Local SEO
Local ranking = relevance + distance + prominence. Influence relevance (profile + pages) and prominence (citations + reviews).
When to use
- Businesses serving cities/regions (stores, clinics, agencies, restaurants)
- Multi-location rollouts
When not to use
- Pure national/SaaS SEO with no local intent
- Fake locations or review generation schemes
Pillars
| Pillar | Actions |
|---|---|
| Business profile | complete fields, categories, services, photos, weekly posts, Q&A |
| NAP consistency | identical Name/Address/Phone on site, profile, directories |
| Local pages | one page per city/service with local proof |
| Citations | industry + local directories, chamber |
| Reviews | steady flow, owner responses, natural keywords |
| Local schema | LocalBusiness JSON-LD with geo, hours, sameAs |
Workflow
- Audit: fetch local pages; check NAP strings; review GBP screenshots/exports the user provides.
- Fix NAP mismatches first.
- Build/refresh location pages: unique local substance, map, testimonials, FAQs.
- Citation list: 15-25 relevant directories for the country (FR/DZ/Gulf as relevant) with claim/update status.
- Review plan: post-service email + response templates for 1-5 stars.
- Local keyword targets (city + service) via
keyword-researchqualitative method. - Save
seo/local-seo-<city>-<date>.md+ LocalBusiness JSON-LD draft.
Rules
- Never create fake locations or fake reviews.
- Location pages need real local substance - see
programmatic-seoanti-patterns. - Distance cannot be faked; do not promise pack rankings.
Anti-patterns
- Doorway city pages with spun paragraphs
- Inconsistent NAP across citations