Free guide
Local SEO Checklist for UK Small Businesses
A plain-English, no-sign-up checklist covering the things that actually move local rankings in the UK — Google Business Profile, citations, on-page signals, reviews and reporting. Work through it in order.
1. Google Business Profile (the biggest lever)
For most UK small businesses, your Google Business Profile drives more local enquiries than your website. Get this right first.
- Claim and verify your profile at business.google.com using a real business address (not a virtual office).
- Pick the most specific primary category (e.g. 'Plumber', not 'Contractor'). Add secondary categories only if you genuinely offer them.
- Use consistent NAP: exact same business name, address and phone across your website, GBP and every directory.
- Set accurate opening hours and mark bank holidays — Google downranks profiles with stale hours.
- Add a UK landline or mobile with the correct 0-prefix format (not +44 in the display field).
- Write a 750-character description that includes what you do, where you serve, and one or two natural keyword phrases.
- Upload 10+ real photos: exterior, interior, team, work in progress. Replace stock imagery.
- Turn on messaging and respond within a working day.
- Post a Google Update at least monthly — offers, jobs completed, seasonal notes.
- Add products or services with prices where possible.
2. UK local citations and directories
Citations are mentions of your business name, address and phone on other websites. UK directories still carry weight for local pack rankings.
- List on the free UK core set: Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yell, Thomson Local, Yelp UK, FreeIndex, Cylex UK, Scoot.
- Add trade-specific directories relevant to your niche (Checkatrade, MyBuilder, TrustATrader, Houzz UK, Bark, etc.).
- Keep name, address and phone identical to your Google Business Profile — mismatches confuse Google.
- Claim your Companies House record (if a limited company) and make sure your trading address matches.
- For multi-location businesses, create a separate landing page per town and cite the correct address on each.
- Audit existing citations for duplicates or old addresses and either update or request removal.
3. On-page local SEO signals
Your website tells Google which places you serve. Make it obvious on every page a customer might land on.
- Put the town or region in the page <title>, H1 and first paragraph of every location page.
- Create one dedicated page per town you actively serve — don't just list them on a footer.
- Add LocalBusiness JSON-LD schema with your address, phone, opening hours and area served.
- Embed a Google Map on your Contact page pointing to your real address.
- Include your full postal address in the footer of every page.
- Use natural UK spelling ('optimise', 'centre', 'colour') — subtle but signals a UK audience.
- Link internally from service pages to the relevant town page and vice versa.
- Make sure the site loads quickly on mobile — Core Web Vitals affect local rankings.
- Keep a real UK phone number visible in the header, not hidden behind a form.
4. Reviews and reputation
Review volume, recency and response rate all feed into local pack rankings. Build this into your workflow.
- Ask every happy customer for a Google review — a short SMS with your review link works best.
- Reply to every review, positive or negative, within a few days.
- Aim for a steady trickle (1–4 a month) rather than 20 in one week — Google flags spikes.
- Never buy reviews or ask staff/family to leave them. Google removes them and can suspend the profile.
- Mirror reviews on your website with a testimonials section (with Review schema if possible).
5. Measure what matters
You don't need a big analytics stack. A few numbers checked monthly will tell you if local SEO is working.
- Track calls, direction requests and website clicks in Google Business Profile Insights.
- Set up Google Search Console and watch impressions for '<service> + <town>' queries.
- Track a small set of local keywords (5–15) monthly — position 1–3 in the map pack is the real target.
- Log where new enquiries came from when you speak to them: 'How did you find us?' beats any dashboard.
- Review quarterly and prune what isn't working rather than adding more.
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