no extra cost, which you own once the term ends.
Want to see the gaps before you commit? A standalone local SEO or Google Business Profile audit from our audits page ranks every finding by impact and effort, comes with a walkthrough call, and has its scope and price confirmed before we start, with no ongoing contract.
Frequently asked questions
Is local SEO different from ordinary SEO?
Yes. Ordinary SEO works on your website's place in Google's results. Local SEO adds your Business Profile, service areas, consistent listings and reviews, because those decide whether you appear in the map for searches near your customers.
Do you sell local SEO as a separate package?
No. Ongoing local SEO comes inside the Growth Engine, alongside your ads and a free website. If you only want a one-off check, a local SEO or Business Profile audit is scoped and priced before we begin.
Can I do some of this myself?
Yes. Completing your profile, asking every customer for a review and correcting your listings cost you nothing but time. The pages, technical fixes, links and tracking are where a specialist earns the fee.
How soon will local SEO show results?
Technical fixes and local searches show movement first. Busier searches take longer, and the timing depends on how many competitors already rank well and how much your site needs fixing.
Not sure which of the seven jobs your business is missing? Ring +44 1382 699595 and we'll go through your profile, pages and listings with you.
