Local SEO
Local SEO is optimising your website and Google Business Profile so that you appear at the top when people in your service area search for your service, such as “dakdekker Arnhem”.
- 3 min read
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is search engine optimisation aimed at searches with a place or region. Think of “warmtepomp installateur Nijmegen” or “dakdekker in de buurt”. For such searches Google shows a map with three businesses, the so-called local pack, and the regular search results below it.
Local SEO focuses on both places. You work on your Google Business Profile, on pages on your own website per service and place, and on outside signals such as reviews and mentions on other sites.
The difference from general SEO is distance. Google weighs where the searcher is and where you work. A nationally known business often loses locally to a smaller tradesperson who has everything in their own region in good order.
Why local SEO matters for your business
Someone searching locally usually has a concrete problem. A leaking roof, a boiler that is giving up, a renovation that needs planning. Those are searches with buying intent, and they bring in quote requests instead of just visitors.
On top of that, as a tradesperson in construction or technical trades you almost always have a fixed service area. You do not want to be found across the whole of the Netherlands, you want the jobs within an hour’s drive. Local SEO makes you visible exactly there.
Local visibility also plays a part in AI search. Assistants such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews retrieve business details, reviews and service pages to give a recommendation. Anyone strong locally gets mentioned more often. Read more about it at GEO.
How local SEO works
For local results Google looks at three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is about whether you really do what is being searched for. Distance is about the location of the searcher relative to your business. Prominence is about reviews, mentions and the strength of your website.
An example. Say an installer from Wijchen fits solar panels and heat pumps in the Nijmegen region. The website has one general “Services” page and the Business Profile only has the category “Electrician”. Someone in Beuningen searches “warmtepomp laten installeren Beuningen” and finds three competitors, but not this installer.
After a local approach it looks different. The Business Profile gets the right primary and secondary categories, the services are listed one by one and new reviews come in every week. On the website a page appears for heat pumps with the towns in the service area, photos of installations in the region and a clear enquiry form. As a result the offer matches the search, and Google notices.
Local SEO is therefore not a loose trick. It is the sum of a strong profile, good pages and consistent details everywhere your business is listed.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake is one page for everything. An “Our services” page listing ten jobs is not really relevant to anything for Google. Every core service deserves its own page.
A second mistake is place-name pages that only swap the place name. Twenty near-identical pages with “dakdekker Ede”, “dakdekker Wageningen” and so on look like thin content to Google and visitors. A place page has to say something real about the work in that town.
We also often see different addresses or phone numbers on the website, in the Business Profile and in business directories. That undermines Google’s trust. Read more about this at NAP details.
Finally, many tradespeople leave reviews to chance. A profile with five reviews that are three years old does not beat a competitor who gets a few more every month.
How to approach it
Start with your Google Business Profile. Choose the right categories, fill in all services, set your service area and add real photos of your work. Post an update regularly about a recent job.
Then build your website around your core services. Each service gets a page of its own that matches the search intent of your customer, with the places where you work, examples from the region and a clear way to request a quote. Our team supports this with search engine optimisation and SEO copy.
Make sure your name, address and phone number are the same everywhere. Check business directories, trade sites and social media and bring them into line.
Make asking for reviews a fixed part of your handover. After every completed job, send a request with a direct link. That can happen automatically from your follow-up.
Finally, measure what it brings in. Not just rankings, but above all phone calls, direction requests and quote requests from your profile and your local pages. That way you see which places and services really bring in jobs.
Frequently asked questions
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What is the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?
Regular SEO focuses on searches without a place, often nationwide. Local SEO focuses on searches in a region and gives heavy weight to distance, your Google Business Profile and reviews. For tradespeople with a fixed service area, local SEO usually brings in the most valuable enquiries.
Do I need a physical address for local SEO?
For a Google Business Profile you need an address, but you can hide it if you work at customers’ premises. You then set a service area. Your website can also have pages for the places where you are active.
How long does it take for local SEO to deliver results?
Improvements to your Business Profile sometimes show within a few weeks. New pages and extra reviews usually need a few months to rank well. It works best if you keep maintaining it structurally.
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