Local SEO is the practice of improving visibility for searches with local intent, such as “near me” queries or searches that include a city. It covers Google Business Profile, the local pack, Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Places, reviews, citations and location pages on a website. It matters most for businesses that serve customers in person or in a defined area.
The main parts
Local SEO combines work on listings you manage with work on your own website.
- A complete, accurate Google Business Profile
- Consistent name, address and phone number across the web
- Reviews, and responses to them
- Location or service area pages with genuine local detail
- LocalBusiness structured data where it fits
- Links and mentions from local organizations and media
Local SEO for SaaS
Pure SaaS companies rarely need local SEO for their product. It becomes relevant in a few situations: software sold to local businesses, where helping customers with local search is part of the value; companies with physical offices; and companies that offer in-person services such as onboarding or implementation in specific cities.
City landing pages built purely to rank for “[product] in [city]” without real local substance are close to doorway pages, which Google's spam policies prohibit.
Measuring local performance
Business Profile performance data shows views, searches, calls and direction requests. Search Console shows queries by country but not city. Grid-based local rank trackers can show how rankings vary across a city, which reflects how strongly distance affects local results.
Example
Local SEO as a product feature
Hypothetical clinic software Careloom adds features that help clinics keep hours and services synced to their Business Profiles and request reviews after appointments in line with Google's policies. Local SEO becomes part of what the product does for its customers, not a channel for Careloom itself.
Common mistakes
Creating thin city pages
Pages that only swap city names have little value and can count as doorway pages.
Questions
It uses the same foundations but adds Business Profiles, maps, reviews and citations, and ranking depends heavily on the searcher's distance from the business.
